1All the introductory remarks in sections 9.1-3 also apply here, with one addition. Like Carney, Gontijo et al. (2003) analysed a variety of RP in which /ɪ/ does occur word-finally and is mainly spelt <y>, sometimes <i, ie>. As explained in sections 5.2, 5.4.3, 5.6.4 and 5.7.2, I disagree with this analysis, and instead, like Cruttenden (2014), posit that /ɪ/ does not occur word-finally. This meant that, in the phoneme-grapheme direction, I took issue with Carney’s percentages for correspondences for/ɪ, ɪə/, and for /iː/ dispensed with them completely. The mirror-image situation is that for <ie> (section 10.23) I was able to re-calculate Gontijo et al.’s percentages, but could not do so for <i, y> (sections 10.22, 10.40), which therefore have no percentages. Show
2This chapter contains 38 main entries, one for each of the 38 mainsystem graphemes beginning with a vowel letter. For those graphemes, the general picture can be summed up by saying that:
3And the lists just given still somewhat understate the case, since there are large numbers of Oddities – see Table 10.1. 4Table 10.1 is almost but not quite the mirror-image of Table 8.2 because:
5For completeness, it should also be noted that many minor vowel graphemes have highly predictable pronunciations, e.g. <augh>. In fact, of the 105 graphemes beginning with vowel letters that are outside the main system, only 28 <ae ah al ao ais aye eau ei eigh eir eo eu eur ey ia is oa oar oe oir ois oor ough our ua ui ure yr> have more than one pronunciation. As with the minor consonant graphemes, in any attempt (not made here) to estimate the overall regularity of the system this would need to be taken into account; and again, many minor graphemes are so rare that they would not affect the regularity calculation unless they occur in high-frequency words. TABLE 10.1: MAIN-SYSTEM GRAPHEMES BEGINNING WITH VOWEL LETTERS, BY MAIN-SYSTEM AND MINOR CORRESPONDENCES AND NUMBERS OF ODDITIES.
* including 2- and 3-phoneme pronunciations which are not part of the main system. 10.2 Order of description6In this chapter I deal in conventional alphabetical order with 33 of the 38 main-system graphemes of English which begin with vowel letters. The other main entries cover five of the six split digraphs. Three of these come immediately after the grapheme consisting of the same two letters not split, namely <e. e, i. e, u. e> after <ee, ie, ue> respectively. However, because <ae, oe> do not, in my analysis, belong to the main system and are dealt with under <a, o>, the sections dealing with <a. e, o. e> follow the sections dealing with <a, o>. The only split digraph which does not have a main entry is <y. e>, which is not part of the main system; it is dealt with under <y>, immediately after <ye>. 7In most of the 38 main entries in this chapter I list the items in this order:
8Most entries end with Notes; none have Tables, but <i> (section 10.22) has a flowchart. 9The only exceptions to this ordering are the four graphemes which have only one pronunciation each: <air, eer, igh, ore>. Under each of these there is usually just one heading, ‘Only phoneme’, and it is automatically part of the main system without having to be so labelled; however, the entries for <igh, ore> have Notes. 10.3 <a>10N. B. <a. e, ai, air, ar, are, au, aw, ay> have separate entries. 11THE MAIN SYSTEM 12For all these categories see Notes.
13THE REST
14NOTES 15For instances of <a> as an elided vowel see section 6.10. 16<a> is the least predictable of the single-letter vowel graphemes. Its default pronunciation as a single-letter grapheme is /æ/, which occurs in many uncategorisable circumstances, but here are a few categories for guidance:
17The task then is to define the circumstances in which <a> has other pronunciations. These can be summarised as follows. 18For <a> pronounced /ɑː/in RP (where it is much more frequent than in most other accents of English) Carney (1994: 291-4) gives a set of five rules, all of which have special conditions and exceptions. Instead, here is a set of categories with lists of examples (but with exceptions only for one category; for others they would be too numerous to list):
19(For <a. e> pronounced /ɑː/see the next section). 20<a> is pronounced /ɒ/ mainly after <qu, w> and only in the following groups of words:
21For a teaching rule based on the words with <qu, w, wh> followed by <a> see section 11.5. 22<a> is pronounced /ɔː/:
23See also <al> pronounced /ɔː/in the Oddities above, and <aul> under <au>, section 10.9. 24<a> (as distinct from <a. e> – see next section) is pronounced /eɪ/ in just one word where it is the only vowel letter, namely bass /beɪs/ ‘(player of) large stringed instrument’/‘(singer with) low-pitched voice’), and in four categories of longer words where a rule can be stated, plus a ragbag category where any rules would be too complex to be worth stating. <a> is pronounced /eɪ/ in: 251) large numbers of words where <-e> has been deleted before a suffix beginning with a vowel letter, e.g. creation, navigating – see sections 6.3 and especially 6.4. Exception: orator /ˈɒrətə/, where stress has shifted from orate/ɔːˈreɪt/ 262) large numbers of words where <a> is followed by a single consonant letter other than <r> and then by:
27Exceptions: battalion, caviar, chariot, companion, manioc, patio, ration, valiant, plus national, which is a derivative of a word which obeys the rule, and (ir) rational, which are derivatives of a word which does not; all these words have /æ/. 28In all these words (including the exceptions) the stress falls on the relevant <a> 293) a small group of words (and derivatives) where <a> is followed by a consonant letter and then <le, re>, e.g. (dis/en-) able, cable, fable, gable, sable, (un) stable, table; cradle, ladle; maple, staple; sabre; acre, nacre (but not cadre, padre, which have/ɑː/). Again, in all these words (including the exceptions) the stress falls on the <a> 304) almost all words in the ending <-ator>. Only exceptions: conservator, conspirator, orator, predator, senator, which all have <a> pronounced /ə/ and stress on the vowel before that. All other words ending in <-ator> have the stress on the <a> if they have only one earlier vowel letter, e.g. creátor, curátor, dictátor, spectátor, otherwise on the vowel two before the <a>, e.g. admínistrator, ágitator, áviator, cálculator, cómmentator, ínsulator 315) in the following uncategorisable words: aorta, apron, bacon, basal, bathos, blatant, blazon, cadence, canine, capon, chao-s/tic, fatal, favour, flavour, fragran-ce/t, kaolin, labour, lady, latent, mason, matron, nadir, nasal, natron, naval, pagan, papal, pastry, patent (‘obvious’; the word of the same spelling meaning ‘registered design’ can be pronounced with /eɪ/ or /æ/), pathos, patron, planar, saline, savour, scalar, status, tapir, vacant, vagrant, vapour, wastrel; (first <a>) papacy, vacancy, vagary, vagrancy, wastrel; also creative, dative, native – in all other adjectives ending <-ative> the <a> is unstressed and pronounced /ə/. The <a> is stressed in all these words except aórta, chaótic. 32<a> is pronounced /ə/ only when unstressed. Even though this is the predominant pronunciation in unstressed syllables (which in any case cannot be deduced from the written forms of words – see section A. 10 in Appendix A), virtually the only rule that can be given for where /ə/ occurs is that given in the second paragraph of these examples:
10.4 <a.e>33Occurs only where the <e> is word-final. 34See Notes for all categories and for how this split digraph is defined, and see section 11.4 for a teaching rule relevant to all split digraphs except <y. e>. 35THE MAIN SYSTEM
36THE REST
37NOTES 38The split digraph <a. e> is defined as covering words where word-final <e> is separated from the <a> by one consonant letter other than <r, w, x, y> and the <a> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced either /eɪ/ or/ɑː/. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a consonant digraph <ce, ge, ve> - see sections 3.7.4, 3.7.6-7 and 3.8.4, and section 7.1 for dual-functioning. 39The familiar /eɪ/ pronunciation occurs in many hundreds of words and does not need further illustration. The /ɑː/ pronunciation occurs only in about 40 (mostly French) loanwords; those which fit the main definition just given (for extensions see below) are aubade, ballade, charade, chorale, façade, grave (/grɑːv/, ‘French accent’), locale, morale, pavane, promenade (noun, ‘seafront path’; the verb with the same spelling, ‘walk at leisure’, is pronounced with /eɪ/), rationale, rodomontade, roulade, soutane, strafe, suave (where the <u> is a consonant letter), timbale, vase, plus a set of words ending in <-age> pronounced /ɑːʒ/, namely badinage, barrage, camouflage, collage, corsage, decalage, décolletage, dressage, entourage, espionage, fuselage, garage pronounced /ˈgærɑːʒ/, massage, menage, mirage, montage, triage, sabotage. 40The definition needs the following extensions:
41For an attempt to justify this definition despite its circularity and fuzzy edges see Appendix A, section A. 6. 42In all cases where the <e> is not the last letter in the stem word, <a, e> with an intervening letter(s) are separate graphemes. This is also true of all words with <a> and word-final <e> separated by more than one consonant letter or by a consonant digraph, except the 29 words listed above. 43Where <a> and word-final <e> are separated by just one consonant letter and the <a> is preceded by a consonant letter, the position is more complicated. Many such words look as if the <a, e> should constitute a split digraph – but they do not, according to my definition, because the vowel phoneme preceding the stem/final consonant phoneme is neither /eɪ/ nor/ɑː/. However, guidance is still needed on when words of this sort do not have either of the split digraph pronunciations, especially since there are pairs of words with identical spelling of which one does have <a.e> pronounced /eɪ/ and the other does not. 44There are two groups of words in which unstressed <a> before stemfinal <te> is not part of a digraph <a.e> pronounced /eɪ/ and is instead pronounced /ə/:
