Wikipedia

Spelling pronunciation

Not to be confused withPronunciation spelling.

Aspelling pronunciationis thepronunciationof a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronounced for many generations or even hundreds of years have increasingly been pronounced as written, especially since the arrival of mandatory schooling and universal literacy.

Examples of words with silent letters that have begun to be often or sometimes pronounced includeoften,Wednesday,island,andknife.In addition, words traditionally pronounced withreduced vowelsoromitted consonants(e.g.cupboard,Worcester), may be subject to a spelling pronunciation.

If a word's spelling was standardized prior to sound changes that produced its traditional pronunciation, a spelling pronunciation may reflect an even older pronunciation. This is often the case with compound words (e.g.,waistcoat,cupboard,forehead). It is also the case for many words with silent letters (e.g.often[1]), though not all—silent letters are sometimes added for etymological reasons, to reflect a word's spelling in its language of origin (e.g.victual,rhyming withlittle[2][3]but derived fromLate Latinvictualia). Some silent letters were added on the basis of erroneous etymologies, as in the cases of the wordsisland[4]andscythe.

Spelling pronunciations are oftenprescriptively discouragedand perceived as incorrect next to the traditionally accepted, and usually more widespread, pronunciation. If a spelling pronunciation persists and becomes more common, it may eventually join the existing form as a standard variant (for examplewaistcoat[5]andoften), or even become the dominant pronunciation (as withforeheadandfalcon).

Prevalence and causes

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A large number of easily noticeable spelling pronunciations occurs only in languages such as French and English in which spelling tends to not indicate the current pronunciation. Because all languages have at least some words which are not spelled as pronounced,[6]spelling pronunciations can arise in all languages. This is of course especially true for people who are only taught to read and write and who are not taught when the spelling indicates an outdated (or etymologically incorrect) pronunciation. In other words, when many people do not clearly understand where spelling came from and what it is (a tool for recording speech, not the other way around), spelling pronunciations are common.

On the other hand, spelling pronunciations are also evidence of the reciprocal effects of spoken and written language on each other.[7]Many spellings represent older forms and corresponding older pronunciations. Some spellings, however, are not etymologically correct.

Speakers of a language often privilege the spelling of words over common pronunciation, leading to a preference for, or prestige of, spelling pronunciation, with the written language affecting and changing the spoken language. Pronunciations can then arise that are similar to older pronunciations or that can even be completely new pronunciations that are suggested by the spelling but never occurred before.[7]

