To spell a word the way it sounds

Phonetic spelling or reading When children spell words the way they sound, they are said to be phonetically spelling — for example, the word lion could be phonetically spelled L-Y-N, or the word move could be phonetically spelled M-U-V.

Why there is a discrepancy between spelling and sounds?

As to vowels, change in progress when the system was developing and continuing change in pronunciation have led to such matched spelling for mismatched pronunciations as beat/great and food/foot. Words (and their meaningful subparts) alter their pronunciation depending on the adjacent sounds and stress patterns.

Whats the difference between spelling and pronunciation?

To spell or spelling refers to the order of the letters in a word. the letters in the word, or the spelling. The pronunciation only refers to the sound as it’s coming out of your mouth. An example of a word that many students pronounce incorrectly is virus.

Why is English spelling so inconsistent?

It is because English is a natural language with its own irregulations which are not changed because English has no organization that bring some regularity in its spelling. So there is no spelling reform and the spelling is not adapted to the change of pronunciation of words unlike Dutch and German.

Who decides how words are spelled?

No one person decides these things. They just evolve. English spelling is very complicated. However, names for things and processes that have come from scientists are often based on Greek, Latin words or roots or the scientist’s own name or a name a scientist chooses or one she or he invents out of thin air.

What is pronunciation spelling?

A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling, different from a standard or traditional pronunciation.

Why is it spelled pronunciation?

There is probably some variation in the way the different word stress affected how the words were spelled after being borrowed into English. Trisyllabic laxing is the reason for the pronunciation difference, which led to the spelling difference.

Do you pronounce the L in salmon?

The L in “salmon,” the name of a fish, is not pronounced. It has to do with the way the word evolved through different languages. However, there is a surname, Salmon, in which the L is pronounced.

Is gnocchi healthier than pasta?

There are several variations of this dish, but in many preparations, gnocchi is actually a slightly healthier alternative than traditional white pasta which is another major perk. But, most importantly, you should try gnocchi because it is delicious and a true example of what makes Italian cuisine so popular.

How do you pronounce chicken gnocchi?

Gnocchi: As with gyros, you can go one of two ways here. Proper pronunciation: nyawk-kee if you want to be Italian; nok-ee or noh-kee if you’re American.

How do you pronounce General Tso?

Spellings such as “tsao,” “tsau,” and “gau,” have been found in Chinese takeout menus across the nation. The most popular, however, is the one that we’ve all come to know and love: tso. So, FINALLY. The big reveal: you don’t pronounce the “T.” ‘Tso’ is pronounced just as you would say “so.”

How do you pronounce Siobhan?

Pronounce the “Sio” portion of the name as “Shi” with a soft “ih” sound. Pronounce the “bhan” portion of the name as “vawn.” “Vawn” should be pronounced to rhyme with “lawn” or “gone.” Combine both syllables of the name to pronounce “Siobhan” as “Shi-vawn.”

What word takes 3 hours to pronounce?

METHIONYLTHREONYLTHREONYGLUTAMINYLARGINYL … Note the ellipses. All told, the full chemical name for the human protein titin is 189,819 letters, and takes about three-and-a-half hours to pronounce.

Is Poopy a bad word?

(slang) Excrement; also spelled poopie. (slang) Depressed, weak, or worthless.

What is slang for poop?

crap. crud (slang) danna (obsolete slang) dirt.

What’s a fancy word for poop?

What is another word for poop?

excrement	defecation
manure	scat
waste	deuce
discharge	excreta
poo	secretion

How do you say poop in British?

The early noun uses of poop in the ‘solid’ sense are American, with a single 19th century example, then more from the 1920s. But poop catches on in Britain in the 1940s. So poop is older than poo in British English, and both were may have been American first.

How do you say pee in British?

Additional synonyms

1. urinate,
2. wee (informal),
3. pee (slang),
4. tinkle (British, informal),
5. piddle (informal),
6. spend a penny (British, informal),
7. pass water,
8. wee-wee (informal),

What does skinny poop mean?

While narrow or pencil-thin stool is not always a sign of constipation, it may be if your poop doesn’t normally look that way. Constipation is usually caused by a lack of fiber in your diet or not enough exercise. Other causes include pregnancy, travel, use of some medications, and changes in your hormone levels.

Can I eat my baby?

According to a recent study, the desire to eat your baby up is totally normal—and healthy. Really! It went far beyond wanting to nibble little baby toes—I wanted to devour my children. Just eat them all up.

Lesson 6.6 Predicting Sounds from Spelling in English

Looking for connections between spelling and sounds in English

[Taken from this FREE PowerPoint presentation – download it now!]

A note about the phonemic spellings in this text:

I have used Clear Alphabet to spell words phonemically (as sounds) in this text. If you are unfamiliar with this phonemic alphabet, you can find out more here and download the FREE Clear Alphabet Dictionary here. (PDF 11 MB)

6.6.1  The Problem: because English is not a phonetic language, spelling and sounds do not usually match. This can lead to many difficulties for students who want to pronounce a word correctly by reading it.

The Solution: however, the spelling of a word can often help us to predict the pronunciation. I have identified 5 Spelling & Sounds Rules that work. In studying the 1000 most common words in English, 75% of them followed these 5 rules. That means there were 25% of words which did not match the rules. We will look at them later. Despite being exceptions, we can still find patterns that help us to accurately predict pronunciation.

