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Potpourri of Homographs and Homophones Analyzed and Explained 2
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(For an explanation of potpourri go to brief description at Potpourri of Homographs and Homophones Analyzed and Explained 1, also go to carralaficklin.com for videos on English and Spanish)
(Part 2 a of Long Description, Part 1 of Long Description at Potpourri of Homographs and Homophones Analyzed and Explained 1)
One reason that English can be mind boggling is that there is no relationship between the way a word is pronounced and the same way that that same word is spelt. The gap can be enormous. Need some examples? Examples are not hard to find. Compare how the following words are written with how those same words are pronounced: subtle, colonel, pneumonia, eight, through, bough.
Why are the above words written so differently from how they are pronounced? How much time do you have? For one, you can not forget the role of silent letters or diphthongs in English. Depending on the word, English has many. What are silent letters and silent diphthongs? They are letters or diphthongs which do not correspond to any sound in a word's pronunciation. In the word ‘debt’, the letter 'b' is silent; in the word autumn, the n is silent and in the word corps, both the p and s are silent. In the area of silent diphthongs in words in English, the following words are examples, the silent diphthongs are highlighted: clothes, daughter, light and ought. In many words, one letter of the diphthong is pronounced while the other is silent; the silent letter of the diphthong is highlighted: knee, gnash, mnemonic, psychology, tsunami, ghost. It would seem logical that silent letters or diphthongs can be ignored not only in speaking but also in writing. Who says that English, or, for that matter, any language is logical? English is many things; however, it is not logical. Its irregularities can drive any sane person, be he/she native speaker or not, raving mad. Therefore, although not pronounced, a silent letter or diphthong must be included in the written form of the word. The word gost , for example, without the 'h' means nothing. The ‘b’ is not pronounced in the words debt, plumber or comb but the letter must be included when writing the words. Just as the ‘p’ must be included in the words: psalm, pseudo, psychologist or psychiatrist. (contains 8 sets of istudycards)
(Part 2b of Long Description, Part 1 of Long Description at Potpourri of Homographs and Homophones Analyzed and Explained 1)
Along with silent letters, another reason that there is a great gap between the representations of a word in writing versus how that same word is pronounced has a lot to do with the role of vowel and some consonants in English. Did you know that there are several ways to represent the sound, in writing, all vowels and some consonants and diphthongs? Using the case of the long e(i) as an example, the following are the many different ways that the long e is represented in writing: ee, ea, _e_, e, ei, ie, i, y. The last two letters on the list demonstrate that the sound of the long e(i) can be in words which do not even contain the letter ‘e’. The following words would be examples: free, heat, she, Pete, niece, receive, pizza, Billy. Another example is the long i(ai). The following are the many different ways to represent that sound in writing: ai, ign, i, _i_e, i, igh, y, y_e. Once again, the list demonstrate that the sound of the long i(ai) can be in words which do not contain the i. Note the following words: Thai, sigh, try, I, tile, type, alignment, grind, iron. Not only vowels but also the sounds of certain consonants have different representations in writing. Note the different words which all contain the sound of the consonant f: rough, laugh, Philippine, Filipino. The hard c sound can be represented by the following words: Michael, Christmas, clever, key. There are also several ways to represent the sound of the n in English: Nancy, knee, gnaw, gnat, know, knack, knap, cnida, cnidoblast, cnemis, mnemonic, pneumonia, pneogram. The diphthong sh sound is not only represented by the diphthong sh. Note that all the following words are pronounced like the diphthong sh: shall, sherry, she, champagne, Chablis, chic. The sound of the diphthong air has many different representation in writing: glare, pair, bear, guerrilla, heir, Beirut, narrow, wear, very, their, there, hair. The ow sound as in the word, cow, can be represented in writing by either the ow or the ou: pow-wow, browse, sow, clown, shout, thousand, foul, loud, bout, south.
Because of the above characteristics, English is a language which is full of homophones. Because English contains a lot of words which are spelt differently but are pronounced exactly the same, even for native speakers, English can be a confusing language. This confusion is especially, but not exclusively, in the area of spelling. Also, because there are a lot of words in English which sounds like other words which are not defined the same, context is extremely important. Therefore, although, to/too/two, air/heir, aisle/ I’ll, Ann/an, chord/cord, Thai/ tie, chanty/ shanty, Cher/ share, fill/Phil, knead/need, psi/ sigh, check/ cheque, pique/ peak/ peek, surf/ serf, dew/ do.
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SKU: a191
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