Examples of English words with common spelling pronunciations

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  • kilnwith a fully pronounced n, instead of a silent n. Kiln was originally pronounced kil with the n silent, as is referenced in Webster's Dictionary of 1828.[8]FromEnglish Words as Spoken and Written for Upper Gradesby James A. Bowen 1900: "The digraph ln, n silent, occurs in kiln. A fall down the kiln can kill you."[9]
  • often,pronounced with/t/.This is actually a reversion to the 15th-century pronunciation,[1]but the pronunciation without/t/is still preferred by 73% of British speakers and 78% of American speakers.[10]Older dictionaries do not list the pronunciation with/t/although the 2nd edition of theOEDdoes (and the first edition notes the pronunciation with the comment that it is prevalent in the south ofEnglandand often used in singing; see theDictionary of American Regional Englishfor contemporaneous citations that discuss the status of the competing pronunciations). The sporadic nature of such shifts is apparent upon examination of examples such aswhistle,listenandsoftenin which thetremains usually silent.
  • foreheadonce rhymed withhorridbut is now pronounced with the second syllable as/hɛd/by 85% of American speakers and 65% of British speakers. This is actually a reversion to the original pronunciation.[11]
  • clotheswas historically pronounced the same way as the verbclose( "Whenas in silks my Julia goes/.../The liquefaction of her clothes" —Herrick), but many speakers now insert a/ð/,a voicedth.This is actually a reversion to the 15th-century pronunciation.[12]
  • salmonis pronounced by a minority of English speakers with/l/,due to the letter l being reintroduced, despite being neither written nor pronounced in the original Anglo-French pronunciation.
  • falconis now nearly always pronounced with/l/,and only 3% of speakers have no/l/.[13]The/l/was silent in the old pronunciation: compare Frenchfauconand the older English spellingsfauconandfawcon.That may suggest either analogical change or the reborrowing of the original Latin.
  • alms,balm,calm,psalm,etc. are now often pronounced with/l/in some parts of theUnited States.In most of theUnited Kingdom,the traditional/ɑːm/pronunciation continues to prevail.
  • comptrolleris often pronounced with/mp/;the accepted pronunciation is controller (thempspelling is based on the mistaken idea that the word is related tocomp(u)tare"count, compute," but it comes fromcontre-roll"file copy" ).
  • ye(actually,yͤorÞe), thedefinite article,as inYe OldeCoffee Shoppe,is often pronounced like the archaic Englishpronounyeinstead of as the wordthe,based on the misleading use of the symbolyto substitute for the archaic printer's markÞ:the letter thorn.[14](On the other hand, the beginning of the pronounyeinMiddleandEarly ModernEnglish is correctly pronounced like the beginning ofyou.)
  • Mackenzie, Menzies, Dalzielnow include the sound/z/in place of the original/j/,due to theinsular flat-toppedgof Gaelic scripts being commonly transcribed into English as the similar-looking letterz.
  • armadilloand other words fromSpanishwith thedouble-Lpronounced/l/instead of/j/(the latter being the closest approximation to the sound in Latin American Spanish); similarly, theItalian-sourcedmaraschino(cherry) andbruschettawith the/ʃ/associated with that consonant cluster in German instead of the/sk/of Italian.
  • victuals,pronounced/ˈvɪtəlz/(rhyming withskittles), whosec(for a consonant that had been lost long before the word was borrowed from French) was re-introduced on etymological grounds, and the word is sometimes pronounced with/kt/.The original pronunciation is reflected in, for example, the brand name "Tender Vittles".
  • The pronunciation ofwaistcoataswaist-coatis now more common than the previous pronunciation/ˈwɛskət/.
  • conduit,historically pronounced/ˈkɒndɪt/or/ˈkʌn-/,is now nearly always pronounced/ˈkɒndjuɪt/in most of the United States.
  • covert,historically pronounced/ˈkʌvərt/(reflecting its link with the verbcover) is now usually pronounced/ˈkoʊvərt/,by analogy toovert.
  • medicine,historically pronounced with two syllables but now quite often with three (some speakers use two when they mean medicaments and three when they mean medical knowledge; the pronunciation with three syllables is standard in theUnited States).
  • Bartholomew,formerly pronounced/ˈbɑːrtəlmi/or/bɑːrˈtɒləmi/,is now/bɑːrˈθɒləmjuː/.[citation needed]
  • Anthony(from LatinAntonius), now (in Anglophone countries outside the UK) is typically/ˈænθəni/rather than/ˈæntəni/.
  • Numerous placenames with traditional pronunciations have been displaced by ones influenced by the spelling:St. Louis,formerly/sænˈluːi/now (in the US)/seɪntˈluːɪs/,Papillion(Nebraska), formerly/ˌpæpiˈɒn/now/pəˈpɪliən/.Montpelier,the capital ofVermont,is now pronounced/mɒntˈpiːliər/,instead of the French[mɔ̃pəlje].
  • SirGeorge Everest'ssurnameis pronounced/ˈiːvrɪst/.[15]The mountain named after him –Mount Everest– is generally pronounced/ˈɛvərɪst/.[16]
  • Interjections such astsk tsk!ortut tut!(a pair ofdental clicks), now commonly/ˈtɪskˈtɪsk/and/ˈtʌtˈtʌt/.[citation needed]
  • The wordsArctic,AntarcticandAntarcticawere originally pronounced without the first/k/,but the spelling pronunciation has become very common. The first c was originally added to the spelling for etymological reasons and was then misunderstood as not being silent.[17]
  • zoology,which is often pronounced zoo-ology (/zuˈɒlədʒi/), though, technically, this is likely influenced more by the word zoo (rhyming with goo) than by its spelling because it is never pronounced zoo-logy (/ˈzuːlədʒi/). (It has been posited that dropping thediaeresisinzoölogyantiquated the pronunciation/zoʊˈɒlədʒi/.) A similar case might be the pronunciation outside the United States ofhecatombas rhyming with deck a tomb and pronounced/ˈhɛkətuːm/instead of/ˈhɛkətoʊm/.
  • hotel,originally pronounced/oʊˈtɛl/because of the pronunciation of the Frenchhôtel,is now usually pronounced with an audibleh.[18][clarification needed]Nevertheless,maître d'hôtelis pronounced/ˌmeɪtrədoʊˈtɛl/.[19]
  • herb,a word with origins inOld French,is generally pronounced with a silenthin the United States. The same was true of the United Kingdom until the 19th century, when it adopted a spelling pronunciation, with an audibleh.[20]
  • Ralph,originally pronounced/reɪf/or/ˈrɑːf/in the United Kingdom, is now often pronounced/rælf/.[21]
  • German loanwords such asspielandsteinare sometimes pronounced as beginning with/s/,as if they were native English words, instead of/ʃ/.In German, initials,immediately beforeport,is pronounced as if it weresch/ʃ/.
  • nephewwas, until recent generations, predominantly pronounced/ˈnɛvjuː/in Britain, descended from Middle Englishnevewand originally loaned from Old Frenchneveu,a spelling which remains unchanged into modern French. But thevwas later changed tophwhere thephints at its Latin rootnepot,which can be found in more recent Latin loanwords likenepotism.Today, spelling pronunciation has shifted the word's pronunciation predominantly to/ˈnɛfjuː/.