6.6.2  The Stressed Vowel Sound: the stressed vowel sound is the most important sound in the word. Usually content words are stressed, while function words are not, so we will focus on content words only in this lesson. We identify a word by its stressed vowel sound. If this sound is pronounced incorrectly, the listener is likely to misunderstand. The speaker may say a completely different word to what they intended. When looking at the spelling of a word to see which rule it follows, we need to focus on the stressed syllable – specifically, the spelling of the vowel sound.

So, we need to find:

• Content words
• The stressed syllable in each one
• The spelling of the vowel sound in each one

About words longer than one syllable:

We focus on the vowel sound in the stressed syllable. If the word has a suffix, the vowel sound in the suffix will generally be one of three short sounds:

uh (schwa)            e.g. person, teacher, student

i                              e.g. meeting, tennis, finish

ii                             e.g. very, happy, ladies

[Find out more about the schwa sound here]

6.6.3  3 Kinds of Vowel Sound Become 2:

There are 3 kinds of vowel sounds in English:

• Short
• Long
• Diphthongs (double sounds)

For the sake of simplicity, I have condensed these groups into 2:

• Short
• Long (including diphthongs, which are long)

6.6.4  Fry 1000 Instant Words:

For this study I have used the Fry 1000 Instant Words, which is a list of the 1000 most common words in written and spoken English today. You can download the list at the links below. Here are some teacher recommendations:

“The Fry word list or ‘instant words’ are widely accepted to contain the most-used words in reading and writing.”

http://www.k12reader.com/subject/sight-words/fry-words/

“The Fry 1000 Instant Words are a list of the most common words used for teaching reading, writing, and spelling. These high frequency words should be recognized instantly by readers. Dr Edward B. Fry’s Instant Words (which are often referred to as the ‘Fry Words’) are the most common words used in English ranked in order of frequency.

“In 1996, Dr Fry expanded on Dolch’s sight word lists and research and published a book titled Fry 1000 Instant Words. In his research, Dr Fry found the following results:

• 25 words make up approximately 1/3 of all items published
• 100 words comprise approximately 1/2 of all of the words found in publications
• 300 words make up approximately 65% of all written material

“Over half of every newspaper article, textbook, children’s story, and novel is composed of these 300 words. It is difficult to write a sentence without using several of the first 300 words in the Fry 1000 Instant Words List. Consequently, students need to be able to read the first 300 Instant Words without a moment’s hesitation.”

http://www.uniqueteachingresources.com/Fry-1000-Instant-Words.html

6.6.5  My 5 Spelling & Sounds Rules:

1. If there is one vowel letter in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be short
2. If there are two vowel letters together (a digraph) in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be long
3. If there is the letter “r” in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be long
4. If there is vowel + consonant + vowel in the vowel sound spelling, the first vowel letter will be pronounced like its alphabet name
5. Sometimes we find other consonant letters (w, y, g, h) in the vowel sound spelling, which are not pronounced

Fry 1000 Instant Words and My 5 Rules:

57 of the 1000 words were not included in this study because they were function words, which are not usually stressed, for example: the, of, and, a, to, etc.

Of the remaining 943 content words:

706 (75%) matched one of the 5 rules

237 (25%) were exceptions – they did not match the rules

706 Fry Words (Content Words) and My 5 Rules:

Of the remaining 943 content words:

706 (75%)  matched one of the 5 rules:

Rule:	No. Matching:	% Matching:
Short	284	40%
Long (with digraph)	123	17%
V + C + V	118	17%
Long (with “r”)	104	15%
Other Consonant Letters	77	11%
TOTAL:	706	100%

Apart from rule 1, the rules are fairly evenly represented:

Let’s look at each rule in more detail:

6.6.6  Rule 1:

If there is one vowel letter in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be short.

284 words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words match this rule, making it the most followed rule.

There are five possible sounds in this group.

• If the vowel letter is “a”, the vowel sound will be   a
• If the vowel letter is “e”, the vowel sound will be   e
• If the vowel letter is “i”, the vowel sound will be   i
• If the vowel letter is “o”, the vowel sound will be   o
• If the vowel letter is “u”, the vowel sound will be   u

If the word has one syllable, it is normally phonetic – spelling and sounds match, e.g. big, sad, fed, etc. In words of more than one syllable, the vowel letter will be pronounced as a short vowel sound if there are two or more consonant letters following, e.g. “better”. If vowel-consonant-vowel, rule 4 will apply (see below).

Of these 284 words:

“e” =      e      28%

“i” =      i      28%

“a” =      a      18%

“o” =      o      17%

“u” =      u      9%

Note: the example words below are taken from the Fry 1000 Instant Words . Can you think of any more examples that match each rule?

If the letter is “a” the sound will be  a, for example:

act	hand
apple	happy
bad	pattern
catch	perhaps
flat	practice

If the letter is “e” the sound will be  e, for example:

bed	fresh
better	get
centre	method
effect	remember
electric	together

If the letter is “i” the sound will be  i, for example:

begin	interest
dictionary	little
didn’t	middle
difficul	picture
fingers	window

If the letter is “o” the sound will be  o, for example:

copy	long
doctor	office
dollars	possible
follow	shop
got	top

If the letter is “u” the sound will be  u, for example:

current	study
hundred	subject
jumped	suddenly
just	summer
result	truck

6.6.7  Rule 2:

If there are two vowel letters together (a digraph) in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be long.

123 words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words match this rule. Two vowel letters together in the spelling is called a digraph. Students should learn which digraphs represent which vowel sounds. Some are easy because they occur very often, for example, “ea” and “ee” both usually represent the long vowel sound: ee.

