DICTIONARY OF THE BRITISH ENGLISH SPELLING SYSTEM Dictionary of the British English Spelling System Greg Brooks Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2015 Greg Brooks Version 1.1. Minor edits made July 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work; to adapt the work and to make commercial use of the work providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information: Brooks, Greg, Dictionary of the British English Spelling System . Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0053 In order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/325#copyright Further details about CC BY licenses are available at http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0 All the external links were active on the 19/07/2017 unless otherwise stated. Digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at http://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/325#resources ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-107-6 ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-108-3 ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-109-0 ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-110-6 ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-111-3 DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0053 Cover image: Spiegel by Jaume Plensa (2010). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ Category:Yorkshire_Sculpture_Park#mediaviewer/File:YSP_11.jpg All paper used by Open Book Publishers is SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes) Certified. Printed in the United Kingdom and United States by Lightning Source for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK). To Maxine Burton, for being such a patient and reliable native-speaker informant, and for tolerating my obsession for so long. Contents List of tables xvii About the author xxi Acknowledgments xxiii A 40-year gestation xxv How to use this book xxix 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Context 1 1.2 Aims 2 1.3 Some terminology 3 1.4 Phonemes 4 1.5 Long and short vowels 5 1.6 Graphemes 5 1.7 Consonant clusters and ‘blends’ 6 1.8 Split digraphs and ‘magic <e>’ 6 1.9 Stem words and derived forms 7 1.10 Positions within words 7 1.11 Open and closed syllables 9 1.12 ‘2-phoneme graphemes’ 9 1.13 ‘Regular’ correspondences 10 2. The phonemes of spoken English 13 2.1 Choosing an accent to analyse 13 2.2 How many phonemes? 14 2.3 The consonant phonemes of Received Pronunciation 15 2.4 The vowel phonemes of Received Pronunciation 16 2.5 Polysyllabic words and word stress 18 viii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 3. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, 1: Consonants 19 3.1 The general picture: the regular spellings of English consonant phonemes 19 3.2 Order of description 21 3.3 Frequencies 22 3.4 The main system and the rest 23 3.5 Consonants with doubled spellings which are rare in one- syllable words: /b d g m n p t/, plus /r/ 24 3.5.1 /b/ as in by 24 3.5.2 /d/ as in dye 25 3.5.3 /g/ as in goo 27 3.5.4 /m/ as in my 29 3.5.5 /n/ as in nigh 32 3.5.6 /p/ as in pie 34 3.5.7 /t/ as in tie 35 3.5.8 /r/ as in rye 39 3.6 /r/-linking 41 3.7 Consonants with doubled spellings which are regular at the end of one-syllable words after a short vowel spelt with one letter: /k ʧ f ʤ l s v z/ 47 3.7.1 /k/ as in coo 47 3.7.2 /ʧ/ as in chew 55 3.7.3 /f/ as in few 59 3.7.4 /ʤ/ as in jaw 62 3.7.5 /l/ as in law 66 3.7.6 /s/ as in sue 69 3.7.7 /v/ as in view 78 3.7.8 /z/ as in zoo 81 3.8 Consonants without doubled spellings: /h ŋ ∫ ʒ θ ð w j/ 86 3.8.1 /h/ as in who 86 3.8.2 /ŋ/ as in ring 87 3.8.3 /∫/ as in fission 89 3.8.4 /ʒ/ as in vision 94 Contents ix 3.8.5 /θ/ as in thigh 96 3.8.6 /ð/ as in thy 97 3.8.7 /w/ as in well 98 3.8.8 /j/ as in yell , union 103 4. How do you know when to write a consonant letter double? 