English orthography

 ( Spelling, English ) 

English orthography comprises the set of rules used when writing the English language, allowing readers and writers to associate written with the sounds of spoken English, as well as other features of the language. English's orthography includes norms for spelling, , capitalisation, word, emphasis, and punctuation.

As with the orthographies of most other , written English is broadly standardised. This standardisation began to develop when movable type spread to England in the late 15th century. However, unlike with most languages, there are multiple ways to spell every phoneme, and most grapheme also represent multiple pronunciations depending on their position in a word and the context.

This is partly due to the large number of words that have been Loanword from a large number of other languages throughout the history of English, without successful attempts at complete spelling reforms, and partly due to accidents of history, such as some of the earliest mass-produced English publications being Typesetting by highly trained, multilingual printing compositors, who occasionally used a spelling pattern more typical for another language. For example, the word ghost was spelled gost in Middle English, until the Flemish dialects spelling pattern was unintentionally substituted, and happened to be accepted. Most of the spelling conventions in Modern English were derived from the phonemic spelling of a variety of Middle English, and generally do not reflect the that have occurred since the late 15th century (such as the Great Vowel Shift).

Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most recognised variations being British and American spelling, and its overall uniformity helps facilitate international communication. On the other hand, it also adds to the discrepancy between the way English is written and spoken in any given location.

Sequences of letters may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in thrash , the digraph (two letters) represents . In hatch , the trigraph represents .

Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is , which normally represents the consonant cluster (for example, in tax ).

The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced differently when occurring in different positions within a word. For instance, represents at the end of some words ( tough ) but not in others ( plough ). At the syllable onset, is pronounced , as in ghost . Conversely, is never pronounced in syllable onsets other than in inflection forms, and is almost never pronounced in (the proper name Pittsburgh is an exception).

Some words contain , which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the in talk, half, calf, etc., the in two and sword, as mentioned above in numerous words such as though, daughter, night, brought, and the commonly encountered silent e (discussed further below).

Some other examples are pronounced (which is most commonly ), and pronounced (which is most commonly or ). The use of these spellings for these sounds often marks words that have been borrowed from Greek.

Some researchers, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level of style or register in a given text, although Rollings (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of these spellings, such as for (like telephone), could occur in an informal text.

Examples

• heir and air are pronounced identically in most dialects, but spelled differently.

• pain and pane are both pronounced but have two different spellings of the vowel . This arose because the two words were originally pronounced differently: pain used to be pronounced as , with a diphthong, and pane as , but the diphthong merged with the long vowel in pane, making pain and pane homophones ( pane– pain merger). Later became a diphthong .

• break and brake: ( She's breaking the car vs. She's braking the car).

Nevertheless, many homophones remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word has at least five fundamentally different meanings).

often marks an altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the pair ''mat'' and ''mate'', the  of ''mat'' has the value , whereas the  of ''mate'' is marked by the  as having the value . In this context, the  is not pronounced, and is referred to as a "[[silent e]]".
     

Also, in once indicates that the preceding is pronounced , rather than the more common value of in word-final position as the sound , such as in attic .

A single letter may even fill multiple pronunciation-marking roles simultaneously. For example, in the word ace, marks not only the change of from to , but also of from to . In the word vague, marks the long sound, but keeps the hard rather than soft.

Doubled consonants usually indicate that the preceding vowel is pronounced short. For example, the doubled in batted indicates that the is pronounced , while the single of bated gives . Doubled consonants only indicate any lengthening or gemination of the consonant sound itself when they come from different morphemes, as with the in unnamed ( un+ named).

Although the letter is pronounced by most speakers with aspiration at the beginning of words, this is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in phonetics.

However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract underlying representation (or morphophonology form) of English words.

In these cases, a given morpheme (i.e., a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words. An example is the past tense suffix -, which may be pronounced variously as , , or (for example, pay , payed , hate , hated ). As it happens, these different pronunciations of - can be predicted by a few phonology rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.

Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, photographer is derived from photograph by adding the derivational suffix -. When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change largely owing to the moveable stress:

Other examples of this type are the - suffix (as in agile vs. agility, acid vs. acidity, divine vs. divinity, sane vs. sanity). See also: Trisyllabic laxing.

Another example includes words like mean and meant , where is pronounced differently in the two related words. Thus, again, the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.