Note common exception: “ea” can sound like the short  e, for example in: head, read, lead, etc.

The largest matching spelling and sound groups are as follows. Interestingly, just 5 digraphs represent 83 out of the 123 words (67%):

“ea” =  ee       “ee” =  ee       “ou” =  au       “oo” =  oo       “ai” =  ei

The conclusion would be to learn these 5 digraphs and the sounds they represent, as well as other digraph and sound combinations.

Common Digraph #1: “ea” =  ee, for example:

clean	please
each	reached
eat	sea
leave	speak
meat	team

Common Digraph #2: “ee” =  ee, for example:

agreed	need
feeling	see
free	sleep
green	street
keep	week

Common Digraph #3: “ou” =  au, for example:

found	noun
ground	out
house	round
loud	thousands
mountains	without

Common Digraph #4: “oo” =  oo, for example:

choose	root
cool	school
food	soon
moon	too
room	tools

Common Digraph #5: “ai” =  ei, for example:

afraid	rain
explain	raised
main	remain
paint	train
plains	wait

Other matching digraphs and sounds:

“ie” =	ee	believe, chief, piece
“ea” =	ei	break, great
“oi” =	oy	joined, oil, point, soil, voice
“oa” =	eu	boat, coast, road

As you continue to study this topic, you will be able to notice other common patterns with digraphs and sounds outside of the Fry 1000 Instant Words.

6.6.8  Rule 3:

If there is the letter “r” in the vowel sound spelling, the vowel sound will be long.

104 words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words match this rule.

Only certain long vowel sounds in English can be spelt with “r” spelling. We should learn which spelling patterns represent each vowel sound. In the Fry 1000 Instant Words, 3 long vowel sounds and 5 diphthongs are represented by various spelling patterns with “r”:

3 long vowel sounds:

ar            are; car, farmer, garden, hard, start; heart

er            first, girl; work, world; earth, heard; were; surface; certain, person

or           more, store; horse, order; course, four; door; toward, warm; board

5 diphthongs:

aiy          entire, fire

auw        our, hours; flowers, power

eir           bear, wear; there, where; hair, pair; carefully, compare

iy            ears, years; here

uuw        you’re

Can you think of any more examples that match these patterns?

6.6.9  Rule 4:

If there is vowel + consonant + vowel in the vowel sound spelling, the first vowel letter will be pronounced like its alphabet name. 118 words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words match this rule.

There are five possible sounds in this rule:

• The letter “a” will be pronounced  ei   like it is in the alphabet, for example:

became	name
face	nation
famous	plane
information	radio
late	waves

• The letter “e” will be pronounced  ee   like it is in the alphabet, for example:

complete	evening
equals	Japanese
even	region

• The letter “i” will be pronounced  ai  like it is in the alphabet, for example:

arrived	provide
beside	quite
decided	silent
exciting	smiled
finally	write

• The letter “o” will be pronounced  eu   like it is in the alphabet, for example:

bones	ocean
close	open
hole	total
moment	whole
note	wrote

• If the first vowel letter is “u”, it will be pronounced  oo, for example:

include     produce       rule       solution

or  yoo  like it is in the alphabet, for example:

huge	students
human	tube
mule	unit
music	use
numeral	usually

Note: the example words above are taken from the Fry 1000 Instant Words . Can you think of any more examples that match each rule?

6.6.10  Rule 5:

Sometimes we find other consonant letters (w, y, g, h) in the vowel sound spelling, which are not pronounced. 77 words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words match this rule, making it the least followed rule. It can be a surprise that these consonant letters are part of the vowel sound, and therefore not pronounced in their normal way, but we have to accept it and learn which spelling patterns represent which vowel sound.

(Note: there can be other consonant letters in a spelling which are not pronounced, e.g. “b” in “lamb”, “l” in “could”, or “s” in “aisle”, but they are not included here because they are not part of the vowel sound spelling. They are just oddities – pure silent letters.)

Note: the example words below are taken from the Fry 1000 Instant Words . Can you think of any more examples that match each rule?

The largest matching spelling and sound groups were:

“ow” =	eu	grow, blow, flow, know, show, snow
“ow” =	au	brown, allow, cows, down, town, now
“ay” =	ei	day, away, maybe, say, stay, today
“igh” =	ai	right, night, might, high, light, bright
final “y” =	ai	dry, sky, try, fly, why, supply
“y” =	i	system, rhythm, symbol, syllable

Other matching spelling patterns/sounds were:

Sound:	Spelling Patterns:	Examples:
eu	ough oh	although oh
or	aw ough augh	draw ought caught
oy	oy	enjoy
ei	eigh aigh	eight straight
oo	ew ough iew	too through view
ai	ig uy eye	sign buy eye
ee	ey	key

6.6.11  Exceptions:

237 out of 943 Content Words = 25% Exceptions:

As stated earlier, there are 237 words in the Fry 1000 Instant Words which do not fit in any of these categories. That is 25%.

But even if 25% of the most common words in English are exceptions, there are still 75% of words that follow the rules.

A 75% chance of pronouncing a word correctly from its spelling is still well worth having!

Not to mention the fact that there are many repeating patterns within this group of exceptions that students can learn, as we will find out below.

