Spelling

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Spelling Pronunciation

• Orthography-Pronunciation Discrepancies

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Gap between spelling sound

• Orthography (spelling) does not represent the
  sounds of utterances in a language
  systematically.
• English or Korean, known as using phonetic
  writing system, has a great gap between
  pronunciation and spelling.
• Phonetics phonology always deal with
  pronunciation instead of spelling.

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Examples of pronunciation-spelling mismatch

• Different letters, a single sound
• to too two through threw clue shoe
• Did he believe that Caesar could see the people
  seize the seas?
• The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine.
• A single letter, different sounds
• dame dad father call village many
• My father wanted many a village dame badly.
• A combination of letters, a single sound
• shoot, character, Thomas, physics, coat, glacial,
  either
• Some letters have no sound
• mnemonic, autumn, resign, debt, bough, island,
  knot, gnash
• An extreme case
• Ghoti can be pronounced as fish

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Reason for Discrepancies Spelling Changes

• Old English
• Christian missionaries used a 23-letter alphabet
  for approx 35 phonemes of Old English ? Deviation
  from the one-to-one principle
• After Norman Conquest (1066)
• French spelling conventions introduced
• Examples (before ? after)
• cw ? qu quick
• h ? gh might
• c ? ch church
• u ? ou house
• Zealotry of some academics
• debt doubt borrowed from French dette doute
  but silent b was inserted to make the words
  resemble the original Latin debitum dubitare,
  respectively.
• Carelessnes
• colonel borrowed from French coronelle and
  spelled with an r, later adapted from Italian
  colonello
• ? Italian spelling, French pronunciation

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Reason for Discrepancies Pronunciation Changes

• Deletions
• /l/ before a /d/ ? Ø would, should, could
  (however, cold, hold)
• /k,g/ before a nasal ? Ø knee, knife, gnat
• (however, acne, agnostic)
• /l/ before /f, k, m/ ? Ø calf, walk, balm
• however, self, silk, film
• /?/ ? Ø nose, name
• Fricatives
• Allophones v, D, z becomes phonemic in ME.
• Z arose in 17C from the palatalization of the
  zj cluster vision vIzj?n ? vIZ?n
• Great Vowel Shift (from ME period through 18C)
• A major historical change of English
  pronunciation
• Eg) geese ges?gis, tide tid?taId, loud
  lud?laud
• GVS occurred after invention of printing
• Borrowings
• From French bizarre, bouquet, beige, debris
• From Italian motto, mezzanine, stucco, grotto
• From Spanish junta, galleon, marijuana
• From German Gestalt, poltergeist

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Reason for Discrepancies Summary

• Even languages with phonetic writing system such
  as English and Korean have significant
  discrepancies between orthography and
  pronunciation
• Pronunciation is more vulnerable and variable
  than spelling
• ? We need a better way of representing speech
  sounds than orthography (move on to the slides on
  Transcription)