English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation between the underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of the regular plural morpheme, which is written as either - (as in tat, tats and hat, hats) or - (as in glass, glasses). Here, the spelling - is pronounced either or (depending on the environment, e.g., tats and tails ) while - is usually pronounced (e.g. classes ). Thus, there are two different spellings that correspond to the single underlying representation || of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates the Epenthesis of before the in the spelling -, but does not indicate the devoiced distinctly from the unaffected in the spelling -.

The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological relationships more apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient. However, very abstract underlying representations, such as that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of underspecification theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to accurately reflect the communicative competence of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more "psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of pedagogy.

Further examples of words sometimes retaining diacritics when used in English are: ångström—partly because its symbol is — appliqué, attaché, blasé, bric-à-brac, Brötchen, cliché, crème, crêpe, fiancé(e), flambé, jalapeño, naïve, naïveté, né(e), papier-mâché, passé, piñata, protégé, résumé, risqué, and voilà. Italic type, with appropriate accents, are generally applied to foreign terms that are uncommonly used in or have not been assimilated into English: for example, , belles-lettres, crème brûlée, , , and .

It was formerly common in American English to use a diaeresis to indicate a hiatus, e.g. coöperate, daïs, and reëlect. The New Yorker and Technology Review magazines still use it for this purpose, even as general use became much rarer. Instead, modern orthography generally prefers no mark ( cooperate) or a hyphen ( co-operate) for a hiatus between two morphemes in a compound word. By contrast, use of diaereses in monomorphemic loanwords such as naïve and Noël remains relatively common.

In poetry and performance arts, accent marks are occasionally used to indicate typically unstressed syllables that should be stressed when read for dramatic or prosodic effect. This is frequently seen with the -ed suffix in archaic and pseudoarchaic writing, e.g. cursèd indicates the should be fully pronounced. The grave being to indicate that an ordinarily silent or elided syllable is pronounced ( warnèd, parlìament).

Besides the quirks the English spelling system has inherited from its past, there are other irregularities in spelling that make it tricky to learn. English contains, depending on dialect, 24–27 consonant and 13–20 . However, there are only 26 letters in the modern English alphabet, so there is not a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. Many sounds are spelled using different letters or multiple letters, and for those words whose pronunciation is predictable from the spelling, the sounds denoted by the letters depend on the surrounding letters. For example, represents two different sounds (the voiced and voiceless dental fricatives) (see Pronunciation of English th), and the voiceless alveolar sibilant can be represented by or .

It is, however, not (solely) the shortage of letters which makes English spelling irregular. Its irregularities are caused mainly by the use of many different spellings for some of its sounds, such as and ( t oo , true, sh oe , flew, thr ough ; slee ve , lea ve , even, s eize, s iege; st ol e , coa l , bow l , rol l , old, m ould), and the use of identical sequences for spelling different sounds ( ove r , oven, m ove).

Furthermore, English no longer makes any attempt to anglicise the spellings of , but preserves the foreign spellings, even when they do not follow English spelling conventions like the Polish language in Czech (rather than *Check) or the Norwegian in fjord (although fiord was formerly the most common spelling). In early Middle English, until roughly 1400, most imports from French were respelled according to English rules (e.g. bataille– battle, bouton– button, but not double, or trouble). Instead of loans being respelled to conform to English spelling standards, sometimes the pronunciation changes as a result of pressure from the spelling, e.g. ski, adopted from Norwegian in the mid-18th century. It used to be pronounced , similar to the Norwegian pronunciation, but the increasing popularity of the sport after the mid-20th century helped the pronunciation replace it.

There was also a period when the spelling of a small number of words was altered to make them conform to their perceived etymological origins. For example, was added to debt (originally dette) to link it to the Latin debitum, and in island to link it to Latin insula instead of its true origin, the Old English word īġland. in Rock Ptarmigan has no etymological justification whatsoever, only seeking to show Greek origin despite being a Gaelic word.

The spelling of English continues to evolve. Many loanwords come from languages where the pronunciation of vowels corresponds to the way they were pronounced in Old English, which is similar to the Italian or Spanish pronunciation of the vowels, and is the value the vowel symbols have in the International Phonetic Alphabet. As a result, there is a somewhat regular system of pronouncing "foreign" words in English, and some borrowed words have had their spelling changed to conform to this system. For example, Hindu used to be spelled Hindoo, and the name Maria used to be pronounced like the name Mariah, but was changed to conform to this system. This only further complicates the spelling, however. On the one hand, words that retained anglicised spellings may be misread in a Hyperforeignism way. On the other hand, words that are respelled in a 'foreign' way may be misread as if they are English words, e.g. Muslim was formerly spelled Mooslim because of its original pronunciation.