When students come across vocabulary words that do not follow these 5 rules, they should note them down and learn them. They could start by learning the most common, i.e. the exceptions from the Fry 1000 Instant Words:

Direct download: https://purlandtraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/237-exceptions-to-the-five-rules.pdf

237 words in the Fry 1000 Instant Words which do not fit in any of these categories

6.6.12  Repeating Patterns in the Group of Exceptions:

For each group below, can you find any more examples in the list of exceptions?

Examples of spelling patterns that break Rule 1:

It’s a long sound but it should be short, according to the spelling and our spelling rules:

Sound	No. Words:	Spelling Pattern	Example:
ar	21	a	last
eu	8	o	go
ei	4	a	table
ee	3	e	be
ai	2	i	island
oo	2	o	who

Examples of spelling patterns that break Rule 2:

It’s a short sound but it should be long, according to the spelling and our spelling rules:

Sound	No. Words:	Spelling Pattern	Example:
e	11	ea	head
uu	8	oo	look
u	4	ou	touch
e	3	ai	against
i	3	ui	build
e	1	ie	friends
u	1	oe	does
u	1	oo	blood
e	1	ue	guess

Examples of spelling patterns that break Rule 4:

The vowel sound is short when it should say its alphabet name,  according to the spelling and our spelling rules (24 words), for example:

Exception:	Sounds:
have	a  not  ei
machine	ee  not  ai
river	i  not  ai
gone	o  not  eu
move	oo  not  eu
done	u  not  eu

Other words which break rule 4. They have a short vowel sound, but the spelling is vcv:

• with “a”: animal, capital, family, paragraph, planets, travel
• with “e”: everything (and all words with every-), general, present, seven, special
• with “i”: British, finished, minutes, position (and all words with -ition), visit
• with “o”: column, forest, modern, probably, products
• with “u”: no examples of this in Fry 1000 Instant Words

Vowel sounds which we do not expect from looking at the spelling:

Sound	No. Words:	Spelling Pattern	Example:	Breaks Rule:
uu	5	u	put	1
i	3	e	English	1
or	3	a	water	4
iy	3	e	period	4
eir	2	a	area	4
uuw	1	u	plural	4
uuw	1	eu	Europe	2
i	1	u	business	4
aiy	1	ie	quiet	2

Note: in some accents in the UK the exception is the norm, e.g. ar in class would be short a in many parts of northern England and in Scotland. For these speakers it is not incorrect, although it is different from Standard Pronunciation.

6.6.13  Conclusion:

1. Remember that spelling can help you predict the correct vowel sound in a word – even up to 75% of the time.
2. Learn the five rules and practise recognising words that follow them, e.g. take a page of text and look for words that match each rule – plus exceptions.
3. Learn spelling patterns and what sounds they make – starting with the most common, e.g. “ee” and “ea” usually represent the long vowel sound ee, while “ar” usually makes the long vowel sound ar in car, star, bar, etc.
4. Learn the list of 237 words which are exceptions. Learn to spell them and how to pronounce each one. Focus on the patterns within this group, e.g. “-all” is usually pronounced orl, and “oo” is sometimes pronounced as the short vowel sound uu, for example in very common words like “book”, “look”, and “good”.
5. Don’t give up! You are doing fine! If you think you cannot master spelling and sounds in English, remember the 5 rules and how 75% of the most common words in English follow them. That should be encouraging!

6.6.14  Appendix 1: A Sample Lesson Outline for Teaching the 5 Rules:

Before you begin: make sure SS understand the 48 sounds of English with Clear Alphabet. This is a different lesson, but it is vital for learning the 5 rules.

1. SS discuss (in pairs or small groups) the problem of trying to predict the sound of English words from their spellings. SS find examples of difficult words, e.g. “quiet”. Consider that some words are phonetic, e.g. “big”, but that these are not the norm.
2. Try to elicit the 5 rules from SS using examples; if not tell SS the rules and discuss each one with examples.
3. SS put some words from the Fry 1000 Instant Words into the 6 groups (including exceptions). This could be done with cards on a table or on the board.
4. Give some examples of made-up words that match each of the 5 rules, e.g. “giffle” matches rule 1 (see below). Ask SS to pronounce them , according to the rules. They should be easy to pronounce from sight, even though the meaning is unknown. SS work in pairs or groups to think up more made-up words in each group. SS should think about how suffixes are not usually stressed. T monitors, checks and corrects. This activity helps T to make sure that SS understand each rule correctly. For fun – SS could think up definitions for each new word, e.g. a “giffle” could be a noun, a kind of fast long-legged animal.
5. Give out a short text – or SS find one randomly. SS have to underline all the content words, then match these words into the 6 groups, including exceptions (see next slides). Or this could be given for homework. Assure SS that any English text will do. This is not a trick! The 5 rules can be clearly seen in any English text.
6. Finish with a short test on the board or on paper.
7. Follow up with a test at the beginning of the next lesson.
8. Refer back to the 5 rules often. Whenever you present new vocabulary, ask your SS which rule some (or all) of the words follow – or are they exceptions? If they are exceptions, do they fit into any of the noted categories, e.g. “-all” words, and so on? Or when SS are reading aloud and they mispronounce a word, look at the spelling – do the spelling rules help? Is it an exception?