109 4.1 The easy bits 109 4.1.1 Consonant letters are never doubled at the beginning of a word 109 4.1.2 Some consonant letters are never or almost never written double: <h, j, q, v, w, x, y> 110 4.1.3 Doubled consonant letters are very rare after long vowels and diphthongs 110 4.2 The main consonant-doubling rule (Part 1 of ‘double, drop or swop’ – see sections 6.4-5) 111 4.3 Other hints for writing a consonant letter double 115 4.3.1 Where the two parts of a compound word, or an affix and a stem, have adjacent identical consonant letters, the consonant letter is written double 115 4.3.2 Monosyllabic content words with /VC/ structure have a double consonant letter: the Three-Letter Rule 116 4.3.3 Consonant phonemes /b d f g k p t z/ are almost always spelt with double letters before final /əl/ spelt <-le> where the immediately preceding vowel phoneme is short, stressed and spelt with a single letter 118 4.3.4 More generally, consonant letters are mostly written double in the middle of two-syllable words where the immediately preceding vowel phoneme is short and written with a single letter 120 4.3.5 At the end of one-syllable words where the preceding vowel phoneme is short and spelt with a single letter the following consonant phonemes are mostly written double: /k ʧ f ʤ l s z v/ 123 x Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 4.4 Hints for not writing consonant letters double 123 4.4.1 At the end of one-syllable words where the preceding vowel phoneme is short and spelt with a single letter the following consonant phonemes are mostly written single: /b d g m n p t/ 123 4.4.2 When do you not write consonant phonemes /b d f g k p t z/ with double letters before final /əl/ spelt <-le>? 124 4.4.3 Digression: When do you not spell final /əl/ as <-le>? 125 4.4.4 When do you not write doublable consonant letters double in the middle of two-syllable words (other than those ending in /əl/)? 128 4.4.5 The third syllable from the end of a word rarely ends in a doubled consonant letter 128 4.4.6 Doubled consonant letters are very rare immediately before the endings <-ic(al), -id, -it, -ule> 130 4.4.7 When do you reduce <ll> to <l>? 131 4.5 Learn the rest 132 4.6 Consolation prizes 132 4.6.1 Consonant letters are never written triple 132 4.6.2 Final <CC> + <e> 133 5. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, 2: Vowels 135 5.1 The general picture: the principal spellings of English vowel phonemes 135 5.2 Order of description 138 5.3 The main system and the rest 139 5.4 Short pure vowels: /æ e ɪ ɒ ʌ ʊ ə/ 139 5.4.1 /æ/ as in ash 139 5.4.2 /e/ as in end 140 5.4.3 /ɪ/ as in ink 142 5.4.4 /ɒ/ as in ox 148 5.4.5 /ʌ/ as in up 150 Contents xi 5.4.6 /ʊ/ as in pull 151 5.4.7 /ə/ (the schwa vowel) as in the first sound in about 153 5.5 Long pure vowels (other than /iː, uː/): /ɑː ɜː ɔː/ 167 5.5.1 /ɑː/ as in aardvark 167 5.5.2 /ɜː/ as in earl 170 5.5.3 /ɔː/ as in awe 173 5.6 Diphthongs (other than /eɪ, aɪ, əʊ/): /ɔɪ aʊ eə ɪə ʊə/ 179 5.6.1 /ɔɪ/ as in oyster 179 5.6.2 /aʊ/ as in ouch 180 5.6.3 /eə/ as in air 181 5.6.4 /ɪə/ as in ear 185 5.6.5 /ʊə/ as in rural 188 5.7 Letter-name vowels: /eɪ iː aɪ əʊ juː/, plus /uː/ 191 5.7.1 /eɪ/ as in aim 191 5.7.2 /iː/ as in eel 196 5.7.3 /aɪ/ as in ice 205 5.7.4 /əʊ/ as in oath 210 5.7.5 /juː/ as in union 214 5.7.6 /uː/ as in ooze 216 6. Some spelling rules for vowels 221 6.1 ‘<i> before <e> except after <c>’ 221 6.2 ‘To spell the names of letters <a, i, o, u> in one-syllable words ending with a single consonant phoneme, write the vowel-name letter and the consonant letter and magic <e>’ 222 6.3 ‘In non-final syllables of stem words, spell letter-name vowels with their name letters’ 223 6.4 <e>-deletion (Part 2 of ‘double, drop or swop’) 226 6.5 <y>-replacement (Part 3 of ‘double, drop or swop’) 229 6.6 <ie>-replacement, <y>-deletion and <e>-insertion 231 6.7 <-able/-ible> 232 6.8 <-ant/-ent, -ance/-ence, -ancy/-ency> 233 xii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 6.9 Using related forms to spell schwa 234 6.10 Elided vowels 237 7. Special processes 245 7.1 Dual-functioning 245 7.1.1 Letter <e> 245 7.1.2 Letter <r> 246 7.1.3 Letter <w> 247 7.1.4 Letter <y> 248 7.2 Surfacing sounds 248 7.2.1 Sounds which surface in stem-initial position 248 7.2.2 Sounds which surface in medial position 249 7.2.3 Sounds which surface in stem-final position 250 8. The graphemes of written English 253 8.1 Choosing a written variety to analyse 253 8.2 How many graphemes, and how many correspondences? 