Commercial advertisers have also had an effect on English spelling. They introduced new or simplified spellings like lite instead of light, thru instead of through, and rucsac instead of rucksack. The spellings of personal names have also been a source of spelling innovations: diminutive versions of women's names that sound the same as men's names have been spelled differently: Nikki and Nicky, Toni and Tony, Jo and Joe. The differentiation in between names that are spelled differently but have the same phonetic sound may come from modernisation or different countries of origin. For example, Isabelle and Isabel sound the same but are spelled differently; these versions are from France and Spain respectively.

As an example of the irregular nature of English spelling, can be pronounced at least nine different ways: in out, in soul, in soup, in touch, in could, in four, in journal, in cough, and in famous (See Spelling-to-sound correspondences). In the other direction, can be spelled in at least 18~21 different ways: b e (ce de), sk i (machi ne), bologn a  (GA), algae, qu ay , bea ch , bee, dec eit, p eople, k ey , keye d , fie ld (hygie ne), am oeba, cham ois (GA), deng ue  (GA), begui ne , guy ot , and ynambu (See Sound-to-spelling correspondences). (These examples assume a more-or-less standard non-regional British English accent. Other accents will vary.)

Sometimes everyday speakers of English change counterintuitive spellings, with the new spellings usually not judged to be entirely correct. However, such forms may gain acceptance if used enough. An example is the word miniscule, which still competes with its original spelling of minuscule, though this might also be because of analogy with the word mini.

The regular spelling system of Old English was swept away by the Norman Conquest, and English itself was supplanted in some spheres by Norman French for three centuries, eventually emerging with its spelling much influenced by French. English had also borrowed large numbers of words from French, and kept their French spellings. The spelling of Middle English is very irregular and inconsistent, with the same word being spelled in different ways, sometimes even in the same sentence. However, these were generally much better guides to the then-pronunciation than modern English spelling is.

For example, , normally written , is spelled with an in done, some, love, etc., due to Norman spelling conventions which prohibited writing before due to the graphical confusion that would result. ( were written identically with two minims in Norman handwriting; was written as two letters; was written with three minims, hence looked like , etc.). Similarly, spelling conventions also prohibited final . Hence the identical spellings of the three different vowel sounds in love, move, and cove are due to ambiguity in the Middle English spelling system, not sound change.

In 1417, Henry V began using English, which had no standardised spelling, for official correspondence instead of Latin or French which had standardised spelling, e.g. Latin had one spelling for right ( rectus), Old French as used in English law had six and Middle English had 77. This motivated writers to standardise English spelling, an effort which lasted about 500 years.

There was also a series of linguistic sound changes towards the end of this period, including the Great Vowel Shift, which resulted in the in make, for example, changing from a pure vowel to a diphthong. These changes for the most part did not detract from the rule-governed nature of the spelling system; but, in some cases, they introduced confusing inconsistencies, like the well-known example of the many pronunciations of ( tough, through, though, cough, plough, etc.). Most of these changes happened before the arrival of printing in England. However, the arrival of the modern printing press in 1476 froze the current system, rather than providing the impetus for a realignment of spelling with pronunciation. Furthermore, it introduced further inconsistencies, partly because of the use of typesetters trained abroad, particularly in the Low Countries. For example, the in ghost was influenced by Flemish dialects. The addition and deletion of a silent e at the ends of words was also sometimes used to make the right-hand margin line up more neatly.

By the time dictionaries were introduced in the mid-17th century, the spelling system of English had started to stabilise. By the 19th century, most words had set spellings, though it took some time before they diffused throughout the English-speaking world. In The Mill on the Floss (1860), English novelist George Eliot satirised the attitude of the English rural gentry of the 1820s towards orthography:

The modern English spelling system, with its national variants, spread together with the expansion of public education later in the 19th century.

• (as in s o) in though and dough
• (as in c uff) in tough, rough, enough, and the name Hough
• (as in off) in trough, cough, and Gough
• (as in bl ue) in through
• (as in s aw) in thought, ought, sought, nought, brought, etc.
• (as in comm a) in thorough, borough, and names ending in -borough; however, American English pronounces this as
• (as in h ow) in bough, sough, drought, plough ( plow in North America), doughty, and the names Slough and Doughty
• (as in l och; mainly in words of Gaelic origin) in the word lough (an anglicised variant of loch used in Ireland) and in Irish Toponymy, such as Ardclough, Glendalough, Loughmore, Loughrea, etc.