6.6.15  Appendix 2: Content Words in a Random Text that Follow the 5 Rules (74%)

KEY: words that follow the 5 rules (red); words that are exceptions (black); function words (grey)

Analysis of Exceptions in the Random Text:

In line with the Fry Words, above, 74% of content words follow the rules, while 26% of content words are exceptions:

Words that break Rule 1:	Words that break Rule 2	Words that break Rule 4:
was (repeated 7 times) wanted full (repeated 2 times) once be so go small mother father clothes	foot looked being couldn’t breakfast	parents (repeated 3 times) special several visiting never one come

6.6.16  Appendix 3: Examples of made-up words that match each rule:

Made-Up Words that Match Rule 1: 1 vowel letter = short vowel sound:

giffle shruv fam sog dresh

lattern brob hildred kedd tunny

Made-Up Words that Match Rule 2: vowel digraph = long vowel sound:

floo plean aseek sounted waig

kained groating bround greef soiked

Made-Up Words that Match Rule 3: “r” in the vowel spelling = long vowel sound:

chowers bertin horgle abire larb

florping bou’re shear sair jeargule

Made-Up Words that Match Rule 4: v + c + v = the first vowel says its alphabet name:

dete klape strene paded tiver

proclide sone bobent chule briging

Made-Up Words that Match Rule 5: other consonant letters – w, y, g, h – are included in the vowel sound spelling:

yown plowness chay flayly jight

tly bight hymtion prough kleight

** back to top **

Published September 11, 2018

Spelling is how we put words together, but what is phonetic spelling? An alternate way to create words? Well, yes!

What is phonetic spelling?

Phonetic spelling is a system of spelling in which each letter represents one spoken sound. In English, some words are pronounced exactly as they look. When T is used to spell tiger, the letter T is assigned one sound. Simple, right?

Well, we all know English is not that simple. Pairing T with H creates a new sound: th-. The T takes on a new pronunciation. Furthermore, there is a difference in how the th- sound can be pronounced, such as with this and thin. So that single letter (T) does not correlate to only one pronunciation. In English, pronunciation follows rules that aren’t obvious at first glance.

There have been numerous attempts to simplify spelling in English, with entire books devoted to proposed alphabet systems that would simplify not only one language, but apply universally to all. (Now that would be something!) But it’s particularly difficult to reform the English language due to the many and diverse languages it draws from.

Phonemes vs. graphemes

At first glance, it makes sense that—as one 1800s philologist put it—”the same combination of sounds should, under the same circumstances, be always represented by the same combination of symbols, and that the same combination of symbols should, under the same circumstances, always represent the same combination of sounds.”

There are languages that follow a one-to-one relationship between graphemes (the written form) and phonemes (the spoken form). Such a language is known as a phonemic orthography. Esperanto is one example of a true phonemic orthography. Its creator followed the principle of “one letter, one sound.”

Who uses phonetic spelling?

A system of true phonetic spelling would make things easier for all us. (Especially those of us reading names at commencement!)

When children are first learning to spell, they match each sound in a word with their best guess for what letter makes the same sound. For example, 5- and 6-year-olds may spell like as lik and feel as fel. They’re looking for that one-to-one match in how the word sounds and how it looks. This is a phase of writing that helps children learn to read and spell. There are many ways to support a young reader who is spelling phonetically.

The last person to have any success at widespread spelling reform was Noah Webster. He recommended a small number of standardized spellings which differed from the British English of the day, and many of Webster’s suggestions are still in use in American English. For example, he supported and helped popularize changing the C to an S in words such as defence and offence and dropping the final K in words such as musick and publick.

Webster also promoted changing soup to soop—but not every proposal caught on! As Webster discovered, creating a phonemic orthography for English is practically impossible.

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Published 09 July 2012 | Last updated 14 Aug 2015

THE IPA is designed by and for academics and predominantly used by them. Editorial professionals and journalists who work outside of linguistics generally don’t use the IPA and indeed avoid it altogether.

This is mainly because most people are normally more comfortable with ‘make-do’ pronunciation spellings such as those commonly found in newspapers and other non-technical writing. Pronunciation spellings make use of well-known words and spelling conventions of the mother tongue and avoid diacritics and non-alphabetic symbols.

For example, the actor Jake Gyllenhaal’s surname is—

[ˈdʒɪlənhɔːl] in IPA

jĭl′·ən·hôl in old-fashioned dictionary transcription

Jill-in-Hall in a newspaper

Proportionality

Most people don’t need one-to-one mapping between symbols and sounds and, for most general purposes, the IPA just hinders rather than clarifies understanding.

No transcription system is ever accurate. The only way to achieve high precision is to use an audio file. That is the most accurate. Unless there is some overwhelming need to get the pronunciation absolutely precise in printed form, the IPA is overkill.

For a discussion of the pros and cons of the IPA, see Primer: The IPA.

If the need for precision is so overwhelming, why isn’t an audio file being used? Should that give the most precise rendering of the pronunciation? In this day and age of the Internet, why mess around with something invented 124 years ago when sound systems were practically non-existent? It’s a fair point.

Spelling it out

An intuitive alternative to the IPA is to spell the word in a pronounceable way (diarrhoea as dye-REE-a in British English or DYE-uh-REE-a in American English). It’s usually done for foreign words, or when the word’s conventional spelling is irregular (FER-low for furlough), or insufficient to deduce the sound (rao or roh for row).

Sometimes respelling is done deliberately to misspell for humorous effect (wimmin for women) or branding (‘Lite’ foods, Froot Loops), or some kind of sensationalism (the 1972 song Mama Weer All Crazee Now by Slade).