Opinions

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Spelling pronunciations give rise to varied opinions. Often, those who retain the old pronunciation consider the spelling pronunciation to be a mark of ignorance or insecurity. Those who use a spelling pronunciation may not be aware that it is one and consider the earlier version to be slovenly since it slurs over a letter. Conversely, the users of some innovative pronunciations such as "Febuary" (forFebruary) may regard another, earlier version as a pedantic spelling pronunciation.

Henry Watson Fowler(1858–1933) reported that in his day, there was a conscious movement among schoolteachers and others encouraging people to abandon anomalous traditional pronunciations and to speak as is spelled. According to major scholars of early modern English (Dobson, Wyld et al.), in the 17th century, there was already beginning an intellectual trend in England to pronounce as is spelled. That presupposes a standard spelling system, which was only beginning to form at the time. Similarly, quite a large number of corrections slowly spread from scholars to the general public in France, starting several centuries ago.[22]

A different variety of spelling pronunciations are phonetic adaptations, pronunciations of the written form of foreign words within the frame of the phonemic system of the language that accepts them. An example of that process isgarage([ɡaʀaːʒ]in French), which is sometimes pronounced[ˈɡæɹɪd͡ʒ]in English.

Children and foreigners

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Children who read frequently often have spelling pronunciations because, if they do not consult a dictionary, they have only the spelling to indicate the pronunciation of words that are uncommon in the spoken language. Well-readsecond languagelearners may also have spelling pronunciations.

In some instances, a population in a formerly non-English-speaking area may retain such second language markers in the now native-English speaking population. For example, Scottish Standard English is replete with second language marks from whenScotsstarted to be subsumed by English in the 17th century.

However, since there are many words that one reads far more often than one hears, adult native-language speakers also succumb. In such circumstances, the spelling pronunciation may well become more comprehensible than the other. That, in turn, leads to the language evolution mentioned above. What is a spelling pronunciation in one generation can become the standard pronunciation in the next.

In other languages

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InFrench,the modern pronunciation of the 16th-century French authorMontaigneas[mɔ̃tɛɲ],rather than the contemporary[mɔ̃taɲ],is a spelling pronunciation.

When Englishclubwas first borrowed into French, the approved pronunciation was[klab],as being a reasonable approximation of the English. The standard then became[klyb]on the basis of the spelling, and later, in Europe,[klœb],deemed closer to the English original.[23]The standard pronunciation inQuebec Frenchremains[klʏb].Similarly,shampooing"shampoo; product for washing the hair" at the time of borrowing was[ʃɑ̃puiŋ]but it is now[ʃɑ̃pwɛ̃].