45There is no rule by which the words with <-ate> pronounced /ət/ can be distinguished from those with <-ate> pronounced /eɪt/ - they just have to be learnt. Where <-ate> is pronounced /ət/ the <e> is phonographically redundant. 46There are hundreds of English words ending <-age>. In words where <a> is the only vowel letter) and their derivatives, e.g. enrage, interstage, plus assuage, engage, rampage, <a. e> is a digraph with the regular pronunciation /eɪ/. But in longer stem words (except the three just listed) <-age> is pronounced either/ɑːʒ /or/ ɪʤ/:
47An oddity here is the word garage with its two pronunciations (in RP), the more French-like /ˈgærɑːʒ/ and anglicised /ˈgærɪʤ/ (see section A. 6 in Appendix A). 48Then there are just 14 words with <a> preceded by a consonant letter and separated from word-final <e> by one consonant letter in which the <e> is a separate grapheme pronounced /iː /or/ eɪ/or sometimes either, namely six French loanwords increasingly spelt in English text with French <é>: blase, cafe, canape, glace, macrame, pate (‘paste’), plus agape (/ʴægǝpeɪ/, ‘love feast’(from Greek), as opposed to /ǝʴgeɪp/, ‘open-mouthed’), biennale, curare, finale, kamikaze, karate, sesame, tamale. 49The only other exceptions to the rule that <-a. e> (with one intervening consonant letter) is a digraph are: ate, which is often pronounced /et/ rather than /eɪt/, have whether pronounced /hæv/ (stressed) or /əv/ (unstressed), and furnace, menace, necklace, palace, pinnace, preface, solace, surface, terrace, carafe, gunwale, carcase, purchase, octave with <-ace,-afe,-ale,-ase,-ave> pronounced variously/ɪs, æf, əl, əs, ɪv/. 10.5 <ai>50N. B. <air> has a separate entry. For the dual percentages see Notes. 51THE MAIN SYSTEM
52THE REST
53NOTES 54Where two percentages are shown above, the first is that given by Gontijo et al. Among these, the percentage for <ai> pronounced /e/ has been completely distorted by the high frequency of again, said. I have therefore not promoted this correspondence to the main system, but I have re-calculated all the percentages for this grapheme omitting those two words. Where they differ from the originals, the revised percentages are shown second. 55<a, i> are separate graphemes (with automatic intervening /j/-glide) in algebraic, apotropaic, archaic, dais, formulaic, laity, mosaic, prosaic, etc. 10.6 <air>56THE MAIN SYSTEM
57THE REST
10.7 <ar>58N. B. <are> has a separate entry. 59THE MAIN SYSTEM
60THE REST
61NOTE 62<ar> is always a digraph in the following circumstances (some of which overlap):
63A few words have alternative pronunciations where one requires analysing <ar> as a digraph but the other does not, e.g. secretariat, where the first <a> and second <r> can be pronounced either /eər/ (with <ar> as a digraph and the <r> also a grapheme in its own right pronounced /r/) or /er/ (with the two letters functioning separately). 10.8 <are>64THE MAIN SYSTEM
65THE REST
66NOTE 67The only case where final <a, r, e> belong to separate graphemes is in Hare Krishna. 10.9 <au>68See Notes for dual percentages. 69THE MAIN SYSTEM
70THE REST
71NOTES 72If we follow Crystal (2012: 131-2), ‘more recent’ in terms of loanwords from French means after the Great Vowel Shift, which was complete by about AD 1600. 73Where two percentages are shown above, the first is that given by Gontijo et al. (2003). Among these, the high percentage for /ɒ/ is almost entirely due to because. In this case, specifically because they show the number of occurrences of because in their database, Gontijo et al. provide enough information to re-calculate all the percentages for this grapheme omitting because. Where they differ from the originals, the revised percentages are shown second. 74There appear to be no cases where <a, u> are separate graphemes. 75For <au> as an elided vowel spelling in restaurant see section 6.10. 10.10 <aw>76THE MAIN SYSTEM
77THE REST
78NOTE 79Where the next letter is a vowel (other than in a suffix) or a consonant digraph, <a, w> belong to separate graphemes, e.g. in awake, award, aware, awry, awhile, caraway, megawatt. 10.11 <ay>80THE MAIN SYSTEM
81THE REST
10.12 <e>82N. B. <ea, ear, ed, ee, e. e, eer, er, ere, ew> have separate entries. 83THE MAIN SYSTEM 84For all these categories see Notes.
85THE REST
86NOTES 87If we follow Crystal (2012: 131-2), ‘more recent’ in terms of loanwords from French means after the Great Vowel Shift, which was complete by about AD 1600. 88Except in the cases noted in the Oddities, in <eo, et, ez> the <e> is a separate grapheme – cf. especially someone. 89<e, i> are separate graphemes pronounced /iː, ɪ/ (with an intervening /j/-glide) in albeit, atheis-m/t(ic), dei-fy /sm/ st, hetero/homo-geneity, nucleic, pantheism, reify, reinforce, reinstate. 90<e, u> are separate graphemes pronounced /iː, ə/ (again with an intervening /j/-glide) in coleus, linoleum, mausoleum, museum, nucleus, petroleum. 91For many examples of medial <e, o> as separate graphemes see below. 92Percentages for <eo, eu, eur, ey> are not worth giving because so few words are involved. 93For instances of <e> as an elided vowel see section 6.10. 94The default pronunciation of <e> as a single-letter grapheme is /e/, but here are some categories for guidance:
95The task then is to define the circumstances in which <e> has other pronunciations. These can be summarised as follows. 96Word-final <e> is mainly ‘silent’, i. e. part of a digraph (split or not), trigraph or four-letter grapheme. It is ‘pronounced’:
97Non-final <e> is pronounced /iː/ in: 981) hundreds of words where the final <e> of <e. e> has been deleted before a suffix beginning with a vowel letter, e.g. competing, schematic – see sections 6.3 and especially 6.4 992) a number of words where <e> is followed by a single consonant letter other than <r> and then by
100In all these words (and the first two exceptions listed next) the <e> in question is stressed. Exceptions: discretion, special with /e/, dandelion, denial with /ɪ/, elegiac with second <e> pronounced /ə/. 1013) a very few words when unstressed before word-final <o(n/r)>: galleon, Odeon, video, second <e> in chameleon, melodeon, meteor (all with automatic intervening /j/-glide) 1024) the ending <-eous> pronounced /iːjəs/, e.g. aqueous, beauteous, courteous, (sub) cutaneous, erroneous, gaseous pronounced /ˈgæsiːjəs/, hideous, instantaneous, nauseous pronounced /ˈnɔːziːjəs/, simultaneous and about 70 other words. But N. B. there are many words ending in <-eous> where the <e> is part of a digraph with the preceding letter, e.g. advantageous, gaseous pronounced /ˈgeɪ∫əs/, gorgeous, nauseous pronounced /ˈnɔːʒəs/, righteous, siliceous and a set of words in <-aceous> pronounced /ˈeɪʃəs/, e.g. cretaceous, curvaceous, herbaceous, sebaceous and about 100 others, mostly scientific and all very rare 1035) a number of words when stressed before a single consonant letter and word-final <a, o>, e.g. beta, edema, ego pronounced /ˈiːgəʊ/(also pronounced /ˈegəʊ/), emphysema, eta, hyena, magneto, schema, theta, torpedo, tuxedo, verbena, veto, etc. 1046) plurals of a few nouns with singular ending <-is> pronounced /ɪs/ and plural ending <-es> pronounced /iːz/, e.g. (Greek) analyses (/əˈnælɪsiːz/, the singular verb of the same spelling being pronounced /ˈænəlaɪzɪz/), apotheoses, axes, bases (/ˈæksiːz, ˈbeɪsiːz/, plurals of axis, basis; axes, bases as the plurals of axe, base are pronounced (regularly)/ˈæksɪz, ˈbeɪsɪz/), crises, diagnoses, emphases, exegeses, nemeses, oases, periphrases, synopses, (anti /hypo/ meta/syn-) theses, (Latin) amanuenses, testes, plus (Greek singulars) diabetes, herpes, litotes, pyrites, (a stray Greek plural with singular in <-s>) Cyclopes, and (other Latin plurals) appendices, cicatrices, faeces, interstices, mores, Pisces 1057) the stressed prefixes <de-, e-, pre-, re-> pronounced /diː-, iː-, priː-, riː-/in, e.g., dethrone, egress, preschool, rephrase 1068) alveolar, apotheosis, camellia, cathedral, cedar, choreograph, demon, ethos, femur, genus, harem, legal, lemur, leotard, lethal, mimeograph, negus, neon, osteopath, pecan, penal, penis, peony, pleonasm, rebus, regal, renal, retch (pronounced /riːʧ/(also pronounced /reʧ/), secant, theory, thesis (but not its compounds), venal, venial, etc., (first <e> in) abbreviate, appreciable, cotoneaster /kəˈtəʊniːjæstə/, creosote, decent, diabetes, egret, ether, febrile, feline, geodetic, heliotrope, immediate, inebriated, leonine, mediocre, meter, metre, recent, regent, etc. 107Carney would place all the words in categories 3 and 4, and those in category 8 where <e> is followed by a vowel grapheme pronounced /ə/, under /ɪə/. 108The only words in which <e> is pronounced /ɪ/ in stressed syllables are England, English, pretty and Cecily pronounced /ˈsɪsɪliː/ and therefore as a homophone of Sicily (Cecily is also pronounced /ˈsesɪliː/). Categories where /ɪ/ is the regular pronunciation of unstressed <e> are:
109There is also a ragbag of other words with non-final <e> pronounced /ɪ/, e.g. allegation, employ, forest, hallelujah, integral (when pronounced /ˈɪntɪgrəl/; also pronounced /ɪnˈtegrəl/), kitchen, mannequin, regalia, subject (noun/ˈsʌbʤɪkt/, with stress on <u>; the verb is pronounced /səbˈʤekt/), vinegar, women; first <e> in anecdote, antelope, barometer and all the instruments ending in <-ometer> (but not kilometer or other compounds of meter), celebrity, consecrate, diocese, eccentric, ellipse, elope, enamel, integrate, negate, neglect, sequential; second <e> in elegant, elephant, peregrine, and many others. 110Examples of non-final <e> pronounced /ə/ include every unstressed final <-en> (e.g. alien) except in women (/ˈwɪmɪn/), plus artery, bolero (/ʽbɒlərəʊ/, ‘garment’), soviet, first <e> in coterie; second <e> in elevate, the first <e> in the ending <-ence> in, e.g., audience, conscience, convenience, ebullience, experience, omniscience, obedience, prurience, resilience, salience, science; the <e> in the endings <-ency,-ent> in, e.g., expediency, leniency; absent, (in) clement, convenient, ebullient, expedient, incipient, lenient, orient (noun), omniscient, obedient, prescient, present (noun/adjective), prurient, resident, resilient, salient, sentient, subservient, transient; also, in nouns ending <-ment>, e.g. complement, compliment, document, element (note the second <e> too), experiment, ferment, fragment, implement, increment, instrument – on this last group see also section 6.8. 10.13 <ea>111N. B. <ear> has a separate entry. 112THE MAIN SYSTEM