Pronunciation spelling vs. pronunciation respelling

There are two systems of spelling a word in a pronounceable way:—

1. pronunciation spelling
2. pronunciation REspelling

A pronunciation spelling is ad hoc spelling done for a specific task at hand and has no standard format. Most are one-time coinages, but some have become standardised or even institutionalised into mainstream English and finding their way into dictionaries:—

• arentcha (aren’t you, e.g. arentcha sick of it?)
• dontcha (don’t you, e.g. dontcha hate it?)
• evah (ever) — especially for facetious usage
• fark and farkin’ (fuck, fucking: chiefly BrE)
• fella (fellow)
• fug and fuggin’ (fuck, fucking) (Norman Mailer, The Naked and The Dead, 1948)
• gonna and gunna (going to)
• gawd (god)
• helluva (hell of a) — now a mainstream word
• innit (isn’t it: London Cockney)
• Jeez! (Jesus!) — now a mainstream word for exclamations
• kinda (kind of)
• lurve (love)
• milord (my lord)
• missus (mistress = Mrs) — now a mainstream word for dialogue use
• ovah thar (over there) — especially for facetious use in dialogues
• skool (school)
• sonofabitch (son of a bitch) — now a mainstream word for all uses
• sorta (sort of)
• ’twas (it was) — mainstream and formal word for past 700 years
• wanna (want to)
• whodunit or whodunnit (who done it) — both mainstream words for the writing genre
• wot (what: chiefly BrE)
• woz (was)
• wozit (what’s it, ‘thingy’: chiefly BrE)
• yer (you, you’re, your)

A pronunciation REspelling IS a regular phonetic respelling of a word and DOES have a standard spelling to indicate pronunciation. One of the more famous dictionaries that use pronunciation respelling rather than the IPA is the Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English, Third Collegiate Edition (1988).

Easier for most purposes

The point about pronunciation respelling is it’s meant to be easy for native readers to understand (and it is, in fact). These systems have been in use since the days of Samuel Johnson and his Dictionary of the English Language (1755). Since respelling primarily uses symbols already known to anyone with minimum literacy in the local language, respelling is more practical to use than the IPA (or the Latin respelling systems with diacritics).

For that very reason, most monolingual English-language dictionaries (usually American ones) adopt a pronunciation respelling system based on the English alphabet. Sometimes diacritics over the vowel and stress marks are used. The dictionaries (British or American English) choose some ‘normal’ pronunciation (e.g. General American) or ‘educated’ speech (Received Pronunciation) for respelling purposes.

Retains the ‘flavour’ of the actual language

The biggest advantage of pronunciation respelling (and also pronunciation spelling) is that it retains the ‘flavour’ of the local English speech. That helps learners to make connections between the spoken and written English experiences.

Another often-forgotten advantage of respelling systems over the IPA:— they contain information about the English writing system. The IPA doesn’t contain that information (because it isn’t even a spelling system). Traditional respelling systems as used in dictionaries help learners generalise about the regularities vs. irregularities of English spelling. The traditional respelling of past tense read is ‘red’ — an intuitive illustration of a common spelling pattern.

As English is a fusional language, English speakers and learners recognise those relationships from their tacit knowledge of the rules of English word formation. They infer intuitively that dog is to dogs as cat is to cats, and dog is to dog catcher as dish is to dishwasher. The speaker understands from the rules that there are specific regularities (or patterns) in the way words are formed from smaller units.

Mapped to the same phonemes

The respelling system works by relying on the reader’s and writer’s encoding be mapped to the same phonemes as each other. (Phonemes are the distinctive units of speech: about 20 to 60 in number for English.) For example, Föhn as ‘fern’ might be adequate for a non-rhotic reader but not a rhotic one.

Linguist frequently point to this aspect as a disadvantage. In fact, it is an advantage more than anything else and not an insurmountable problem in a practical learning setting.

A European learning English, for example, already knows many (if not most) of the English phonemes mainly because all European languages have similar phonemes to each other. The problem, of course, gets sticky when (say) an Asian person is learning English or an Italian learning Japanese.

Practicality and practicalness

For many learners of English, respelling is the only source of pronunciation information for most new words without having to flip pages back and forth furiously. Or just try the Internet.

When the conventional spelling of an English word won’t help us to predict its sound, the pronunciation respelling might in fact show the word to be already known to us orally (nyoo-mohn-ny’ah for pneumonia). In reverse, when the sounds can’t give the spelling, the respelling might help us to find the correct match (latj for latch).

Today, everything has been buggered up because it’s seen as ‘more scientific’ or ‘more accurate’ to use the IPA. It isn’t.

Eye dialect

A word about eye dialect. Although not a phonetic transcription technique, it is nonetheless a way of phonetic representation — only the purpose is different.

Eye dialect (also called eye spelling and literary dialect) is a literary technique — you spell out a character’s dialogue or words in altered ways in an attempt to reproduce or draw attention to his dialect or speech patterns (wanna for want to). It isn’t meant to be an accurate phonetic representation.

Eye dialect is used for visual rather than aural effect in narratives (mostly dialogues). The altered spelling gives the reader a visual cue of the non-standard dialect or idiolect (the ‘language’ unique to an individual). The altered spelling generally retains the original pronunciation (and substantially the conventional spelling too) of the word (‘pleese, mistur’).