Old Italianhad a pair of post-alveolar affricates /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ (as in [ˈpaːt͡ʃe] and [priviˈlɛːd͡ʒo], writtenpaceandprivilegio), and one of post-alveolar fricatives /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ (as in [ˈbaːʃo] and [ˈprɛːʒo], writtenbascio/bacioandpresgio/pregio), which could only occur between vowels. During the 13th century, the afore mentioned affricates became allophonically fricatives if singleton and intervocalic (the modern Tuscan pronunciation ofpaceandprivilegiobeing [ˈpaːʃe] and [priviˈlɛːʒo]), essentially merging /t͡ʃ/ - /ʃ/ and /d͡ʒ/ - /ʒ/ into positional allophones and rendering obsolete and useless the -s- spellings. After the Italian Unification, the Tuscan pronunciation ofpaceandprivilegiowas deemed too vulgar and dialectal for the standard language, and the original pronunciation was indirectly restored; in the modern Standard Italian accent, they're always realized as [ˈpaːt͡ʃe] and [priviˈlɛːd͡ʒo]. Since the spelling did not distinguish between the original pairs of post-alveolar affricates and fricatives,bacioandpregiostarted being unetymologically pronounced [ˈbaːt͡ʃo] and [ˈprɛːd͡ʒo] as well.

InItalian,a few earlyEnglishloanwordsare pronounced according toItalian spellingrules such aswater( "toilet bowl," from Englishwater (closet)), pronounced[ˈvater],andtramway,pronounced[tranˈvai].The Italian wordovest( "west" ) comes from a spelling pronunciation ofFrenchouest(which, in turn, is a phonetic transcription of Englishwest); that particular instance of spelling pronunciation must have occurred before the 16th century, when the lettersuandvwere still indistinct.

A few foreign proper names are normally pronounced according to the pronunciation of the original language (or a close approximation of it), but they retain an older spelling pronunciation when they are used as parts of Italianstreet names.For example, the name ofEdward Jennerretains its usual English pronunciation in most contexts, butViale Edoardo Jenner(a main street inMilan) is pronounced[ˈvjaleedoˈardo'jɛnner].The use of such old-fashioned spelling pronunciations was probably encouraged by the custom of translatinggiven nameswhen streets were named after foreign people:EdoardoforEdward,orGiorgioforGeorgeforViaGiorgio Washington.

InSpanish,the ch in some German words is pronounced/tʃ/or/ʃ/,instead of/x/.Bachis pronounced[bax],andKuchenis[ˈkuxen],butRorschachis[ˈrorʃaʃ],rather than[ˈrorʃax],Machis[maʃ]or[mat͡ʃ],andKirchneris[ˈkirʃner]or[ˈkirt͡ʃner].Other spelling pronunciations areclubpronounced[klub],icebergpronounced[iθeˈβer]in Spain (inthe Americas,it is pronounced[ˈajsbɚɡ]),[24]andfolclorandfolcloreas translations offolklore,pronounced[folˈklor]and[folˈkloɾe].Also in Spanish, the acute accent in the French wordéliteis taken as a Spanish stress mark, and the word is pronounced[ˈelite].

When Slavic languages likePolishorCzechborrow words from English with their spelling preserved, the pronunciation tends to follow the rules of the receiving language. Words such asmarketingare pronounced as spelled, instead of the more phonetically faithful[ˈmarkɨtɨng].

In standardFinnish,the sound/d/developed as a spelling pronunciation for the letterd,though it originally represented a/ð/sound. Similarly,/ts/in words likemetsä(forest) is a pronunciation spelling oftzused in pre-1770s orthography, which originally represented a long/θ/sound. The dental fricatives had become rare by the 1700s, when the standard pronunciations started to develop into their current forms, which became official in the 1800s. The /d/ sound, however, is not present in most dialects and is generally replaced by a/r/,/l/or simply dropped (e.g.lähde"water spring" may be pronounced aslähre,lähleorlähe). Standardtsis often replaced withttorht(mettä,mehtä).[25][26]

InVietnamese,initial v is often pronounced like a y ([j]) in the central and southern varieties. However, in formal speech, speakers often revert to the spelling pronunciation, which is increasingly being used in casual speech as well.