113THE REST
114NOTES 115The roughly 20 words listed above with <ead> pronounced /ed/ contrast with about 6 pronounced /iːd/: bead, knead, lead (verb), mead, plead, read (present tense). The <-ead> pronounced /ed/ group is one of only five cases where the pronunciation of a phonogram/rime is more predictable as a unit than from the correspondences of the separate graphemes, and there are enough instances to make the rule worth teaching; see section A. 7 in Appendix A. 116<e, a> are separate graphemes pronounced /iː, ɪ/ only in lineage; /iː, ə/ in area, azalea, cereal, cornea, creativity, European, fealty, idea, Jacobean, (bacca) laureate, miscreant, nausea, panacea, theatre, urea; /iː, æ/ in beatitude, caveat, cotoneaster, deactivate, genealogy, meander, oleander, preamble, react, realign; /iː, eɪ/ in create, creation, delineate, nauseate, reagent. In all these cases there is an automatic intervening /j/-glide. 117<e, a> are/belong to separate graphemes also in a set of words in which <e> has not been deleted before suffixes beginning with a vowel letter, in order to mark <c, g> as pronounced /s, ʤ/ and not /k, g/, e.g. noticeable, changeable – for more detail see section 6.4. 10.14 <ear>118THE MAIN SYSTEM
119THE REST
120NOTES 121All the words with final <ear> allow /r/-linking – see section 3.6. 122Despite the percentage for <ear> pronounced /ɜː/I have not promoted this correspondence to the main system because it occurs in so few words (though some have very high frequency). 123<e, ar> are separate graphemes pronounced /iː, ə/ in cochlear, linear, nuclear;/iː, ɑː/in rearm; (with <a, r> as separate graphemes) /iː, ə, r/ in rearrange. In all these cases there is an automatic intervening /j/-glide. 10.15 <ed>124THE MAIN SYSTEM
125THE REST 126(None). 127NOTES 128Where the stem of a regular verb ends in <(d)d, (t)t> pronounced /d, t/ the <-ed> ending is pronounced /ɪd/, e.g. added, decided, matted, ousted. This also applies in:
129Given the phonological contexts, <ed> is 100% predictable. 130Outside the verb endings listed, <e, d> are always separate graphemes, e.g. in bed, biped, bred, led, quadruped, shed. 10.16 <ee>131N. B. <e. e, eer> have separate entries. 132THE MAIN SYSTEM
133THE REST
134NOTE 135<e, e> are separate graphemes only in a few unusual suffixed forms, e.g. freer, freest, weer, weest (comparative and superlative forms of the adjectives free, wee), freest, freeth, seest, seeth (/ˈfriːjɪst, ˈfriːjɪθ, ˈsiːjɪst, ˈsiːjɪθ/, archaic second and third person singular present tense forms of the verbs free, see), sightseer /ˈsaɪtsiːjə/ (for more detail see section 6.4). There might then be a barely perceptible difference in pronunciation between two words spelt seer: disyllabic/ˈsiːjə/ ‘person who sees’vs monosyllabic /sɪə/ ‘person with second sight’. 10.17 <e. e>136Occurs only where the <e> is word-final. 137See Note for all categories and for how this split digraph is defined, and see section 11.4 for a teaching rule relevant to all split digraphs except <y. e>. 138THE MAIN SYSTEM
139THE REST
140NOTE 141The split digraph <e.e> is defined as covering words where the word-final <e> is separated from the leading <e> by one consonant letter other than <r, w, x, y> and the leading <e> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced either/iː /or/ eɪ/. Unlike <a. e>, no extensions are needed. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a digraph <ce, ge, ve> - see sections 3.7.4, 3.7.6-7 and 3.8.4, and section 7.1 for dual-functioning. Exceptions where the leading <e> is a separate grapheme and the word-final <e> only forms a digraph with the intervening consonant letter: allege, annexe, clientele, cortege with the penultimate <e> pronounced /e/ (cf. also creche), college, privilege, sacrilege, sortilege with the penultimate <e> pronounced /ɪ/. There are very few English words ending <-ege>, and the five just mentioned are most of them, apart from a few very obscure and obsolete terms, and protegé, which is increasingly spelt like that, with a French acute accent and the final <e> always pronounced separately:/ˈprɒtəʒeɪ/. The only other words in which <e, e> separated by a single consonant letter are separate graphemes appear to be hebe, machete, naivete, stele, ukulele. See also section A. 6 in Appendix A. 10.18 <eer>142THE MAIN SYSTEM
143NOTE 144The only words in which <e, er> are separate graphemes appear to be freer, weer (comparatives of free, wee). 10.19 <er>145N. B. <ere> has a separate entry. 146THE MAIN SYSTEM
147THE REST
148NOTES 149Words ending <er> and the prefixes hyper-, inter-, per-, super-permit /r/-linking (see section 3.6) before following words/stems beginning with a vowel phoneme, e.g. dearer and dearer /ˈdɪərərənˈdɪərə/, hyperactive, interactive, peroxide, supererogatory. 150In the case of medial <er> pronounced /ɪə/ plus /r/-linking there are also a few instances arising from suffixation of words belonging to the next section, e.g. adherents, coherence, interfering, interferon, perseverance. However, in other suffixed forms from words in the next section the pronunciation of the <e> changes and, although /r/-linking occurs, the <r> is a single-function grapheme pronounced /r/, e.g. spherical, atmospheric, austerity, reverence, severity, (in) sincerity; this is also true of errant, derived from err. 10.20 <ere>151For absence of percentages see Note. 152THE MAIN SYSTEM
153THE REST
154NOTE 155Gontijo et al. (2003) do not recognize /ɜː/ as a pronunciation of <ere>; presumably the version of RP they were using has were pronounced /weə/ and/or they analysed all its occurrences as unstressed /wə/. Because of this it was not possible to calculate percentages for <ere>. 10.21 <ew>156THE MAIN SYSTEM 157For both categories see Notes.
158THE REST
159NOTES 160<ew> pronounced /juː/ occurs medially only in newel, Newton, pewter, steward; otherwise, only where there is no futher vowel letter and only in (closed) hewn, lewd, mews, newt, thews; (open) clerihew, curfew, curlew, few, hew, knew, mew, mildew, nephew, new, pew, phew, sinew, skew, smew, spew, stew; also dew if pronounced /djuː/ rather than /ʤuː/. Except in these words and the few Oddities <ew> is always pronounced /uː/ - the high frequency of few, knew, new is presumably responsible for the few words with /juː/ having a much higher percentage of correspondences than those with /uː/. There seem to be no cases where <e, w> are separate graphemes. 161N. B. For vocalic graphemes beginning with (‘silent’) <h> see section 9.17. 10.22 <i>162N. B. <ie, i. e, igh, ir> have separate entries. 163THE MAIN SYSTEM 164For all these categories and the absence of percentages see Notes.
165THE REST
166NOTES 167Gontijo et al. (2003) analyse a great many occurrences of medial <i> before another vowel letter as being pronounced /ɪ/, whereas I analyse them as being pronounced /iː/+ /j/-glide. Re-allocation proved impossible, hence the absence of percentages. 168Except in the cases noted in the Oddities, in <ia, io, is, it> the <i> is the whole or part of a separate grapheme. In particular, for <i, a> see below. 169For instances of <i> as an elided vowel see section 6.10. 170The regular pronunciations of <i> as a single-letter grapheme are complicated, and best set out in a flowchart – see Figure 10.1 and the following numbered paragraphs keyed to it.
FIGURE 10.1: FLOWCHART TO DETERMINE THE REGULAR PRONUNCIATIONS OF <i> AS A SINGLE-LETTER GRAPHEME  171So the regular pronunciations of <i> as a single-letter grapheme are: 1721) In initial position: /ɪ/, e.g. iguana, ill, incognito, Indian, indigo, inn, innocent, irritate, is, it. Exceptions, almost all with /aɪ/: iambic, Iberian, ibex, ibis, ichor, icicle, icon, idea, identical, identity, ideology, idle, idol, iodine, ion, Ionic, iota, irate, iris, Irish, iron-y/ic, isinglass, isobar, isogloss, isosceles and other compounds of (Greek) iso-(‘equal’), isolate (from Italian isola from Latin insula ‘island’), item, itinerary, ivory, ivy. Only other exceptions: impasse, ingenu (e), with /æ/ 1732) Medially where <i> is the first vowel letter in the word and is followed by another vowel letter: /aɪ/ (plus /j/-glide) in a large set of words, e.g. bias, biology and several other compounds beginning <bio->, briar, client, diabolic and several other compounds beginning <dia->, friable, friar (y), giant, hiatus, liable, liar, lion, phial, pioneer, pliant, pliers, riot, sciatica, science, striation, triad, trial, triumph, viaduct, vial, violin, etc. Exceptions (all with /iː/plus /j/-glide): clientele, fiancé (e), fiasco, fiord, kiosk, liais-e/on, liana, miasma, pianist, piano (/piːˈjænəʊ/, with 3 syllables; in rapid speech also pronounced /ˈpjænəʊ/with <i> pronounced as consonant /j/ and 2 syllables – cf. category (3) below), piastre, trio, viola 1743-4) Medially where <i> is followed by another vowel letter but is not the first vowel letter in the word, it can be pronounced as a consonant or a vowel: 1753) The consonantal pronunciation of <i> as /j/ occurs only medially before a vowel letter or digraph mostly pronounced /ə/ and almost always after the vowel bearing main stress:
1764) The regular vocalic pronunciation of <i> as a single-letter grapheme in medial position (but not as the first vowel letter in the word – see (2) above) when followed by a vowel letter is /iː/ plus /j/-glide, e.g.
