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Information about Spelling Pronunciation

Not to be confused with pronunciation spelling.
A 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

  • often, pronounced with /t/, though the pronunciation without it is more prevalent. Older dictionaries don't even list the pronunciation with /t/, though the 2nd edition of the OED does (and the first ed. notes the pronunciation, with the comment that it is prevalent in the south of England and "often used in singing" (!); see the Dictionary of American Regional English for contemporaneous citations discussing the status of the competing pronunciations)
  • clothes was historically pronounced the same way as the verb close ("Whenas in silks my Julia goes/.../The liquefaction of her clothes" --Herrick), but many speakers now insert a /ğ/
  • salmon, occasionally pronounced with /l/
  • falcon /fælkən/ is now standard; the old pronunciation was 'fawkin' cf. the family name Faulkner and a long history of variant spellings without -l-
  • comptroller, often pronounced with /mp/; accepted pronunciation is "controller" (and in fact the -mp- spelling is bogus, based on the mistaken idea that the word has something to do with comp(u)tare "count, compute"; in fact it comes from contre-roll "file copy", the verb and its agent noun meaning "compare originals and file copies")
  • ye the article, pronounced as if spelled with a Y instead of the printers' mark for the letter thorn
  • taking the "insular flat-topped g" of northern scripts as a -z- in names like Mackenzie, Menzies, Dalziel (in the last with the value of /y/ originally)
  • tortilla and other words from Spanish with the double-L pronounced as /l/ instead of /j/ (the latter being the closest approximation to the sound in Spanish); similarly maraschino (cherry) with /ʃ/ instead of/sk/
  • victuals "vittles" whose -c- (for a consonant lost long before the word was borrowed from French) was reintroduced on etymological grounds, and sometimes pronounced with /kt/
  • The pronunciation of waistcoat as spelled is now more common than the previous pronunciation "weskit"
  • conduit, historically pronounced /ˈkɒndɪt/ or /ˈkʌndɪt/, is now nearly always /ˈkɒndjuːɪt/ (or /ˈkɑndwɪt/ in the United States)
  • 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; three syllables is standard in the USA)
  • figure originally rhymed with bigger (and still does in the Received Pronunciation); in America the approved pronunciation follows the etymological spelling (copied from Latin figūra)
  • trait (traict), has a complicated history: a 15th cent. borrowing from French, it came to be normally pronounced /treɪ/ in 19th century Britain, by imitation of the current French pronunciation;
pronunciation spelling of a word is a spelling intentionally different from the standard spelling, used to emphasize a particular pronunciation of the word. The spelling uses the regular spelling rules of the language. Most are nonce coinages, but some have become standardised, e.g.
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Pronunciation refers to:
  • the way a word or a language is usually spoken;
  • the manner in which someone utters a word.

Introduction

A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as:

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The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a dictionary published by the Oxford University Press (OUP), and is the most comprehensive dictionary of the English language.
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The Dictionary of American Regional English is a dictionary that documents the different dialects of American English. It is published by Harvard University Press. Its offices are located in Helen C.
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Robert Herrick (baptized August 24 1591- October 1674) was a 17th century English poet. Born in Cheapside, London, he was the seventh child and fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a prosperous goldsmith, who committed suicide when Robert was a year old.
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Thorn, or şorn (Ş, ş), is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets. It was also used in medieval Scandinavia, but was later replaced with th. The letter originated from the rune ᚦ in the Elder Fuşark, called
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 Spanish, Castilian}}} 
Writing system: Latin (Spanish variant)
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: —
ISO 639-3: —

Spanish (
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'For the double-consonant letter, see ll.


LL is an acronym which may stand for:
  • LL is the IATA code for Miami Air International
  • LL is the production code for the Doctor Who serial The Evil of the Daleks.

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Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language which has been long perceived as uniquely prestigious amongst British accents.

The earlier mentions of the term can be found in H. C.
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