Chinesehas a similar phenomenon calledyoubian dubianwhere unfamiliarcharactersmay be read with the pronunciation of similar characters that feature the samephonetic component.For instance, the characterĐinhis rarely used in Chinese but is often used inJapaneseplace names (where it is pronouncedchō). When read inMandarin Chinese,it came to be pronounceddīng(such as inXimending,a district inTaipeithat was named duringJapanese occupation) in analogy with the characterĐinh(also pronounceddīng), even though its expectedetymological reflexistǐng.

InWelshthe wordcadairis traditionally pronounced with either a/a/or/ɛ/,depending on dialect, in the final syllable – i.e.⟨ai⟩.The pronunciation/-air/is a spelling pronunciation, the spelling was settled on so as not to give preference to any particular dialect. A similar situation occurred with the wordeisiauwhich is usually pronounced/ɪʃɛ/or/ɪʃa/but many younger and second-language learners pronounce it as spelt:/ɛiʃaɨ/.

See also

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References

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Citations

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  1. ^aboftenin the American Heritage Dictionary
  2. ^victualsin the Merriam-Webster Dictionary
  3. ^victualinOxford Dictionaries
  4. ^islandin the American Heritage Dictionary
  5. ^"Definition for waistcoat - Oxford Dictionaries Online (World English)".Oxforddictionaries.Retrieved2012-05-27.[dead link‍]
  6. ^Even a language such as Finnish where almost all words are written as pronounced (in other words phonemically, often incorrectly called "phonetically" ) has exceptions, e.g.sydämen, ruoan, onko, konepaja, osta paljon, osta enemmän(phonemic spelling would be: sydämmen, ruuan, ongko, koneppaja, ostap paljon, osta 'enemmän), and many words borrowed from other languages.
  7. ^abMichael Stubbs, Language and Literacy: the Sociolinguistics of Reading and Writing. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,pp. 31-32.
  8. ^"Websters Dictionary 1828 - Webster's Dictionary 1828 - Kiln".
  9. ^Bowen, James A. (1915)."English Words as Spoken and Written, for Upper Grades: Designed to Teach the Powers of Letters and the Construction and Use of Syllables".
  10. ^Wells, J. C. (2008).Longman Pronunciation Dictionary,3rd edn, Harlow, UK: Longman, p. 560.
  11. ^Algeo, John (2010).The Origins and Development of the English Language,6th edn, Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 46.
  12. ^John Wells (2010-07-16)."OED note on history of" clothes "".Phonetic-blog.blogspot.Retrieved2012-05-27.
  13. ^Wells, J. C. (2008).Longman Pronunciation Dictionary,3rd ed., Harlow, UK: Longman, p. 297.
  14. ^Algeo, John (2010).The Origins and Development of the English Language,6th edn, Boston, MA: Wadsworth, p. 142.
  15. ^Claypole, Jonty (Director); Kunzru, Hari (Presenter) (2003).Mapping Everest(TV Documentary). London: BBC Television.
  16. ^Everest, Mount – Definitions from Dictionary(Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006)
  17. ^See "The Fight for English" by David Crystal (p. 172, Oxford University Press) and the entry for "antarctic" in theOnline Etymology Dictionary.
  18. ^"Oxford Languages | the Home of Language Data".Archived fromthe originalon September 25, 2016.
  19. ^"Oxford Languages | the Home of Language Data".[dead link‍]
  20. ^"Oxford Languages | the Home of Language Data".Archived fromthe originalon September 29, 2016.
  21. ^"Home > Ralph Wedgwood, USC Philosophy > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences".
  22. ^Peter Rickard,A History of the French Language(1989).
  23. ^"Trésor de la langue française".Cnrtl.fr.Retrieved2012-05-27.
  24. ^"DPD 1.Ş edición, 2.Ş tirada"(in Spanish). Buscon.rae.es.Retrieved2012-05-27.
  25. ^"Yleiskielen d:n murrevastineet".sokl.uef.fi(in Finnish). Archived fromthe originalon October 22, 2019.RetrievedOctober 5,2022.
  26. ^"Yleiskielen ts:n murrevastineet".sokl.uef.fi(in Finnish). Archived fromthe originalon October 21, 2019.RetrievedOctober 5,2022.

Sources

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