Dictionary of the British English Spelling System (Properly Bookmarked)

525 Pages·2017·3.366 MB·English

by  Brooks, Greg

DICTIONARY
OF THE BRITISH ENGLISH
SPELLING SYSTEM

Dictionary
of the British English
Spelling System
Greg Brooks
Emeritus Professor of Education,
University of Sheffield
http://www.openbookpublishers.com
© 2015 Greg Brooks
Version 1.1. Minor edits made July 2017
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Brooks, Greg, Dictionary of the British English Spelling System. Cambridge, UK: Open
Book Publishers, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0053
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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-107-6
ISBN Hardback: 978-1-78374-108-3
ISBN Digital (PDF): 978-1-78374-109-0
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 978-1-78374-110-6
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 978-1-78374-111-3
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0053
Cover image: Spiegel by Jaume Plensa (2010). http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
Category:Yorkshire_Sculpture_Park#mediaviewer/File:YSP_11.jpg
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for Open Book Publishers (Cambridge, UK).
To Maxine Burton,
for being such a patient and reliable native-speaker informant,
and for tolerating my obsession for so long.

Contents
List of tables xvii
About the author xxi
Acknowledgments xxiii
A 40-year gestation xxv
How to use this book xxix
1. Introduction 1
1.1 Context 1
1.2 Aims 2
1.3 Some terminology 3
1.4 Phonemes 4
1.5 Long and short vowels 5
1.6 Graphemes 5
1.7 Consonant clusters and ‘blends’ 6
1.8 Split digraphs and ‘magic <e>’ 6
1.9 Stem words and derived forms 7
1.10 Positions within words 7
1.11 Open and closed syllables 9
1.12 ‘2-phoneme graphemes’ 9
1.13 ‘Regular’ correspondences 10
2. The phonemes of spoken English 13
2.1 Choosing an accent to analyse 13
2.2 How many phonemes? 14
2.3 The consonant phonemes of Received Pronunciation 15
2.4 The vowel phonemes of Received Pronunciation 16
2.5 Polysyllabic words and word stress 18
viii Dictionary of the British English Spelling System
3. The phoneme-grapheme correspondences of English, 1: 19
Consonants
3.1 The general picture: the regular spellings of English 19
consonant phonemes
3.2 Order of description 21
3.3 Frequencies 22
3.4 The main system and the rest 23
3.5 Consonants with doubled spellings which are rare in one- 24
syllable words: /b d g m n p t/, plus /r/
3.5.1 /b/ as in by 24
3.5.2 /d/ as in dye 25
3.5.3 /g/ as in goo 27
3.5.4 /m/ as in my 29
3.5.5 /n/ as in nigh 32
3.5.6 /p/ as in pie 34
3.5.7 /t/ as in tie 35
3.5.8 /r/ as in rye 39
3.6 /r/-linking 41
3.7 Consonants with doubled spellings which are regular at 47
the end of one-syllable words after a short vowel spelt
with one letter: /k ʧ f ʤ l s v z/
3.7.1 /k/ as in coo 47
3.7.2 /ʧ/ as in chew 55
3.7.3 /f/ as in few 59
3.7.4 /ʤ/ as in jaw 62
3.7.5 /l/ as in law 66
3.7.6 /s/ as in sue 69
3.7.7 /v/ as in view 78
3.7.8 /z/ as in zoo 81
3.8 Consonants without doubled spellings: /h ŋ ∫ ʒ θ ð w j/ 86
3.8.1 /h/ as in who 86
3.8.2 /ŋ/ as in ring 87
3.8.3 /∫/ as in fission 89
3.8.4 /ʒ/ as in vision 94