• arsked or aksed (asked)
• coulda or cuda (could’ve, could have)
• dafuq (what the fuck, e.g. dafuq I just read?)
• dunno (don’t know)
• ermagerd (oh my god)
• gisa (give us = give me : London Cockney)
• gisathat (give us that = give me that : London Cockney)
• guise (guys)
• hai (hi)
• hootoadjadat? (who told you that?)
• Jezoz (Jesus)
• mistur (mister)
• namsayin’? (know what I’m saying?)
• omagord (oh my god)
• pleez (please)
• sez (says)
• shoulda or shuda (should’ve, should have)
• tsamatta? (what’s the matter?)
• wiv (with)
• wuz or woz (was)
• wat, wot, wut, woot (what)
• wa – to – ti – fo – fi – si – se – ai – ni – oh (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0)
• wassup (what’s up)
• wazzat (what’s that)
• wazzit or wozit (what is it)
• widdat? (with that?)
• whaddaya or whaddya (what are you? or what do you?)
• whaddyanutz? (what are you, nuts?)
• whaddayawaan?! (what do you want?!)
• wozit (whatnot, what’s is that, what is it : UK)
• yagoddaprollemwiddat? (you got a problem with that?)*

* William Safire, ‘Yagoddaprollemwiddat?‘ The New York Times, 17 Sept 2000

Eye dialect can be done to good effect (as by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain). It can also be a lazy way ‘to shorthand’ a judgment or characterisation — because eye dialect is often used to depict some negative quality about the character for the reader to see. In comics, kids’ speech is often done that way, to show how cutely they’re pronouncing or mispronouncing things.

When de fros’ is on de pun’kin an’ de sno’-flakes in de ar’,
I den begin rejoicin’ — hog-killin’ time is near.

— Daniel Webster Davis (1862–1913), “Hog Meat,” in The Book of American Negro Poetry, edited by James Weldson Johnson, 1922

LOLCAT and Slurvian

In many ways, lolcat (the imagined humorous language of animals) and Slurvian (coined by humourist John Davenport in ‘Slurvian Self-Taught,’ The New Yorker, 1949) are also forms of eye dialect.

Some examples of Slurvian:—

• alluhyuz or alluhyooz (New York: all of yous)
• airs (errors)
• claps (collapse)
• fiscal (physical)
• forn (foreign)
• g’yonit (California: get on it = get moving)
• gnome (no, ma’am)
• hits (errors)
• human bean (human being)
• lore (lower)
• myrrh or mere (mirror)
• paramour (power mower)
• plight (polite)
• runs (errors)
• sport (support)
• surp (syrup)
• y’all (you all)
• Yerp (Europe)
• Yerpeen (European)

“Slurvian words that, when spelled exactly as pronounced …” are considered ‘pure Slurvian,’ says Davenport:— lore (lower), paramour (power mower), plight (polite).

Most authors are sparing in their use of eye dialect and only use it once in a while just to serve as a visual cue to the reader about a character’s speech.

Dickens was the biggest user of eye dialect, but Mark Twain probably did it better. Other famous writers who used this technique include William Faulkner, Winston Groom (Forrest Gump), Alex Haley, Joel Chandler Harris, Russell Hoban and Robert Ruark. Paul Hull Bowdre, whose surname looks like eye dialect itself, wrote the seminal A Study of Eye Dialect (1964).

*

LIST OF TRADITIONAL RESPELLING SYMBOLS

Below is a generic list of pronunciation respelling symbols commonly used in most monolingual dictionaries for native English speakers. The sounds are based on a compromise, dialect-neutral English pronunciation. Most adhere to the one-symbol-per-sound principle.

Remember, no transcription system is ever accurate and can only approximate the sounds spoken. The most accurate way is to listen to an audio file.

As you can see, symbols without diacritics are very easy to write and type.

Consonants

(IPA in square brackets. BrE = British English. GA = General American)

b [b] — bay, back, baby, job

ch [tʃ] — church, match, nature

d [d] — day, ladder, odd

f [f] — fun, fat, coffee, rough, photo

h [h] — hat, hot, whole, ahead

hw [hw] — when (N BrE), where (GA cf. BrE), which, why (GA cf. BrE) : see also w (below)

j [dʒ] — judge, age, soldier, garbage

(χ) or KH [x] — loch (Scottish) (“hard kh”)

kh [x] — gog (Welsh) (“soft kh”)

hl [ɬ] — llan (Welsh)

g [g] — game, tag, regal, get, giggle, ghost

k [k] — king, key, clock, school

l [l] — light, valley, feel

m [m] — more, hammer, sum

n [n] — nice, know, funny, sun

ng [ŋ] — gnocchi (Italian), ring, anger, thanks, sung

p [p] — pay, pen, copy, happen

r [r] — right, wrong, sorry, arrange, ‘luser‘

s [s] — simple, soon, cease, sister

hs — hsia (Chinese), Xerxes (“teethy s”)

sh [ʃ] — ship, sure, dish, ration, national

t [t] — talk, tea, tight, button

th [θ] — thin, thing, thigh, author, path, beneath (“soft th”)

dh [ð] — this, thy, other, smooth (“hard th”)

v [v] — vine, view, heavy, move

w [w] — way, one, queen, when, where (BrE cf. GA), which, why (BrE cf. GA) : see also hw (above)

y [j] — yes, use, beauty, few

z [z] — zoo, zero, music, roses, pleasure (BrE), fusion (GA, science), fission (GA, science), vision (GA), buzz

Vowels

(IPA in square brackets. BrE = British English. GA = General American.)

a [a] — ami (French)