253 8.3 The graphemes of the main system and the rest 262 9. The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of English, 1: Graphemes beginning with consonant letters 267 9.0 Unwritten consonant phonemes 267 9.1 General introduction to the grapheme-phoneme correspondences 267 9.2 When is a digraph not a digraph? 269 9.3 Frequencies 270 9.4 The general picture: the regular pronunciations of English graphemes beginning with consonant letters 271 9.5 Order of description 277 9.6 <b, bb> 278 9.7 <c> 279 9.8 <ce> 282 9.9 <ch> 283 9.10 <ci> 286 Contents xiii 9.11 <ck> 287 9.12 <d, dd> 287 9.13 <dg, dge> 289 9.14 <f, ff> 289 9.15 <g, gg> 290 9.16 <ge> 295 9.17 <h> 296 9.18 <j> 297 9.19 <k> 298 9.20 <l, ll> 299 9.21 <le> 300 9.22 <m, mm> 301 9.23 <n, nn> 303 9.24 <ng> 306 9.25 <p, pp> 308 9.26 <ph> 309 9.27 <q> 310 9.28 <r, rr> 312 9.29 <s, ss> 313 9.30 <se> 319 9.31 <sh> 321 9.32 <si> 322 9.33 <ssi> 323 9.34 <t, tt> 324 9.35 <tch> 329 9.36 <th> 329 9.37 <ti> 331 9.38 <v> 332 9.39 <ve> 333 9.40 <w> 334 9.41 <wh> 335 9.42 <x> 336 9.43 <z, zz> 338 9.44 Some useful generalisations about graphemes beginning with consonant letters 339 xiv Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 10. The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of English, 2: Graphemes beginning with vowel letters 343 10.1 The general picture: the regular pronunciations of English graphemes beginning with vowel letters 343 10.2 Order of description 346 10.3 <a> 347 10.4 <a.e> 356 10.5 <ai> 360 10.6 <air> 361 10.7 <ar> 362 10.8 <are> 364 10.9 <au> 364 10.10 <aw> 366 10.11 <ay> 366 10.12 <e> 367 10.13 <ea> 378 10.14 <ear> 379 10.15 <ed> 380 10.16 <ee> 382 10.17 <e.e> 383 10.18 <eer> 384 10.19 <er> 384 10.20 <ere> 386 10.21 <ew> 387 10.22 <i> 388 10.23 <ie> 396 10.24 <i.e> 397 10.25 <igh> 400 10.26 <ir> 401 10.27 <o> 402 10.28 <o.e> 408 10.29 <oi> 410 10.30 <oo> 411 Contents xv 10.31 <or> 413 10.32 <ore> 414 10.33 <ou> 415 10.34 <ow> 418 10.35 <oy> 419 10.36 <u> 420 10.37 <ue> 426 10.38 <u.e> 427 10.39 <ur> 428 10.40 <y> 431 10.41 Correspondences of <a, e, i, o, u, y> (±word-final <e>) in content words with no other vowel letters (monosyllables) 436 10.42 Correspondences of <a, e, i, o, u, y> in words with at least one later vowel letter other than ‘silent’ <e> (polysyllables) 439 10.43 Consolation prize? 445 11. Evaluating some pronunciation rules for vowel graphemes 447 11.1 Some history 447 11.2 ‘When there are two vowels side by side, the long sound of the first one is heard and the second is usually silent.’ 448 11.3 ‘When a written word has only one vowel letter, and that letter is followed by at least one consonant letter other than <r, w, y>, the vowel has its usual short pronunciation.’ 451 11.4 ‘When a final <e> is preceded by a consonant letter other than <r, w, x, y> and that consonant is preceded by a single vowel letter, the final <e> is silent and the other vowel letter has its letter-name (‘long’) sound.’ 452 11.5 ‘When <a> follows <qu, w, wh> and is not followed by <r>, or by any consonant letter plus <e>, it is pronounced /ɒ/.’ 454 11.6 ‘When <y> is the final letter in a word, it always has a vowel sound, either alone or in combination with a preceding <a, e, o>.’ 455 xvi Dictionary of the British English Spelling System Appendix A: Assumptions and technicalities 457 A.1 Citation forms 457 A.2 Phonemes 457 A.3 Syllables 458 A.4 Graphemes 459 A.5 Every letter belongs to a grapheme (almost) 460 A.6 Split digraphs 461 A.7 Rhymes and phonograms (and rimes) 466 A.8 Dual-functioning 469 A.9 Graphemes containing apostrophes 470 A.10 Word stress 471 Appendix B: Pedagogically selected lists of phoneme-grapheme and grapheme-phoneme correspondences 477 References 487 List of tables 2.1 The International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for the 24 consonant phonemes of the Received Pronunciation accent of English 15 2.2 The International Phonetic Alphabet symbols for the 20 vowel phonemes of the Received Pronunciation accent of English, plus /juː/ 16 3.1 Main correspndences of the 11 consonant phonemes with variable spellings, by position in the word 20 3.2 Full list of /r/-linking categories 42 3.3 The distribution of <c, ck, k, x> in spellings of /k, ks/ 54 3.4 The distribution of <c, s, ss> in initial and medial spellings