spelling

SPELLINGSee also “Phonology” : SPELLING See also 'Phonology' by Alleen Pace Nilsen and Don L. F. Nilsen


OUR ENGLISH ALPHABET HAS ONLY 26 LETTERS TO REPRESENT 45 DIFFERENT SOUNDSAND SOME OF OUR LETTERS (LIKE C, Q, H, AND X) AREN’T VERY USEFULENGLISH HAS 5 VOWEL LETTERS TO REPRESENT 13 VOWEL SOUNDSAND WE USE THEM ALL UP FOR OUR SHORT VOWELS, AS IN: pat, pet, pit, pot, and putSO WE DON’T HAVE ANY LETTERS LEFT FOR OUR LONG VOWELS, AND THE RESULT IS CHAOS : OUR ENGLISH ALPHABET HAS ONLY 26 LETTERS TO REPRESENT 45 DIFFERENT SOUNDS AND SOME OF OUR LETTERS (LIKE C, Q, H, AND X) AREN’T VERY USEFUL ENGLISH HAS 5 VOWEL LETTERS TO REPRESENT 13 VOWEL SOUNDS AND WE USE THEM ALL UP FOR OUR SHORT VOWELS, AS IN: pat, pet, pit, pot, and put SO WE DON’T HAVE ANY LETTERS LEFT FOR OUR LONG VOWELS, AND THE RESULT IS CHAOS


Slide3 : SO THIS IS HOW WE SPELL OUR LONG VOWELS A, E, I, O, and U: A: He ate the freight. It was his fate. How do you spell 8/eight? E: The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine. or Did he believe that Caesar could see the people? I: I write eye-rhyme, like 'She cited the sight of the site.' O: Our chauffeur, although he stubbed his toe, yeomanly towed four more boards through the open door of the depot. U: blue, blew, gnu, Hugh, new, Pooh, Sioux, through, two


VIOLATIONS OF THE PHONEMIC PRINCIPLE : VIOLATIONS OF THE PHONEMIC PRINCIPLE SAME PRONUNCIATION BUT DIFFERENT SPELLINGS (DIFFERENT MEANINGS): cite-sight-site, marry-Mary-merry, pair-pare-pear, there-their-they're SAME SPELLINGS BUT DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS (SAME WORD FAMILIES): nation-national, obscene-obscenity, sign-signature, go-gone, ct. soup-supper


CONSONANT GRADES:FULL, H-MARKED, REDUCED, ZERO : CONSONANT GRADES: FULL, H-MARKED, REDUCED, ZERO REDUCED GRADE: act-action-actual, critic-criticize, medicine-medication, part-partial, rite-ritual, seize-seizure MARKED GRADE: chip, cough, hiccough, enough, phone, ship, this, thought (NOTE: The andlt;handgt; of ch, gh, ph, sh, and th indicate that these are strange kinds of c, g, p, s, and t respectively. ZERO GRADE: acknowledge-knowledge; amnesia-mnemonic; though, thought, through, thumb-thimble-Thumbelina


MORE CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONS : MORE CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONS MODAL PLUS 'HAVE' ASSIMILATION: coulda, mighta, shoulda, woulda MODAL PLUS 'TO' ASSIMILATION: gonna, hafta, hasta, supposta, useta CONTRACTIONS: *ain’t, can’t, couldn’t, won’t, wouldn’t, shan’t, shouldn’t, *mayn’t, (mightn’t, mustn’t)


CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONFOR EASE AND SPEED : CONSONANT ASSIMILATION FOR EASE AND SPEED VERB 3rd sing pres ind: sings, hits VERB past: buzzed, jumped VERB past part: popped, killed NOUN plurals: cats, dogs NOUN possessives: Mike's, Fred's ADJ substantive: its, ours PREFIX: (NOTE: im- assimilates as follows): illegal, immature, impotent, indelicate, irreligious


ASSIMILATION: PALATALIZATION : ASSIMILATION: PALATALIZATION When a word that ends with a /t/ is followed by a –ual, -ial, or -ion ending, the palatal vowel andlt;y-andgt; changes the /t/ sound into a /č/ sound. addict  addiction act  actual or action part  partial predict  prediction


ASSIMILATION: STOPS BECOMES CONTINUANTS : ASSIMILATION: STOPS BECOMES CONTINUANTS Because /k/ is a stop, and vowels are continuants, an affix beginning with a vowel often changes /k/ to /s/. critic  criticize or criticism fanatic  fanaticism romantic  romanticism This ability of the andlt;candgt; to have two different pronunciations allows us to spell these words the same way even though they are pronounced diffently. The benefit of this is that it helps us to see that these words are in the same word-family even though the andlt;candgt; part is pronounced differently.


