1 SPELLING See also “Phonology” by Don L. F. Nilsen and Alleen Pace Nilsen
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SPELLINGSee also “Phonology”
by Don L. F. Nilsenand Alleen Pace Nilsen
Spelling Perspective!
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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
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SO THIS IS HOW WE SPELL OUR LONG VOWELSA, 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
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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
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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 <h> 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
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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)
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CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONFOR EASE AND SPEED
VERB 3rd sing pres ind: sings, hitsVERB past: buzzed, jumpedVERB past part: popped, killed NOUN plurals: cats, dogsNOUN possessives: Mike's, Fred's ADJ substantive: its, ours
PREFIX: (NOTE: im- assimilates as follows): illegal, immature, impotent, indelicate, irreligious
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ASSIMILATION: PALATALIZATION
When a word that ends with a /t/ is followed by a –ual, -ial, or -ion ending, the palatal vowel <y-> changes the /t/ sound into a /č/ sound.
addict addictionact actual or actionpart partial predict prediction
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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 criticismfanatic fanaticismromantic romanticism
This ability of the <c> 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 <c> part is pronounced differently.
(Nilsen & Nilsen 18)
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CONSONANT DISSIMILATION: FOR CLARITY
VERB 3rd person singular present indicative: buzzesVERB past tense: heatedVERB past participle: spotted
NOUN plural: horsesNOUN possessive: Max’sNOUN: belfry
ADJ: ignoble(Nilsen & Nilsen 14-16, 18-20)
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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 [2007] 277)
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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
(Nilsen & Nilsen 21-25)
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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
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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:
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analysis-analytic
compete-competition
maintain-maintenance
medicine-medicinal
phone-phonetic
solid-solidity
Talmud-Talmudic
telegraph-telegraphy
(Fromkin Rodman Hyams [2007] 282)(Nilsen & Nilsen 25)
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HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONSTRACES: 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
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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
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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
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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 pajamaThere isn’t any Three-l lllama.
In response to this poem one wit remarked, “A three-alarmer (three-l lllama) is a really big fire.”
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