177Exceptions with <i> not pronounced /iː/ (all with stressed <i> pronounced /aɪ/ plus /j/-glide): alliance, certifiable, defiant, denial, elegiac, leviathan, verifiable; anxiety, dubiety, notoriety, (im)piety, (im)propriety, sobriety, society, variety 1785-6) Medially where <i> is followed by a consonant letter: 1795) It is pronounced /aɪ/ in thousands of words where the final <e> of <i. e> has been deleted before a suffix beginning with a vowel letter – see sections 6.3 and especially 6.4, e.g. bridal, cited, primal, riding, spinal, tribal, writing. See also most exceptions to next category 1806) Otherwise, mainly /ɪ/, e.g. blink, divide (first <i>), piffle. This is especially true:
181Exceptions:
1827) The regular pronunciation of <i> as a single-letter grapheme in final position in words with at least one earlier vowel letter is /iː/, e.g. anti, bikini, graffiti, khaki, kiwi, muesli, spaghetti, svengali, wiki. Exceptions (all with /aɪ/): alibi, alkali, (anno) domini, (a) fortiori/posteriori/priori, (lapis) lazuli, quasi, rabbi and some Latin plurals, e.g. alumni, bacilli, cacti, foci, fundi (/ˈfʌndaɪ/, plural of fundus ‘inner corner of organ’; contrast fundi pronounced /ˈfʊndiː/, either South and East African English for ‘expert/skilled person’, or a member of the fundamentalist, uncompromising wing of the German Green Party), fungi, gladioli, and lots of Latin biological terms with anglicised pronunciations, e.g. leylandii, plus Greek bronchi, chi, phi, pi, psi, xi. 183There appear to be only nine words with <i> as the only vowel letter, and in word-final position; most have /aɪ/, namely the greeting Hi!, the pronoun I, and the Greek letter names (as pronounced in English) chi, phi, pi, psi, xi, but even this tiny set has two exceptions with /iː/: the musical term mi, and ski. 184Almost all words ending/ɪk (əl/s) spelt <-ic(al/s)> have stress on the preceding syllable. Exceptions: Árabic, aríthmetic (noun), ársenic (noun, if pronounced /ˈɑːsənɪk/with three syllables), bíopic (pronounced /ˈbaɪjəʊpɪk/ by those who recognise its origin as an abbreviation of ‘biographical picture’, = film), cátholic (if pronounced /ˈkæθəlɪk/, with three syllables), cérvical /ˈsɜːvɪkəl/(as in cérvical vertebrae, in the neck – but see below), chóleric, climácteric, héretic, impólitic(ly), lúnatic, pólitic(ly/s), rhétoric, túrmeric – but arithmétic (adjective), arithmétical, arsénic (/ɑːˈsenɪk/, adjective), herétical, polítical, rhetórical follow the rule; so does biópic (pronounced /baɪˈjɒpɪk/ (rhymes with myopic) by those who apply the general ‘stress the syllable before <ic>’ rule, thus proving its psychological reality). 185Arsenic (noun) and catholic pronounced with three syllables are exceptions, but both more often have the central written vowel elided (see section 6.10) and are pronounced /ˈɑːsnɪk, ˈkæθlɪk/, with two syllables. Phonologically, this makes them regular – they are stressed on the syllable preceding /ɪk/ spelt <ic>. However, in terms of predicting word stress from written forms, they are still exceptions – they are stressed on the syllable containing the second vowel letter before the <ic> instead of the first. 186Other words with two pronunciations, but differing in stress, are (fly) agaric /əˈgærɪk/ (regular) or /ˈægərɪk/ (exception), chivalric /ʃɪˈvælrɪk/(regular) or/ˈʃɪvəlrɪk/(exception); on chivalric the Oxford English Dictionary says ‘The first pronunciation is that sanctioned by the poets’. Extensions: Greek plurals such as erótica; the modern coinage emóticon. Also note the modern contrast in meaning between cervical /ˈsɜːvɪkəl/ in cérvical vertebrae (in the neck) and /sɜːˈvaɪkəl/ in cervícal cancer/smear (in the cervix/entrance to the womb). 187The vowel preceding <ic> always has a ‘short’ pronunciation (except in aphasic with /eɪ/, acetic, emic, graphemic, phonemic, scenic with /iː/, and biopic pronounced /ˈbaɪəʊpɪk/, chromic, phobic and all its compounds, with /əʊ/), as does the <i> in <ic>, except in cervical pronounced /sɜːˈvaɪkəl/. 10.23 <ie>188N. B. <i.e> has a separate entry. On the percentages see Notes. 189THE MAIN SYSTEM
190THE REST
191NOTES 192Even though Gontijo et al. (2003) analyse final <ie> in words where there is at least one earlier vowel letter as being pronounced /ɪ/ it was possible to re-allocate all such words to/iː/ and recalculate the percentages. 193<i, e> are/belong to separate graphemes in anxiety, convenient, leniency, science, twentieth and all other words with those endings, plus adieu, alien, client(ele), conscientious, diet, fiery, medieval, milieu, oubliette, quiet(us), serviette, spaniel, soviet, (inter/re-)view. All have an intervening /j/-glide except adieu, (inter/re-)view, spaniel, where the <i> spells /j/ after a preceding consonant anyway. 194<i, er> are, or belong to, separate graphemes in:
10.24 <i.e>195Occurs only where <e> is word-final. 196See Notes for all categories and for how this split digraph is defined, and see section 11.4 for a teaching rule relevant to all split digraphs except <y. e>. 197THE MAIN SYSTEM
198THE REST
199NOTES 200The split digraph <i. e> is defined as covering words where the <e> is separated from the <i> by one consonant letter other than <r> and the <i> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced either /aɪ/ or /iː/. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a split digraph <ce, ge, ve> - see sections 3.7.4, 3.7.6-7 and 3.8.4, and section 7.1 for dual-functioning. See also section A. 6 in Appendix A. 201The familiar /aɪ/ pronunciation occurs in many hundreds of words and does not need further illustration. The /iː/ pronunciation occurs only in about 88 (mostly French) loanwords; those which fit the main definition just given (for extensions see below) are: caprice, police; automobile, imbecile; centime, regime; beguine, benedictine (‘liqueur’), benzine, bombazine, brigantine, brilliantine, chlorine, citrine, cuisine, dentine, figurine, gabardine, guillotine, iodine, latrine, libertine, limousine, machine, magazine, margarine, marine, mezzanine, morphine, nectarine, nicotine, opaline, phosphine, plasticine, pristine, quarantine, quinine, ravine, routine, sardine, sistine, strychnine, submarine, tagine, tambourine, tangerine, terrine, tontine, trampoline, tyrosine, undine, vaccine, vitrine, wolverine; anise, cerise, chemise, expertise, valise; elite, marguerite, petite, suite; naive, recitative. 202Extensions:
203Exceptions (all words with at least one earlier vowel letter, except give, live (verb)) where the <i> is a separate grapheme pronounced /ɪ/ and the <e> forms a digraph with the intervening consonant letter:
204There are very few English words ending in <-ige>. The only two to which the regular pronunciation /aɪʤ/ applies are (dis) oblige (both stressed on the <i> before <ge>). Otherwise there are only the two exceptions vestige, with unstressed /ɪʤ/, and prestige, with stressed/iːʒ/. 205The only words in which a final <e> after <i>+ consonant is pronounced separately appear to be anime (from Japanese), (bona) fide (Latin) and campanile (from Italian). 10.25 <igh>206THE MAIN SYSTEM
207NOTES 208In my analysis, there are no cases where <i, gh> are separate graphemes. 209Provided that analysis is accepted, this is one of the very few rules without exceptions in the whole system. However, as far as I can ascertain (even digging around for rare and archaic words), there seem to be just 26 stem words in the entire language containing this grapheme: high, nigh, sigh, thigh; bight, blight, bright, fight, flight, fright, hight, knight, light, might, night, plight, right, sight, slight, tight, wight, wright; alight (in its ‘descend from vehicle’ sense; in its ‘on fire’ sense it is derived from light (a fire)), delight; Blighty, sprightly – some of which are of very high frequency – plus many derivatives. Perhaps the shortage of such words is why the rule is 100% reliable. 210Clymer (1963/1996) cited two different supposed pronunciation rules that are relevant here: 21111. When the letter i is followed by the letters gh, the i usually stands for its long sound and the gh is silent. 21225. When ght is seen in a word, gh is silent. 213He said rule 25 has 100% ‘utility’ (= reliability) and rule 11 only 71%. 214Rule 25 really is 100% accurate in its own terms because it covers not only the 21 words listed above containing <ight> but also the only word containing <aight>: straight, and the only five words with <eight>: eight, freight, height, sleight, weight. However, the rule is unhelpful because (a) telling learners that some letters are ‘silent’ may be confusing (for more on that see section A. 5 in Appendix A); (b) it seems to me much more logical to analyse the <gh> in all the relevant words as part of a vowel grapheme with the preceding vowel letter(s); (c) as it stands, the rule does not specify the pronunciation of the preceding vowel grapheme. 215Rule 11 is also unhelpful on grounds (a) and (b). Also, as several commentators have pointed out, it fails to reach 100% reliability only because it is underspecified. If formulated as ‘After a consonant letter, <igh> is always pronounced /aɪ/ ’, it is 100% reliable and well worth teaching. The restriction ‘after a consonant letter’ is to exclude the six words with <aight/eight> listed in the previous paragraph, plus six with just <eigh>: heigh, inveigh, neigh, neighbour, sleigh, weigh. 216For more about Clymer’s rules see chapter 11. 10.26 <ir>217THE MAIN SYSTEM
218THE REST
219N. B. For word-final <l, le, m, n> involved in 2-phoneme sequences with /ə/ see sections 9.20-23. 10.27 <o>220N. B. <o. e, oi, oo, or, ore, ou, ow, oy> have separate entries. 221THE MAIN SYSTEM 222For all these categories see Notes.