of /s/ other than in /ks/ 74 3.5 The distribution of <c, ce, s, se, ss> in stem-final spellings of /s/ other than in /ks/ (also excluding grammatical suffixes) 76 3.6 The distribution of <ti, ce, ci, si, ssi> as spellings of medial /∫/ 93 3.7 Examples of /w/ represented or not between a stem word ending in /(j)uː, əʊ, aʊ/ and a suffix beginning with a vowel phoneme 102 3.8 Examples of /j/ represented or not between a stem word ending in /aɪ, eɪ, ɔɪ, iː/ and a suffix beginning with a vowel phoneme 107 4.1 Single and double consonant spellings after short and long vowels 111 4.2 Non-equivalence of sets of consonant phonemes spelt double in two circumstances 120 xviii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System 4.3 Examples and exceptions of the rule that two-syllable words have medial consonant letters written double after a short vowel phoneme written with a single letter 121 4.4 Some cases where stem words ending in /əl/ do or do not retain /ə/ before a suffix beginning with a vowel phoneme 127 4.5 Examples of the rule that the third syllable from the end of a word rarely ends in a doubled consonant letter, with exceptions not arising from affixation 128 5.1 Main spellings of the 20 vowel phonemes, plus /juː/, by word position 136 5.2 Spellings of /ɒ/ as <a> after /w/ 149 5.3 Spellings of /ɔː/ as <ar> after /w/ 175 5.4 <au, aw, or, ore> as spellings of /ɔː/ 176 5.5 Spellings of /ɪə/ in medial and final positions 187 5.6 <ea, ee, e.e, ie, i.e> as spellings of /iː/ in closed final syllables 202 5.7 Spellings of /əʊ/ in final syllables 212 8.1 All the consonant graphemes of written English, by RP phoneme 255 8.2 All the vowel graphemes of written English, by RP phoneme, plus /juː/ 259 8.3 Alphabetical list of the 89 graphemes of the main system 264 8.4 Alphabetical list of the other 195 graphemes 265 9.1 21 main-system consonant graphemes with only one pronunciation each 272 9.2 20 main-system consonant graphemes with only one frequent pronunciation each 273 9.3 Nine main-system consonant graphemes with two regular pronunciations each 274 9.4 Main-system graphemes beginning with consonant letters, by main- system and minor correspondences and numbers of Oddities 275 9.5 Medial <s> pronounced /z/, with sub-exceptions pronounced /s/ and sub-sub-exceptions pronounced /z/ 315 9.6 /s, z/ as pronunciations of word-final <se> 320 List of tables xix 10.1 Main-system graphemes beginning with vowel letters, by main- system and minor correspondences and numbers of oddities 344 10.2 Regular correspondences of <a, e, i, o, u, y> (±word-final <e>) in monosyllabic content words 437 10.3 Open monosyllables with a single vowel letter 438 10.4 Short and long pronunciations of single-letter vowel graphemes before single and double consonant spellings 439 11.1 ‘When two vowels go walking, the first does the talking’ 450 11.2 Pronunciations of vowel letters in words with a single, non- final vowel letter followed by at least one consonant letter other than <r, w, y> 451 11.3 Reliability of rules for split digraphs or ‘magic <e>’ where the intervening letter is not <r, w, x, y> 453 B.1 The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of British English spelling, by RP phoneme, 1: Consonants 477 B.2 The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of British English spelling, by RP phoneme, 2: Vowels 479 B.3 The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of British English spelling, 3: 2-phoneme sequences frequently spelt with single graphemes 480 B.4 The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of British English spelling, 1: Single graphemes frequently pronounced as 2-phoneme sequences 481 B.5 The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of British English spelling, 2: Major correspondences for consonant graphemes 481 B.6 The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of British English spelling, 3: Minor correspondences for consonant graphemes 483 B.7 The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of British English spelling, 4: Major correspondences for vowel graphemes 484 B.8 The grapheme-phoneme correspondences of British English spelling, 5: Minor correspondences for vowel graphemes 485