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Spelling pronunciation is different from pronunciation spellingA spelling pronunciation is a pronunciation that, instead of reflecting the way the word was pronounced by previous generations of speakers, is a rendering in sound of the word's spelling. Spelling pronunciations compete, often effectively, with the older traditional pronunciation. Examples of English words with common spelling pronunciations Spelling pronunciations and history Spelling pronunciations often restore ancient pronunciation patterns. For example, centuries ago, the word often did have a t, heard elsewhere in oft. The t dropped by a regular process before the ending -en, as elsewhere in soften, moisten, fasten. After the t fell, often continued to be spelled with t. The current tendency to pronounce the t thus restores an ancient rendition. The word palm (in the sense, 'palm of the hand') was originally Latin, and had an l in that language. The word was inherited into French, where it lost the l: paume. From the French it was borrowed into Middle English, still without l: paume. Scholars, aware of its Latin origin, then introduced a (then-silent) 'l' into the spelling. The rendering of this l in pronunciation is apparently a fairly recent phenomenon. Spelling pronunciation vs. analogical pronunciation In some cases, we cannot tell if a pronunciation is a true spelling pronunciation. The alternative is that a word is being pronounced analogically, in essence as the "sum of its parts". Thus, forehead is commonly pronounced as a sequence of fore plus head, instead of the historically earlier "forrid"; and waistcoat is commonly pronounced as a sequence of waist and coat, instead of the historically earlier "weskit". Analogical pronunciations can arise even when not supported by spelling. For example, inmost comes from Old English innemest, which contained the ordinary superlative suffix -est. The later switch to in + most was an analogical pronunciation. Many cases are ambiguous between spelling pronunciation and analogical pronunciation, and indeed may perhaps arise as a result of both factors operating simultaneously. The only unambiguous cases of spelling pronunciation are those in which the irregular spelling was introduced by idiosyncratic scribal practice, as in the "palm" example above. Opinions about spelling pronunciation 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 historically authentic version to be slovenly, since it "slurs over" a letter. Fowler reports that in his day there was a conscious movement among schoolteachers and others encouraging people to abandon anomalous traditional pronunciations and "speak as you spell". Spelling pronunciations in children and foreigners Children who read a great deal often produce spelling pronunciations, since they have no way of knowing, other than the spelling, how the rare words they encounter are correctly pronounced. Thoughtful parents usually try to correct such children's errors gently. But as this can never extend to every instance, and there are many words which one reads far more often than one hears, what is a spelling pronunciation in one generation often becomes standard in the next. Well-read second language learners are likewise vulnerable to producing spelling pronunciations. In other languages In French, the first vowel in oignon (onion) is, anomalously, , where general principles would lead one to expect . The reason is that the spelling of this word is a hangover from the 17th century, when "i" was invariably inserted before "gn": montagne was spelled "montaigne", but pronounced in the same way as today. However, there are provincial school-teachers who insist on pronouncing oignon with a . In Hebrew there is a vowel called patach ganuv, consisting of an "a" sign placed underneath a final guttural but pronounced before it: an example is ruach, which looks as if it ought to be In Spanish, the French spelling of "élite" drives speakers to stress the initial "e" although in the original the "i" is stressed (accent marks in French, unlike those in Spanish, don't denote stress). Books See also | |||||||
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