Irregularity in English Spelling

 Irregularity in English Spelling

Below are some examples of variable spelling for certain sounds of the English language. If you would like to hear any of these examples pronounced, click on the word.

The ee-sound is a good example and can seen represented in a variety of ways, as seen in these words:

Aeschylus, believe, see, Chelsea, latrine, we, people, quay, sea, phoneme, amoeba

Similarly, the sh-sound is written down in a range of different ways:

chapparal, ruching, bush, pressure, scansion, emission, patience, eruption, nauseous, oceanic, shoe, sure

Words that have the same sounds but are spelled differently, homophones can also confuse the listener:

grown, groan one, won eight, ate

knead, need scene, seen

aisle, I'll

aye, eye here, hear red, read

mettle, metal tea, tee tax, tacks

Words that contain silent letters present a particular challenge:

no B comb, dumb, debt

no D Wednesday

no G sign, foreign

no GH daughter, light, right

no H why, honest, hour

no K know, knight, knob, knee

no L should, walk, half

no P cupboard, psychology

no T whistle, listen, fasten

no U guess, guitar

no W who, write, wrong

Words borrowed from other languages are in our everyday conversation. 

The English language has always been a melting pot and while often retaining the original spelling, the words do not always preserve their original pronunciation. 

For example:

Malay - orang hutang, which means ‘man of the forest’, has been borrowed almost intact in our own ‘orangutan’.

French - ballet, dozen, centre, aboard, dignity, aplomb, bucket, bureau

German - angst, kindergarten, sauerkraut, iceberg, blitz, waltz, yodel, noodle, ersatz, frankfurter, hamburger, pretzel

Yiddish - shtick, bagel, kosher, nebbish, schmooze, tchotchke, maven

Italian - bravo, forte, vendetta, falsetto, ghetto, braggadocio.