ă or a [æ] — pat, lad, cat, fat, rat, trap, bed

ā or ai [eɪ] — pay, day, face, break

ār or air [eə or ɛər | GA: ɛr] — care, hair, there, square, fair, various

ah or aa [ɑː | GA: ɑ] — father, palm, calm, start

a͡r or aar or ahr [ɑr] — arm

ě or eh [e or ε] — let, head, dress, bed, many

ē or ee or iy [iː | GA: i] — bee, see, fleece, sea, machine, happy, radiate, glorious

ēr or eer or ihr [ɪə or ɪər | GA: ɪr] — pier, near, here, weary

ǐ or i [ɪ] — pit, bid, city, kit, hymn, minute

ī or eye [aɪ] — item, pie, price, high, by, my, try

ǒ or o [ɒ] — odd, orr, lot, pot, not, wash, wasp

ō or oh [oʊ or əʊ] — toe, no, goat, show

aw [ɔː | GA: ɔ] — caught, law, paw, thought, north (GA), war (GA)

awr [ɔr] — north (BrE), war (esp. BrE)

awr or ohr [ɔər | GA: or] — force, wore

oi or oy [ɔɪ] — noise, boy, choice, buoy (BrE ‘bwoy’ cf. GA ‘boo-iy’)

o͝o or uu [ʊ | GA: ᴜ] — took, put, foot, good

oor or uhr [ʊə or ʊər | GA: ᴜr] — tour, poor, jury, cure

o͞o or uw [uː | GA: u] — boot, soon, through, goose, two, blue, group, thank you, influence, situation

ow [aʊ | GA: aᴜ] — out, now, mouth

ǔ or uh [ʌ] — cut, strut, mud, blood, love, run, enough

e͡r or ər or ur [ɝː or ɜr | GA: ɜr] — urge, term, firm, word, heard, learn, bird, nurse, stir, refer

uh [ə] — about, item, gallop, circus, about, common, standard

uh or i (BBC) [ɨ | GA: ɪ or ə] — rabbit, edible, garbage (‘gahbij’)

uhl [l̩] —middle, metal (“l with under-dot”)

uhn [n̩] — suddenly, cotton (“n with under-dot”)

er or uhr [ər | GA: ɚ] — butter, winner

ū or yo͞o or yuw or ew or iew [juː | GA: ju] — pupil (‘piewpul’)

oe [øː or œ | GA: œ] — feu (French), schön (German), zwölf (German)

ue [yː or ʏ | GA: y] — tu (French), über (German)

awɴ or o(ng) [ɔ̃ | GA: õ] — bon (French)

Stress

Traditional respelling system don’t usually indicate stress or glottal stops; the objective is simply to present an intuitive manner for the reader to deduce pronunciation (rather than giving a precise representation). When respelling does give stress indicators, these are the conventions:—

a– or á [ˈa | GA: ˋa] — primary (tonic) stress

(a–) or à [ˌa | GA: ˊa] — secondary stress

(a-) [a] — tertiary stress (no indicator)

(glottal stop: not indicated) [ʔ] — department, football

*

ONLINE CONVERTERS/TRANSLATORS

English Phonetic Transcription Converter | Project Modelino

A straightforward free only converter from normal English into generic IPA. Maximum 700 words for unregistered/guest users.

PhoTransEdit – English Phonetic Transcription Editor | PhoTransEdit.com

Another free online converter that outputs a choice of Received Pronunciation (BrE) or General American (AmE) transcription. Max. 300 characters (not words).

Learn to speak lolcat: the lolcat translator | speaklolcat.com

Learn to speak lolcat — the language of all animals, not just cats, dogs, kittens and puppies. Communicate with your pet dog or cat. Docta dolittle eat ur hart out!

_____

WORKS CITED

—. (1988). Webster’s New World Dictionary of American English, Third Collegiate Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. 1988.

BOWDRE, Paul Hull. (1964). A Study of Eye Dialect. University of Florida, April 1964. Published online by Kobo Books, Dec. 2009. ISBN 199-000-0297-241. Online version at the Internet Archive. PDF file (6.8 MB) at Kobo Books.

DAVENPORT, John. (1949). Slurvian Self-Taught. The New Yorker. 18 June 1949, page 26.

DAVIS, Daniel Webster. (1922). Hog Meat. The Book of American Negro Poetry, chosen and edited by James Weldson Johnson. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co, 1922. Published online 2002 by Bartleby.com.

LEE, R. (2012). Primer: The IPA. Learn English or Starve [website]. 08 July 2012. Last updated 15 July 2015.

MAILER, Norman. (1948). The Naked and The Dead. New York: Rhinehart & Co. 1948.

SAFIRE, William. (2000). Yagoddaprollemwiddat? The New York Times. 17 Sept 2000.

SLADE. (1972). Mama Weer All Crazee Now [song]. Slayed? [album]. UK/USA: Polydor. 1972.

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Images: ‘im on ur internets’ via c4c | We shall decide on ur level of fail’ via c4c | ‘Reskyood’ cartoon via The Greenbelt | Fuggedaboutit via About.com.

© Learn English or Starve, 09 July 2012 | Last updated 14 Aug 2015

Cite this page as:

Lee, R.C. (2012). Primer: pronunciation spelling and respelling. Learn English or Starve [website]. 09 July 2012. Last updated 14 Aug 2015. http://learnenglishorstave.wordpress.com/primer-respelling.

Changelog (B12220):
Created and published 09 July 2012
Updated 10 July 2012 (minor typographic fixes)
Updated 21 Nov 2012 (minor amendments, extra text on respelling, typo fixes, link fixes)
Updated 26 May 2014 (link updates)
Updated 14 Aug 2015 (improved reformatting, new links)