The following pronunciations are found in uncommon single words:

• hough: (more commonly spelled "hock" now)
• hiccough (a now-uncommon variant of hiccup): as in up
• Oughter Ard (Irish place name):

• In the tables, the hyphen has two different meanings. A hyphen after the letter indicates that it must be at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., - in jumper and ajar. A hyphen before the letter indicates that it cannot be at the beginning of a word, e.g., - in sick and ticket.
• More specific rules take precedence over more general ones, e.g., "- before " takes precedence over "".
• Where the letter combination is described as "word-final", suffixes may be added without changing the pronunciation, e.g., catalogue s.
• The dialects used are Received Pronunciation and General American. When pronunciations differ idiosyncratically, a pronunciation that only applies to one of the dialects is noted as being (RP) or (GA). When pronunciations differ systematically in a way that is not accounted for by the diaphonemic transcription system (i.e. the trap- bath and Lot-cloth split splits), the pronunciations in both dialects are given.
• Isolated foreign borrowings are excluded.
• ∅ means the letter is silent

For instance, can represent the lax vowel , tense , heavy , or tense-r . Heavy and tense-r vowels are the respective lax and tense counterparts followed by .

Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a Silent e that is added at the end of words. Thus, in hat is lax , but when is added in the word hate is tense . Heavy and tense-r vowels follow a similar pattern, e.g. in car is heavy , followed by silent in care is . represents two different vowel patterns, one being , the other . There is no distinction between heavy and tense-r , and in the pattern does not have a heavy vowel.

Besides silent , another strategy for indicating tense and tense-r vowels is the addition of another orthographic vowel forming a digraph. In this case, the first vowel is usually the main vowel while the second vowel is the "marking" vowel. For example, man has a lax (), but the addition of (as the digraph ) in main marks the as tense (). These two strategies produce words that are spelled differently but Homophone, which helps differentiate words that would otherwise be , as in mane (silent strategy), main (digraph strategy) and Maine (both strategies).

Besides the 20 basic vowel spellings, has a reduced vowel category (representing the sounds ) and a miscellaneous category (representing the sounds and +V, +V, V+V).

Deriving the pronunciation of an English word from its spelling requires not only a careful knowledge of the rules given below (many of which are not explicitly known even by native speakers: speakers merely learn the spelling of a word along with its pronunciation) and their many exceptions, but also:

• a knowledge of which syllables are stressed and which are unstressed (not derivable from the spelling: compare hallow and allow)
• which combinations of vowels represent monosyllables and which represent disyllables (ditto: compare waive and naive, creature and creator)

The pronunciation of vowel letters when followed by is covered in a separate table below.

sh'''ew'''
 li'''eu'''tenant  mili'''eu''' 
 r'''eu'''se
 r'''eu'''tters
 pil'''eu'''p

wher'''eu'''pon
 Fr'''eu'''dian
     

• False etymology
• Spelling bee
• List of English homographs
• The Chaos – a poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité demonstrating the irregularities of English spelling

Conventions

• English plural
• I before E except after C
• Three letter rule

Variant spelling

• American and British English spelling differences
• Misspelling
• Satiric misspelling
• Sensational spelling
• Spelling of disc

Graphemes

• Apostrophe
• Eth
• Long s
• Thorn (letter)
• Yogh

Phonetic orthographic systems

• English spelling reform
• Interspel
• Pronouncing Orthography

English scripts

• English alphabet (Latin script)
• American manual alphabet
• Two-handed manual alphabets
• English braille
• American braille
• New York Point
• Shavian alphabet

Words in English

• Lists of English words
• Classical compound
• Ghoti

English phonology

• Regional accents of English
• IPA chart for English dialects
• Stress and vowel reduction in English
• Initial-stress-derived noun
• Traditional English pronunciation of Latin

Germanic languages

• Danish
• Dutch
• German
• Icelandic
• Scots

Romance languages

• French
• Italian
• Milanese
• Portuguese
• Spanish

Celtic languages

• Irish
• Scottish Gaelic
• Welsh

Historical languages

• Latin
• Old Norse
• Old English

Constructed languages

• Esperanto

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