223THE REST
224NOTES 225<o, a> (with intervening /w/ -glide) belong to separate graphemes in coagulate, coalesce, coalition, coaxial, Croatia, hypoallergenic, oasis, protozoa, etc. For cases where <o, e> belong to separate graphemes see coerce, etc., below. 226<ol, olo, os, ot> are single graphemes only in the Oddities listed. 227For instances of <o> as an elided vowel see section 6.10. 228The default pronunciation of <o> as a single-letter grapheme is /ɒ/, but here are some categories for guidance:
229The task then is to try to define when <o> has other pronunciations. 230<o> is pronounced /wʌ/ only in once, one. 231No rules can be given for when <o> is pronounced /ʌ/, except that in stem words it never occurs word-finally, and initially it occurs only in onion, other, oven, so here is a list of its medial occurrences: above, accomplice, accomplish, amok, become, borough, brother, Cadogan, colour, colander (also pronounced with /ɒ/), Colombia (seond <o>), come, comfort (able), comfrey, comfy, company, (en)compass, conjure (‘do magic tricks’), constable, coven, covenant, (dis /re/ un-) cover, covert pronounced /ˈkʌvɜːt/ (also pronounced /ˈkʊəvɜːt/), covet (ous), covey, coz, cozen, done, dost, doth, dove, dozen, dromedary, front, frontier, glove, govern, honey, London (first <o>), lovage, love, Lovell, Monday, monetary, money, monger and its compounds, mongrel, monk, monkey, Monroe, Montgomery (twice), month, mother, none, nothing, plover, shove, shovel, slovenly, smother, sojourn (also pronounced with /ɒ/), some, somersault, son, sponge, thorough, ton, tonne, tongue, twopence, twopenny, windhover, won, wonder, worrit, worry. Some words which used to have /ʌ/ in RP now have /ɒ/ instead, e.g. combat, comrade, conduit, Coventry. 232Similarly, no rules can be given for when <o> is pronounced /uː/, but it occurs only for the first <o> of zoology and derivatives with initial <zoo-> (Greek, ‘living thing’) spelling two syllables pronounced /zuːˈwɒ/ if the second syllable is stressed, otherwise /zuːwə/, and 10 other stem words: caisson pronounced /kəˈsuːn/, canton (‘provide accommodation’, pronounced /kænˈtuːn/), catacomb, do, lasso, to, tomb, two, who, womb, plus derivatives including cantonment, lassoing, whom, and a few from words in which <o. e> is a split digraph pronounced /uː/, e.g. approval, movie, removal, and the proper nouns Aloysius /æluːˈwɪʃəs/, Romania, Wrotham /ˈruːtəm/. 233<o> is pronounced /əʊ/:
234/ə/ is the regular pronunciation of unstressed <o> in initial and medial positions. Word-initially, however, the pronunciation of <o> as /ə/ occurs only in the Latin prefix <ob-> and its derivatives, e.g. in oblige, obscene, obscure, observe, obsess, obtain, occasion, occur, offend, official. Medially, <o> is pronounced /ə/ in:
10.28 <o.e>235Occurs only where the <e> is word-final. 236See Notes for all categories and for how this split digraph is defined, and see section 11.4 for a teaching rule relevant to all split digraphs except <y. e>. 237THE MAIN SYSTEM
238THE REST
239NOTES 240The split digraph <o.e> is defined as covering words where the <e> is separated from the <o> by one consonant letter other than <r, w> and the <o> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced /əʊ, uː/. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a digraph <ce, ge (but see below), ve> - see sections 3.7.4, 3.7.6 and 3.8.4, and section 7.1 for dual-functioning. 241The only extension needed is to cover combe, with two intervening letters forming a consonant digraph. 242However, there are several words with <o, e> separated by a consonant letter(s) where the <o> is a separate grapheme and the <e> forms a di/trigraph with the consonant letter(s): barcarole, compote, cote, (be)gone, scone, shone with <o> pronounced /ɒ/, above, become, come, done, dove, glove, love, none, shove, some, tonne with /ʌ/, purpose, welcome and all the adjectives ending <-some> with /ə/. See also section A. 6 in Appendix A. There are very few English words ending <-oge>: Doge (‘former chief magistrate of Venice’), which seems to be the only one in which the regular pronunciation of <o. e> as /əʊ/ always applies; gamboge pronounced /gæmˈbəʊʒ, gæmˈbuːʒ/; and a few even more obscure words derived from Greek or French. In abalone, adobe, cicerone, coyote, expose (‘report of scandal’), guacamole, sylloge/ˈsɪləʤiː/<o, e> and the intervening consonant letter are all separate graphemes. 243How should opening be analysed if it is pronounced not /ˈəʊpənɪŋ/ (where the <e> is pronounced /ə/) but /ˈəʊpnɪŋ/, with no medial schwa? Presumably not as the only instance of a non-word-final split digraph (/əʊ/ spelt <o. e>), but as another instance of an elided vowel – see section 6.10. 10.29 <oi>244THE MAIN SYSTEM
245THE REST
246NOTE 247If we follow Crystal (2012: 131-2), ‘more recent’in terms of loanwords from French means after the Great Vowel Shift, which was complete by about AD 1600. 248<o, i> (with automatic intervening /w/-glide) are separate graphemes in coincide, coition, coitus, doing, echoic, echoing, egoism, Eloise, going, heroic, heroin(e), jingoism, Lois, oboist, soloist, stoic(al), toing and froing. 10.30 <oo>249THE MAIN SYSTEM 250For both categories see Notes.
251THE REST
252NOTES 253As the television series for teaching children to read used to say, ‘Look out! OO is a double agent!’ (sorry, James). That is, in RP <oo> is pronounced both /ʊ/ and/uː/(never/juː/, however), the two pronunciations are fairly evenly balanced in frequency, and a few words can be pronounced with either phoneme, e.g. food /fʊd, fuːd/, hoodlum /ˈhʊdləm, ˈhuːdləm/, room /rʊm, ruːm/, woofer /ˈwʊfə, ˈwuːfə/ (and in some Scots accents there is no such distinction anyway). 254<oo> pronounced /ʊ/ occurs in only about 28 stem words, namely the four words just listed plus Chinook, forsook, foot, gooseberry /ˈgʊzbriː/, hoof (and its plural hooves), poof (ter), soot, woof ( /wʊf/ ‘barking’; contrast woof /wuːf/’weft’), wool, and most words ending in <d, k> with no earlier vowel letter: good, hood (plus its use as a suffix, e.g. childhood), stood, wood (and its derivative woodbine); book, brook, cook, crook, hook, look, nook, rook, shook, took (exceptions: brood, mood, rood, snood; gook, snook, spook, stook and the longer words bazooka, gobbledegook, snooker, all with /uː/). 255The set of 12 words just listed with <-ook> pronounced /ʊk/ (against six with /uːk/) is one of only five cases where the pronunciation of a phonogram/rime is more predictable as a unit than from the correspondences of the separate graphemes, and there are enough instances to make the rule worth teaching; see section A. 7 in Appendix A. 256In all words other than those pronounced with /ʊ/ and the three Oddities, <oo> is pronounced /uː/. 257<o, o> (always with intervening /w/-glide, but not always with helpful hyphen) are separate graphemes in co-op, cooperate, co-opt, coordinate, co-own, no-one, spermatozoon and other words ending in <-zoon> (‘living thing’), zoology. 10.31 <or>258N. B. <ore> has a separate entry. 259THE MAIN SYSTEM
260THE REST
261NOTE 262Before a vowel letter, <or> is pronounced /ɔː/only in aurora, authorial, borax, chlorine, choral, chorus, corporeal, decorum, dictatorial, editorial, euphoria, flora (l), forum, glory, memorial, oracy, oral, oration, oratorio (second <or>), orient (noun, ‘The East’, pronounced /ˈɔːriːjənt/), quorum, variorum. In all these words, the <r> is both part of the digraph <or> pronounced /ɔː/ and a grapheme in its own right pronounced /r/ (for dual-functioning see section 7.1), and the <or> is stressed (except in oration /ɔːˈreɪʃən/). Where the <or> is stem-final and the ending is a suffix, /r/-linking also occurs (see section 3.6), namely in authorial, dictatorial, editorial, memorial. In all other cases before a vowel letter, <o, r> are separate graphemes, e.g. in corporation (second <or>), decorate, euphoric, florist, memory, orient (verb, ‘align correctly’, pronounced /ɒriːˈjent/), first <or> in orator, oratorio. For <or> as an elided vowel spelling in comfortable see section 6.10. 10.32 <ore>263THE MAIN SYSTEM
264NOTE 265In all other cases, <o, r, e> are separate graphemes, e.g. in anorexia, forest. 10.33 <ou>266THE MAIN SYSTEM
267THE REST
268NOTES 269<ou, r> are separate graphemes in courage, flourish, nourish. For <ou> as an elided vowel spelling in favourable, honourable see section 6.10. 270The six categories of <ough> listed above are those where it is a fourletter grapheme pronounced as a single phoneme, and the percentages given are for those circumstances. In other cases <ou, gh> are separate graphemes with separate pronunciations. For completeness the six 2-phoneme pronunciations of <ough> are listed here in the same manner as single-phoneme pronunciations:
271Thus the 33 words containing <ough> have 12 pronunciations between them. The only semblance of a rule is that most of the words containing <-ought> (bought, brought, fought, nought, ought, sought, thought, wrought) are pronounced /ɔːt/, the only two exceptions being doughty, drought with /aʊt/. Note that two of the 2-phoneme pronuncations ( /ɒx/ in lough, /əx/ in McCullough) do not occur in English stem words, and are therefore included here only for interest – they do not appear in my main lists of correspondences. See also Notes to section 9.15. 10.34 <ow>272THE MAIN SYSTEM
273THE REST
274NOTES 275/əʊ/ is the regular pronunciation word-finally after <l, r>: bellow, below, billow, blow, bungalow, callow, fallow, fellow, flow, follow, furbelow, glow, hallow, hollow, low, mallow, mellow, pillow, sallow, shallow, slow, swallow, tallow, wallow, whitlow, willow, yellow; arrow, barrow, borrow, burrow, crow, escrow, farrow, furrow, grow, harrow, marrow, morrow, narrow, row /rəʊ/ (‘line, use oars’), sorrow, sparrow, throw, yarrow (only exceptions: allow /əˈlaʊ/, plow; brow, prow, row /raʊ/ ‘squabble’), trow). 276Otherwise /əʊ/ occurs only in: (word-finally) bestow, bow (goes with arrow; contrast bow /baʊ/ ‘incline deferentially’), elbow, know, meadow, minnow, mow, shadow, show, snow, sow (‘plant seed’; contrast sow /saʊ/ ‘female pig’), stow, tow, widow, window, winnow; (medially) bowl, own and the irregular past participles blown, grown, thrown, which derive from verbs listed above, plus flown, known, mown, shown. 277All other occurrences of <ow> (bar the exceptions) are pronounced /aʊ/. 10.35 <oy>278THE MAIN SYSTEM
279THE REST
280NOTE 281In medial examples of <oy> pronounced /ɔɪ/ before a vowel letter, namely in arroyo, employee, foyer pronounced /ˈfɔɪjeɪ, ˈfɔɪjə/, loyal, royal, soya, voyage and, I suppose, coy-er/est, comparative and superlative of coy, the <y> is both part of <oy> spelling /ɔɪ/ and a grapheme in its own right pronounced /j/. For dual-functioning see section 7.1. 10.36 <u>282N. B. <ue, u. e, ur> have separate entries. 283THE MAIN SYSTEM 284On all these categories except /w/ see Notes.
