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The range of English spelling

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ChristopherUpward & GeorgeDavidson, The History of English Spelling. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011. Pp. xiii + 376. Hardback £55, ISBN 1405190248.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2013

J. B. Shipley
J. B. Shipley*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
*
burke.and.nicole@chezshipley.net
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Extract

There is nothing innately funny or humorous about English spelling, though its vagaries have lent themselves to efforts in that way:

Hints on Pronunciation for Foreigners

I take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough?

Others may stumble but not you

On hiccough, thorough, laugh and through.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard, and sounds like bird…

[from a letter by J. Bland published in the London Sunday Times, Jan. 3, 1965; cited by Chomsky (1970) and by Adams (1990)]

Type
Review Article
Information
English Today , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , June 2013 , pp. 60 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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References

Adams, M. J. 1990. Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bland, J. 1965. ‘Heard – a rhyming word.’ Letter to The Sunday Times, 3 January 1965.Google Scholar
Chomsky, C. 1970. ‘Reading, writing, and phonology.’ Harvard Educational Review, 40(2), 287–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Franklin, B. 1768. ‘A scheme for a new alphabet and a reformed mode of spelling, with remarks and examples concerning the same and an enquiry into its uses.’ In Franklin, B (ed. Vaughan, B) Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces. London: Printed for J. Johnson., pp. 467–78Google Scholar
Franklin, B. & Vaughan, B. (ed. Vaughan, B.) 1779. Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces […] now First Collected with Explanatory Plates, Notes and an Index to the Whole. London: Printed for J. Johnson.Google Scholar
Johnson, S. 1755. A Dictionary of the English Language. London: Printed by W. Strahan, for J. and P. Knapton.Google Scholar
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Webster, N. 1828. An American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: Hezekiah Howe.Google Scholar