CONSONANT DISSIMILATION: FOR CLARITY : CONSONANT DISSIMILATION: FOR CLARITY VERB 3rd person singular present inddicative: buzzes VERB past tense: heated VERB past participle: spotted NOUN plural: horses NOUN possessive: Max’s NOUN: belfry ADJ: ignoble


DISSIMILATION AGAIN : DISSIMILATION AGAIN '-al' is a suffix that changes a Noun into an Adjective, but when the Noun ends in /l/, dissimilation occurs: 'anecdotal' but 'angular' 'penal' but 'perpendicular' 'spiritual' but 'similar' 'venal' but 'velar' (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 277)


VOWEL GRADES: LONG, SHORT, SCHWA, R, AND ZERO : VOWEL GRADES: LONG, SHORT, SCHWA, R, AND ZERO VOWEL REDUCTION (SCHWA GRADE): natural-naturalize-naturalization, photo-photograph-photographic-photography, s'pose-suppose-supposition, telegraph- telegraphic-telegraphy VOWEL REDUCTION (-R or –N GRADE): ; pin-pen; absurd, bird, heard, herd, word VOWEL REDUCTION (ZERO GRADE): ambidextrous-dexterity, busy-business


VOWEL REDUCTION AND ASSIMILATION : VOWEL REDUCTION AND ASSIMILATION BRITISH VOWEL REDUCTION: aluminum, laboratory, secretary LONG AND SHORT GRADES: do-done, go-gone, nation-national, obscene-obscenity, punitive-punish, sign-signature, soup-supper


vowel reduction and word stress : vowel reduction and word stress When a suffix changes a word from one Part of Speech to another, this suffix affects which syllables are stressed, and which are unstressed and can change to different vowel grades like schwa or short grade:


Slide15 :


HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS : HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS TRACES: ic-ich-I, knight, hostel-hôtel- hotel, scribere-écrire-scribe DOUBLETS: chief-chef, dish-discus, hotel-hostel, ship-skiff, shirt-skirt GRIMM'S LAW: courage-hearty, corn-horn, decade-ten, dozen-twelve, dent-tooth, pedestal-footnote, padre-father, plate-flat, pyre-fire


!MORE HISTORIC CONSIDERATIONS : !MORE HISTORIC CONSIDERATIONS GERMANIC UMLAUT: child, goose, man, mouse, woman (cf. book-beech) GREEK RHOTOCISM: genus-generic; opus-opera ENGLISH: schwa and silent e ACRONYMS AS WORDS: AID, AIDS, BIRP, CREEP, GASP, MANURE, MASH, NOW, NUT, SAG, VISTA, ZIP


!!FOREIGN-LANGUAGE INFLUENCES : !!FOREIGN-LANGUAGE INFLUENCES BORROWINGS: chaise longue, cole slaw, frankfurter, hamburger, lingerie, rouge, schnitzel, wiener BILINGUAL COGNATES: actual, embarazada, grocería, libraria, molestar, principio, (cf. blanket [white], porpoise [pig fish], puny [puis né], walrus [whale horse]) INDO-EUROPEAN ABLAUT: sing-sang-song MODAL PAST-SUBJUNCTIVE: can-could, may-might, shall-should, will-would


!!!FINAL THOUGHTS FROM OGDEN NASH : !!!FINAL THOUGHTS FROM OGDEN NASH The one-l lama, He’s a priest. The two-l llama, He’s a beast. And I will bet A silk pajama There isn’t any Three-l lllama. (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 290) In response to this poem one wit remarked, 'A three-alarmer (three-l lllama) is a really big fire.'


Slide20 : References: Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, ed. Language: Readings in Language and Culture, Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Bedford, St. Martins, 1998. Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 255-312. Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000. Nilsen, Don L. F., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Pronunciation Contrasts in English. New York, NY: Regents Publishing Co., 1973; reissued by Waveland Press in 2002.