285THE REST
286NOTES 287The consonantal pronunciation of <u> as /w/ is dealt with above. It is curious that the consonantal and vocalic pronunciations of <u> never occur adjacently, i. e. there are no instances of <uu> pronounced /wʌ wʊ wuː wə wɪ we/ or any of those with a /j/ glide between the two phonemes. This is despite the fact that at least one Latin word with such a sequence (equus /ˈekwus/, ‘horse’) has various English derivatives – but they all have /e/ spelt <e> after /w/ spelt <u>. Where sequences such as /wʌ/ occur in English the /w/ is always spelt <w> and the vowel is rarely spelt <u> - the only words beginning <wu> appear to be wunderkind, wuss with <u> pronounced /ʊ/, and Wurlitzer with <ur> pronounced /ɜː/. 288For instances of <u> as an elided vowel see section 6.10. 289Except in the 10 words listed under Oddities, <u, i> always are/belong to separate graphemes, e.g. in several words listed under <u> pronounced /uː, juː/below, including in particularcircuitous, fruition (with intervening /w/ -glide), plus words where <u> is part of a diagraph with the preceding consonant letter: biscuit, build, cataloguing and a few more words with potential <e>-deletion from <-gue> before <-ing>, circuit, guide, guild, guilder, guile, guillemot, guillotine, guilt, guinea, (dis)guise, guitar, suite. 290In RP (as distinct from local accents of the north of England, in which /ʊ/ is much more frequent), <u> is pronounced /ʊ/ in only about 57 stem words: ambush, Buddha, buffet /ˈbʊfeɪ/(‘food’), bulbul (twice), bull, bullace, bullet, bulletin, Bullingdon, bullion, bullock, bully, bulrush (first <u>), bulwark (also pronounced with /ʌ/), bush, bushel, butch, butcher, cuckoo, (mea) culpa, cushion, cushty, cushy, ebullient (also pronounced with /ʌ/), fulcrum (both <u>’s), full, fulmar, fundi (/ˈfʊndiː/ South and East African English for ‘expert /skilled person’/ in Britain, a member of the fundamentalist, uncompromising wing of the German Green Party), gerenuk, kaput, kibbutz, kukri, lungi, lutz, mullah, mush (/mʊʃ/, slang for ‘friend’), muslim, Musulman (twice), umlaut (first <u>), Zumba, pud, pudding, pull, pullet, pulpit, push, puss, put, putsch, schuss, s(c)htum, shufti, sputnik, sugar, suk, Sunni, thurible, thurifer, thruppence, tuk-tuk (twice), plus derivatives including Buddhism, bullock, fulfil, fully, ful(l)ness, fulsome, and in the adjective/noun suffix <-ful> - there are at least 150 words so formed, e.g. beautiful, handful. Unstressed in that suffix but stressed in all other cases except ambush, fulcrum (second <u>), fulfil, gerenuk, tuk-tuk (second <u>). 291In RP (as distinct from local accents of the north of England, in which /ʌ/ does not occur) <u> is pronounced /ʌ/:
292Unlike the other vowel letters as single-letter graphemes, <u> is not pronounced short, i. e. /ʌ/, before a consonant and word-final <-ic(al)>. Instead it is pronounced /(j)uː/, e.g. cubic, music, punic, runic, tunic - see below. 293A test for distinguishing the (Germanic) prefix <un-> ‘not’ pronounced /ʌn/ from the (Latin) initial element <un(i)-> ‘one’ pronounced /juːn(iː)/ which seems mainly reliable is this: Remove <un>. If what remains is a word, it is <un-> pronounced /ʌn/; if what remains is not a word, it is <un(i)-> pronounced /juːn(iː)/. For example, uninformed has /ʌn/; uniformed has /juːniː/. There appear to be only two words for which this does not work: union, unit, but neither is likely to be misunderstood, there being no words *un-ion ‘not an ion’, *un-it ‘not an it’. However, based on un(-)ion is one of the longest homographs in English: unionised, which is either union-ised ‘belonging to a trade union’ or un-ionised ‘not converted into ions’. 294<u> is pronounced /uː/:
295Wijk (1960: 15) points out that /uː/ is regular after /ʤ, r, ʃ, j/ (mainly spelt <j, r, ch/sh, y> and after /l/ spelt <l> after another consonant, both when <u> is a single-letter grapheme and in <u. e>. I would add that in current RP /uː/ is also regular after <d, t> pronounced /ʤ, ʧ/, e.g. in arduous, assiduous, deciduous, dual, ducal, duel, duet, duly, duty, gradual, graduate, individual, residual; tuba, tuber, tulip, tumour, tumult(uous), tumulus, tuna, tunic, tureen, tutor; attitude, multitude, solitude; costume; fortune, importune, opportune; virtuoso; contemptuous, fatuous, impetuous, incestuous, perpetuate; spirituous, sumptuous, tempestuous, tortuous, tumultuous, unctuous, virtuous, voluptuous; obtuse; de/in/pro/re/sub-stitution. accentual, actual, conceptual, contractual, effectual, eventual, factual, habitual, intellectual, mutual, perpetual, punctual, ritual, spiritual, textual, virtual; actuary, estuary, mortuary, obituary, sanctuary, statuary, voluptuary. Again, where the letter following <u> is a vowel, the pronunciation has an intervening /w/-glide. 296<u> is pronounced /juː/:
297<u> is pronounced /ə/:
298Also, in the entry for <ur>, section 10.39, reference is made to the long list in section 5.4.7 of nouns ending in <-ture> pronounced /ʧə/. In adjectives derived from nouns in that list, e.g. adventurous /ədˈvenʧərəs/, natural /ˈnæʧərəl/), and especially in adverbs derived from those adjectives, e.g. adventurously, naturally, <u> may be pronounced /ə/ – or in rapid pronunciation the schwa may be absent (/ædˈvenʧrəs(liː), ˈnæʧrəl(iː)/), in which case the <u> is elided – see section 6.10. I think that the tendency for the vowel to disappear in rapid speech is stronger in the adverbs alluded to in this paragraph and listed in section 5.4.7 than in the adjectives. 299<u> is pronounced /jə/ in several words where it is the penultimate vowel grapheme and unstressed, and separated from the next vowel letter by a single consonant letter, and main stress is on the preceding syllable, e.g. amulet, angular /ˈæŋgjələ/, argument, calculate, chasuble, coagulate, contributor, corpuscular, distributor, emulate, fabulous, garrulous, immunise, inaugural, incubus, insula-r/te, jugular, manipulate, muscular, nebulous, particular, penury, popul(o)us, querulous, regula-r/te, scapula(r), scroful-a/ous, scrupulous, stimul-ant/ate/us, succubus, tremulous, truculent, vernacular; also in, e.g. glandular, spatula, if pronounced with /djə, tjə/ rather than /ʤə, ʧə/ (see list above); also in the two words copulation, population where it is the antepenultimate vowel grapheme (and unstressed) and main stress is on the following syllable. 10.37 <ue>300N. B. <u. e> has a separate entry. 301Does not occur initially. Except in gruesome, muesli, Tuesday, only word-final. 302THE MAIN SYSTEM 303For both categories see Notes.
304THE REST 305(None). 306NOTES 307This grapheme is not to be confused with word-final <-ue> in <gue, que>, where it is sometimes part of those graphemes – see sections 9.15, 9.27. 308/uː/ is regular after <l, r>, namely in blue, clue, flue, glue, slue; accrue, construe, gruesome, imbrue, rue, sprue, true, and predominates after <d, t> (where older pronunciations with /juː/are still sometimes heard): due, residue, subdue; statue, Tuesday pronounced /ˈʧuːzdiː/, virtue, plus issue, sue, tissue. Only definite exception: value, with /juː/. 309/juː/ is regular in almost all other cases, namely ague, argue, avenue, barbecue, continue, cue, curlicue, ensue, hue, imbue, pursue, queue, rescue, retinue, revenue, revue, value, venue. Exception: muesli. 310Except in gruesome, muesli, Tuesday, <u, e> are always separate graphemes in medial position, e.g. cruel /ˈkruːwəl/, duel /ˈʤuːwəl/ (homophonous with jewel), duet /ʤuːˈwet/ (words like these three have an intervening /w/-glide), suede /sweɪd/ (where <u> spells /w/ anyway). There is also one 2-grapheme exception in final position: segue /ˈsegweɪ/ (where <u> again spells /w/). 10.38 <u. e>311Occurs only where the <e> is word-final. 312See Notes for both categories and for how this split digraph is defined, and see section 11.4 for a teaching rule relevant to all split digraphs except <y. e>. 313THE MAIN SYSTEM 314For both categories see Notes.
315THE REST 316(None). 317NOTES 318The split digraph <u. e> is defined as covering words where the <e> is separated from the <u> by one consonant letter other than <r, x> and the <u> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced /uː /or/ juː/. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a split digraph <ce, ge> - see sections 3.7.4, 3.7.6 and 3.8.4, and section 7.1 for dual-functioning. 319The only extensions needed are to cover five words with two intervening letters forming consonant digraphs: butte, fugue, peruque, ruche, tulle, plus brusque pronounced /bruːsk/(also pronounced /brʌsk/), with three intervening letters (including <qu> as a digraph) forming the consonant cluster /sk/. The only exceptions appear to be lettuce, minute (/ˈmɪnɪt/, ‘60 seconds’), with <u> pronounced /ɪ/ and <ce, te> forming digraphs pronounced /s, t/, and deluxe with <u> pronounced /ʌ/ and <xe> forming a 2-phoneme digraph pronounced /ks/. See also section A. 6 in Appendix A. 320/uː/is regular after <ch, j, l, r>, namely in (para) chute; June, jupe, jute; fluke, flume, flute, include and various other words in <-clude>, luge, lute, plume, recluse; abstruse, brume, brute, crude, intrude and various other words in <-trude>, peruque, peruse, prude, prune, ruche, rude, rule, rune, ruse, spruce, truce, and predominates after <d, t> (where older pronunciations with /juː/are still sometimes heard): duke, dune (homophonous with June), introduce, reduce, module, nodule; tube, tulle, tune. Exceptions: delude, mameluke, pollute, with /juː/. 321/juː/ is regular in almost all other cases, e.g. abuse, accuse, amuse, (at /con/ dis-) tribute, centrifuge, commune (noun and verb), compute, consume, delude, deluge, dispute, enthuse, globule, huge, minute /maɪˈnjuːt/ (‘tiny’), mule, mute, nude, perfume, pollute, refuge, repute, subterfuge, use (noun and verb). 322There are very few English words ending <-uge>: centrifuge, deluge, huge, refuge, subterfuge and a few more rarities, all with /juːʤ/, plus luge with /uːʒ/ (there are none with /uːʤ, juːʒ/). 323The only word in which a final <e> after <u>+ consonant is ‘pronounced’ rather than ‘silent’ appears to be resume (‘c.v.’). 10.39 <ur>324THE MAIN SYSTEM
325THE REST
326NOTES 327There are very few words with initial <ur->. Most are derivatives of urea, all with a following vowel letter and with <ur> pronounced /jʊə/ and <r> also pronounced /r/, i. e. dual-functioning (see section 7.1). There are only six words with a following consonant letter: urbane, urchin, urge, urgent, urn with regular /ɜː/ and urtext with /ʊə/. Except in urtext, urea and its derivatives, and the exceptions and the Oddity <urr> noted above, <ur> is always pronounced /ɜː/, and there appear to be no cases of <u, r> as separate graphemes. 328Despite the high percentage for <ur> pronounced /ə/ I have not counted it as part of the main system because of the rarity of its converse – see section 5.4.7. 329See section 5.6.5 for the increasing replacement of /(j)ʊə / by /(j)ɔː/. 10.40 <y>330THE MAIN SYSTEM 331For all these categories and the absence of percentages see Notes, and for a teaching rule relevant to word-final <y> see section 11.6.
