Exploring spelling and pronunciation, Part 1

Complex, yes. But impossible?

The complexity of English spelling undoubtedly poses problems for both foreign learners and native speakers.

While some languages, like Spanish for example, have a clear relationship between spelling and sound, this is not always the case with English. Where Spanish has more or less one letter for each sound, English can use anywhere between one and four - let's take the sound /u:/, it can be expressed with one letter - who, with two letters - too, with three letters - Hugh, and with four letters - through.

And in English, the same letter can have several different sounds, for example a in - can, cane, car, care.

Because many of the most commonly used words in English have apparently irregular spelling, it can sometimes look as though English has no spelling rules at all. It has been estimated, however, that roughly 80% of words follow regular patterns, and that's what I want to explore in this series of posts, as well as looking at some of the main irregularities.

In this first post, I'll be looking at the sounds represented by one vowel in simple one-syllable words.

Web tools - IPA code generator

Using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols

Probably the ideal way of using IPA symbols on a web page is to use images. But that can be a hassle. On Blogger, you would have to upload something like forty images.

For me, at least, the use of special HTML character codes is an acceptable and much more convenient alternative. The only symbol missing is the long vowel sign, but a colon does almost as well. Here's what it looks like:

creation	/krɪ'eɪʃn/
dispatch	/dɪs'pæʧ/
parakeet	/'pærekɪ:t/
agency	/'eɪʤənsɪ/
butter	/'bʌtə/
television	/tele'vɪʒn/
theatre	/'θɪəte(r)/
cure	/'kjʊə(r)/

The only problem is that you have to look up the codes and enter them individually. I can't be bothered with all that, so I devised this keyboard to speed up the process. First type in your symbols, optionally using the apostrophe to show stress. You can also bracket letters which only some people pronounce. There are two keyboards, one by sound type and a sort of (Q)werty one - use the 'Switch keyboard' button to toggle between them.

Pronunciation game using IPA symbols

Practise using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) symbols with these quizzes. You have a choice of keyboards: one laid out by letter type, the other a sort of (Q)werty board. Try individual sounds or whole words.