![]() ![]() In his dictionary, he chose s over c in words like defense, he changed the re to er in words like center, he dropped one of the Ls in traveler. In the course of this, he proposed a number of simplifications in spelling. Noah Webster (1758–1843) wrote a Grammar, a Spelling book, and finally an American dictionary of the English language. This all gives rise to problems of spelling.īritish and American English ĭifferences between American English and British English spelling came about mainly as the result of one man. And English also has other problems: sounds that can be written in different ways, and spelling which can be pronounced in different ways. Therefore, all alphabets have sounds which are difficult to represent with the letters in use. It must serve everyone who speaks the language, and it does this by keeping the spelling similar from one time to another. ![]() It has a different function, and is produced mechanically. A written language will always be less flexible than its spoken parent. This is very obvious with English, as the pronunciation is so different in different parts of the world. A spoken language varies from place to place and from time to time. The other reason that alphabets never exactly fit languages is dialect. The English language uses 22 to 26 consonant phonemes. The English alphabet has only three consonants which have one sound, cannot be produced by other combinations and are never silent: n, r and v. A shorter alphabet works by using two or three letters for a single sound, or one letter for several sounds. The Georgian language has a total of 41 letters. Įnglish would need about 20 vowels to represent the vowel phonemes (~sounds) in common use, p237 and some languages do have more letters for vowels. All the alphabets in use in Europe today stand in direct or indirect relation to the ancient Greek". "The importance of the Greeks in the history of alphabetic writing is paramount. This choice influenced all later alphabets: The ancient Greeks, who were the first to use letters for vowels, decided to use only a few letters for their vowel sounds. In English there are far more vowel sounds than vowels. One reason for this is that there are always more sounds than letters. The first manuscripts in Old English were written using the Latin alphabet. p970 English orthography Įnglish orthography, or English spelling, is the way the 26 letters of the alphabet are used to write down the 36 (IPA) sounds of English. The word which is "merry" today was spelled in about 30 ways in written sources from the 9th to the 16th century. Gradually the number of alternative spellings began to drop. They had to decide how particular words would be spelled in their books. English orthography was the work of the early printers. Some languages have someone to decide the correct spelling, such as the Académie française. In English, spelling is a problem for all learners, and is the main issue in orthography. Orthography may also include rules about punctuation, capitalization, and diacritics (e.g. Orthography is an official or correct way to write a particular language. ![]()
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