332THE REST
333NOTES 334Gontijo et al. (2003) (like Carney – see section 5.4.3) analyse word-final <y> (except where it is the only vowel letter and in <-fy>) as pronounced /ɪ/. Because I instead analyse it as pronounced /iː/ and can not separate their final <y> pronounced /ɪ/ from medial <y> pronounced /ɪ/ I am unable to use their percentages for any of the correspondences of <y>. 335Initial <y> is always pronounced /j/ before a vowel letter. Cases of initial <y> followed by a consonant letter are very rare, but in all of them <y> is pronounced /ɪ/, namely the archaic word yclept (‘named’), the type of boat called yngling, and the names of the plant and essential oil ylang-ylang (also spelt ilang-ilang) and of the elements ytterbium, yttrium and the names Yvette, Yvonne. 336Conversely, there are cases of medial <y> which are consonantal and are pronounced /j/. In a few, the <y> is solely a single-letter grapheme: banyan /ˈbænjæn/, beyond, biryani, bowyer /ˈbəʊjə/, canyon /ˈkænjən/, halyard, lanyard, vineyard, yoyo. In rather more the <y> functions both as a single-letter grapheme pronounced /j/ and as part of digraphs (for dualfunctioning see section 7.1) with various pronunciations:
337Consonantal <y> and initial vocalic <y> having been dealt with, the main question is how to predict the three main vocalic pronunciations in medial and final positions. 338y> is pronounced /aɪ/:
339<y> is pronounced /iː/:
340The only remaining occurrences of vocalic <y> are all medial and all pronounced /ɪ/:
341The split digraph <y. e> is defined as covering words where the <e> is separated from the <y> by one consonant letter other than <r> and the <y> is not preceded by a vowel letter and the digraph is pronounced /aɪ/. The definition covers both words where the intervening consonant letter is an independent grapheme and words where the <e> is also part of a split digraph <ce, ve> - see sections 3.7.6-7, and section 7.1 for dualfunctioning. The only extension needed is to cover two words with two intervening consonant letters forming a digraph: hythe, scythe, and there appear to be no exceptions. See also section A. 6 in Appendix A. 10.41 Correspondences of <a, e, i, o, u, y> (± word-final <e>) in content words with no other vowel letters (monosyllables)342There is more pattern to the correspondences of the vowel letters in monosyllabic content words than comes through in the relevant sections of this chapter above – see Table 10.2, the inspiration for which I owe to Irina Shcherbakova of Moscow. (Most monosyllabic function words are so often unstressed that their predominant vowel is /ə/). 343I have not included columns for the single vowel letters plus <w, y>, because over half the possible combinations do not occur, or for those sequences plus final <e>, because such words are rare. For <aw(e), ay(e), ew(e), ey(e), ow(e), oy> (<-oye> does not occur), see sections 10.10/11/21/12/34/35 respectively. 344The comprehensiveness of Table 10.2 conceals the fact that, even where a cell does not say ‘(does not occur)’, there may be very few instances. This is true of all the cells in the ‘just the vowel letter’ column (see below), and of words ending in <-ure>: sure is the only example in its cell, and the only companions for cure are lure, pure; brae is also an isolate. 345Table 10.2 makes clear the parallelism in the correspondences of <i, y> in relevant words (though <y> is much rarer) - this is why I’ve put <y> next to <i>. Also, I’ve put <o, a> first because all the other vowel letter + <r> combinations are pronounced /ɜː/. Two more regularities are:
346There are only about 19 exceptions to the regular short pronunciations before a single consonant letter: raj with /ɑː/, quad, quag, squat, swab, swan, swat, wad, wan, was, what with /ɒ/, chic with /iː/, mic with /aɪ/, son, ton, won with /ʌ/, pud, put, suk with /ʊ/. 347The list of exceptions before geminate and other doubled spellings is longer, but still not extensive (the list would be shorter still in accents other than RP): chaff, staff, hajj, brass, class, glass, grass, pass, with /ɑː/; bass (‘(player of) large stringed instrument’/‘(singer with) low-pitched voice’) with /eɪ/; all, ball, call, fall, gall, hall, pall, small, squall, stall, tall, thrall, wall with /ɔː/; retch pronounced /riːʧ/; boll (sometimes), droll, poll (‘head, vote’), roll, scroll, stroll, toll with /əʊ/. TABLE 10.2: REGULAR CORRESPONDENCES OF <a, e, i, o, u, y> (± WORD-FINAL <e>) IN MONOSYLLABIC CONTENT WORDS
*See section 5.6.5 for the increasing replacement of /(j)ʊə/ by /(j)ɔː/. 348A further set arises from taking final <-ve> to be a doubled spelling. Although a few preceding single-letter vowels have the regular short pronunciation before <-ve>, namely have, give, live (verb, /lɪv/) (see sections 3.7.7 and 9.39), there are 18 words in which the <e> also forms a split digraph with the vowel letter, which therefore has a ‘long’ pronunciation (for dual-functioning see section 7.1): gave, shave, suave, wave; breve, eve; drive, five, hive, jive, live (adjective, /laɪv/), swive, wive; cove, drove, move, prove; gyve (see the parallel list for polysyllables in the next section), and four words with an irregular short pronunciation: dove, glove, love, shove with /ʌ/. 349There are just nine words in the language in which the sole vowel letter is followed by word-final <rr>: carr, charr, parr, err, chirr, shirr, whirr, burr, purr – but in every case the three letters form a trigraph, and these are therefore not really exceptions to the doubled consonant spelling rules in Table 10.2. This applies even more strongly to barre, bizarre, parterre, myrrh. 350There are only about 54 words with a single word-final vowel letter in the language, even when the dictionary is thoroughly scraped (and several function words are included); very few are exceptions – see Table 10.3. TABLE 10.3: OPEN MONOSYLLABLES WITH A SINGLE VOWEL LETTER
351There appear to be only two exceptions for the vowel letter + <e> combinations (see sections 10.3/16/23/27/37/40), namely nee with /eɪ/ and shoe with /uː/ - but there are only about 40 such monosyllables in the entire language. 352There are very few words which end in a vowel letter + consonant letter other than <r, w, x, y> + final <e> (and therefore like look monosyllables with split digraphs), but in which the <e> is ‘pronounced’and the words are therefore disyllables and the vowel letter + <e> do not constitute a split digraph: blase, cafe, glace, pate (‘paste’), hebe, stele, (bona) fide. (See also section 11.4). 353There are also very few words which end in a vowel letter + <re> and have an irregular pronunciation: are, ere, there, where, were (all of which are function words), and the only two exceptions for vowel letter plus <r> are war with /ɔː/ and kir with /ɪə/. 10.42 Correspondences of <a, e, i, o, u, y> in words with at least one later vowel letter other than ‘silent’ <e> (polysyllables)354Only two columns in Table 10.2 can be generalised more or less straightforwardly to polysyllables, which can be defined for the purposes of this section as all those (huge numbers of) words which do not fit the definition of ‘monosyllables’given in the heading of the previous section. 355First, the single vowel letter graphemes are almost always pronounced ‘short’ (i. e. as /æ e ɪ ɒ ʌ ɪ/ respectively) before geminate and other doubled spellings in polysyllables as well as monosyllables – see Table 10.4, which is the mirror-image of Table 4.1. TABLE 10.4: SHORT AND LONG PRONUNCIATIONS OF SINGLE-LETTER VOWEL GRAPHEMES BEFORE SINGLE AND DOUBLE CONSONANT SPELLINGS
356There are very few exceptions to the rule that single-letter vowel graphemes before geminate and other doubled spellings are pronounced short in polysyllables. This even applies to various short pronunciations which are exceptions to the main one, e.g. words with <a> pronounced /ɒ/. The only exceptions I’ve been able to find are camellia, pizza with /iː/, distaff and sometimes latte with /ɑː/, plimsoll (also spelt plimsole, which would not be an exception) with /əʊ/, and thralldom (also spelt thraldom, which would not be an exception) with /ɔː/. The rule extends to consonant letter clusters which are or look like trigraphs (even though this not how I would analyse them): arrhythmia if pronounced with initial /eɪ/, butte with /juː/, chenille, pelisse with /iː/, giraffe with /ɑː/ and ruche, tulle with /uː/. 357The largest (but still tiny) set of exceptions arises from analysing final <-ve> as a doubled spelling. Although most preceding single-letter vowel graphemes are pronounced short before <-ve> in polysyllables (see sections 3.7.7 and 9.39), there are 14 words in which the <e> also forms a split digraph with the vowel letter, which therefore has a ‘long’pronunciation (for dual-functioning see section 7.1): behave, conclave, forgave; alive, archive, arrive, deprive, naive, ogive, recitative, revive, survive; alcove, mangrove. 358The second column in Table 10.2 which generalises reasonably well to polysyllables concerns split digraphs. As can be seen in Table 11.3, there are only about 30 polysyllabic words in the language in which a word-final <e> separated from a preceding single vowel letter by a single consonant letter is ‘pronounced’and therefore constitutes a separate syllable. 359In most polysyllables which end in a vowel letter plus <e> with no intervening consonant letter the digraphs are pronounced as in the corresponding monosyllables. Thus almost all of those in <-ee> are pronounced /iː/, exceptions (all with /eɪ/) being entree, epee, fiancee, matinee, melee, negligee, soiree and a few other loanwords from French (see section 10.16), all of which are increasingly spelt in English with French <ée>. 360Those in <-ie,-ye> are all pronounced with /aɪ/. Almost all those in <-oe> are pronounced with /əʊ/, the only exceptions being canoe, hoopoe with /uː/. However, most of those which end in <-ae> are Latinate (largely biological) terms with <ae> pronounced /iː/, and only sundae, tenebrae appear to have /eɪ/ like brae. Those in <-ue> fall into two subcategories: in most of those with <g, q> preceding <-ue> the three letters form a trigraph pronounced /g, k/, the only exceptions being argue with /juː/ and dengue with the <u> forming a digraph with the <g> pronounced /g/, and the <e> being pronounced /eɪ/ and constituting a separate syllable. All other words ending in <-ue> are pronounced with /(j)uː/. 361The rest of this section is an attempt to find other ‘rules’for the pronunciation of the vowel letters as single-letter graphemes in polysyllables. The rules below (which should probably be called ‘generalisations’) are listed in a logical order which gradually narrows down their scope; in this respect the organisation is quite different from that adopted in the sections above on the single vowel letters. 362Some preliminaries:
3631) The predominant pronunciations of <a e o u> as single-letter graphemes when in ‘hiatus’, i. e. immediately before another pronounced vowel letter belonging to a separate syllable, are /eɪ iː/ (with following /j/-glide), /əʊ(j)uː/ (with following /w/-glide). A few examples are aorta, archaic, chaos, chaotic, dais, kaolin, laity, prosaic; azalea, cameo, deity, erroneous, meteor, museum, neon, peony, petroleum, spontaneity; boa, heroic, poem, poetry, soloist, stoic; actual, annuity, bruin, continuity, cruel, cruet, dual, duel, fluid, genuine, gratuity, ruin, suicide, usual. There seem to be few or no exceptions. 3642) The predominant pronunciations of <i y> as single-letter graphemes when in hiatus appear to be /aɪ/ when stressed and /iː/ when unstressed (all with following /j/-glide), e.g. (stressed) bias, client, dial, giant, psychiatry, science, society, triad, triangle, variety, viaduct, violent, violet; cryostat, cyanide, dryad, dyad, hyacinth, hyaline; (unstressed) alien, battalion, caviar, cheviot, comedian, delirious, dubious, fasciitis, glacier, histrionic, lenient, medium, myriad, odious, odium, polio, premier, radii, radium, radius, retaliate, soviet, taxiing, valiant; caryatid, embryo, halcyon, polyandry. Exceptions: brio, Shiite, skiing, trio with stressed <i> pronounced /iː/; hyena, myopic with unstressed <y> pronounced /aɪ/. 365But the problem with both these categories is that some of the two-letter sequences involved function much more frequently as digraphs; this is particularly true of <ai ea ei eu oa oi ue>. Readers therefore just have to learn when these sequences are not digraphs – one bit of help here is that the second of two vowel letters in hiatus is never <y>. 3663) The predominant pronunciations of <a i o y> when word-final in polysyllabic words and unstressed are /ə iː əʊ iː/. The absence of <e> here is due to the fact that word-final letter <e> is almost always part of a digraph and hardly ever constitutes a separate syllable (for the few exceptions see above and sections 10.12 and 11.4). <u> is also very rare in these circumstances and is not worth including in the rule. And all six vowel letters are so rarely stressed when functioning as word-final single-letter graphemes that no rule is worth giving for that situation (but see section A. 10 in Appendix A). 367All the following rules apply to cases where the vowel letter is followed by one or more consonant letters; this condition is stated only the first time. 3684) The predominant pronunciation of <a e i o u> as single-letter graphemes when unstressed before a consonant letter(s) is /ə/, with a tendency for many instances of unstressed <e i> to be pronounced /ɪ/ – but this is circular and uninformative; there are few indications in the spelling of English words of when a syllable is unstressed (except by implication from the few rules which predict where the stressed syllable is – see Appendix A, section A. 10), of when these graphemes have other pronunciations when unstressed (e.g. the first <u> in museum, the first <y> in psychiatry), or of when other graphemes are pronounced /ə/. 369From here on, all the rules in this section refer to occurrences of the vowel letters as single-letter graphemes when stressed, so these conditions are stated only the first time. 3705) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u y> as single-letter graphemes when stressed in the third (antepenultimate) and fourth syllables from the end of the word (that is, when the word continues (CV)CVCVC(silent <e>), where C can be one or more consonant letters) are /æ e ɪ ɒ (j)uː ɪ/. This applies to almost all words ending <-ical>, e.g. classical, heretical, political, logical, musical, lyrical, and to many derived forms in which a suffix has lengthened a word and produced a change from a long to a short vowel sound, e.g. national, profanity, serenity, divinity, wilderness, the <e> in egotism. Other examples are acrobat, agriculture, animal, antagonism, cameo, caviar, glacier, madrigal, sacrament, scarify, valiant, vocabulary, and second <a> in battalion; cheviot, decorative, democrat, deprecate, detriment, premier, secretary, specify; citizen, delirious, military, misery; crocodile, monument, oxygen, profligate and soviet if pronounced with /ɒ/ (if pronounced with /əʊ/ it is an exception which instead obeys rule 10); crucifix, cucumber, dubious, fugitive, funeral, impunity, lubricant, lucrative, ludicrous, mutilate, mutiny, nuclear, pugilist, scrupulous, scrutiny; cyclamen, myriad, polygamy, porphyria, syllable, syllabub, syllabus, sylloge, typical, tyranny. For a major class of exceptions see rule 10. Other exceptions: agency, favourite, decency, obesity, penalise, bribery, library, microscope, nitrogen, rivalry, motorist, notify, soloist, culinary, gluttony, jugular, truculent, hydrogen. Some of these exceptions are derived forms retaining a letter-name vowel from the stem word. 371A corollary here is that so few words are long enough to have syllables before the fourth from last that no rules are worth giving for these ‘early syllables’. 3726) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u> before two different consonant letters followed by word-final <-le,-re> in words with no earlier vowel letters are/æ e ɪ ɒ ʌ/, e.g. angle, handle, tremble, uncle, muscle; centre, sceptre, spectre, lustre and most of the <-stle> group (except castle) – see section 3.6.6. 3737) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u y> before a consonant letter other than <l, r> followed by <l, r> where there is a later pronounced vowel letter (including the <e> of the 2-phoneme grapheme <-le>) are/eɪ iː aɪ əʊ (j)uː aɪ/. A few examples are able, cradle, maple; bible, disciple, idle, title, trifle; noble; bugle, duplex, scruple; cycle, cyclone; acre, April, apron, flagrant, fragrant, sabre; fibre, mitre; cobra, ogre; lucre, putrid; cypress, hybrid. Extension: ochre, where the first intervening consonant is represented by a digraph. Some exceptions: establish, treble, triple, goblet, goblin, problem, publish; acrid, Avril, petrol, citr-ic /on/ ous, copra. 3748) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i u> when followed by a single consonant letter and word-final <-ate,-et,-it,-ite,-ot,-ut,-ute> are /æ e ɪ (j)uː/. A few examples are gamut, granite, planet, tacit; legate, senate; rivet, limit, bigot, minute; unit. I can find no examples with <o>. Some exceptions: climate, pilot, private. 3759) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u> when followed by a single consonant letter and word-final <-ic,-id,-it,-ule> are /æ e ɪ ɒ (j)uː/. A few examples are acid, rabid, squalid, tepid, frigid, timid, solid, stolid, cubic, humid, lucid, music, punic, putrid, runic, stupid, tunic. Among the few exceptions are acetic, fetid pronounced /ˈfiːtɪd/ (also pronounced with /e/), graphemic, phonemic, scenic, chromic, and phobic and all its compounds. 37610) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u> before a single consonant letter (except <r>) and an ending containing any of <ea eo eou eu ia ie io iou iu> are/eɪ iː ɪ əʊ (j)uː/, regardless of whether the ending contains two syllables or one. There are thousands of examples; a few are: (2-syllable ending, stress on antepenultimate – these words are exceptions to rule 5) azalea, alien, radium; meteor, comedian, lenient, medium; erroneous, petroleum, polio, odious, odium; dubious; (1-syllable ending, stress on penultimate) courageous, facial, nation, spacious; cohesion, specious; delicious, magician; ocean, social, quotient; crucial, solution. Exceptions: companion, pageant, ration, spaniel with /æ/; discretion, precious, special with /e/; soviet if pronounced with /ɒ/; bunion, onion with /ʌ/. 37711) The predominant pronunciations of <a e i o u> as stressed singleletter graphemes before a single consonant letter and the endings <-al,-sive> are/eɪ iː aɪ əʊ (j)uː/, e.g. fatal, naval; legal, regal, venal; arrival, final, reprisal, rival, spinal; local, modal, opal, oval, proposal, total, vocal; brutal, ducal, frugal, refusal, tribunal; evasive, adhesive, decisive, corrosive, explosive, abusive, conclusive, intrusive. Exceptions: medal, metal, pedal, petal with /e/. Vowel letters preceding the ending <-ssive>, however, are ‘short’. 378Beyond this point, any further rules would apply to so few words that they are hardly worth stating, and, lamentably, there are large numbers of words which are not covered. The two largest gaps are probably (1) reduced pronunciations (/ə, ɪ/) of the single vowel letters when unstressed; (2) long and short pronunciations of the single vowel letters before single consonant letters in circumstances other than those covered above. These are the places where the pronunciation of single vowel letters is at its most unpredictable from the spelling in English and requires most effort to learn, and any attempt to show further regularities would be too complex to be useful because of the large numbers of exceptions. 379The elephant in the room in this section is: how can you tell from the written forms of English words where the main stress falls, in order to work out where some of my ‘rules’apply? For some discussion of this see section A. 10 in Appendix A. 380Inspection of the headings of sections 10.3-40 will show that rather more than might be expected (<air are aw ee e. e eer igh ir o. e oi ore oy>) give the percentage of the basic pronunciation as 100%, and two others (<ie i. e>) are close to that. But many of the rest are somewhat or considerably lower, and in three cases (<ere i y>) no useful figures can be given. Overall (but I have not (yet) done the calculation) I would guess that the predictability of the pronunciations of main-system graphemes beginning with vowel letters may be about 60%. 10.43 Consolation prize?381The only consolation prize is that almost all multi-letter graphemes beginning with vowel letters have far fewer correspondences and more regularity than the vowels letters as single-letter graphemes have – yet even here there is an egregious exception: <ou>, with 8 minor correspondences. As with various other aspects of the system, there is no choice but to learn the rest. |
How many 5-letter words containing 3 vowels and 2 consonants can be formed using the 62 letters of the word equation so that 3 vowels always occur together?
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