Editing English orthography (section)

== Function of letters ==
=== Phonemic representation ===
{{Further|Phonemic orthography}}

[[Letter (alphabet)|Letters]] in English orthography positioned at one location
within a specific word usually represent a particular [[phoneme]]. For example, ''at'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|t}} consists of 2 letters {{vr|a}} and {{vr|t}}, which represent {{IPAslink|æ}} and {{IPAslink|t}}, respectively.

[[Multigraph (orthography)|Sequences of letters]] may perform this role as well as single letters. Thus, in ''thrash'' {{IPAc-en|θ|r|æ|ʃ}}, the [[Digraph (orthography)|digraph]] {{vr|th}} (two letters) represents {{IPA|/θ/}}. In ''hatch'' {{IPAc-en|h|æ|tʃ}}, the [[trigraph (orthography)|trigraph]] {{vr|tch}} represents {{IPA|/tʃ/}}.

Less commonly, a single letter can represent multiple successive sounds. The most common example is {{vr|x}}, which normally represents the consonant cluster {{IPA|/ks/}} (for example, in ''tax'' {{IPAc-en|t|æ|k|s}}).

The same letter (or sequence of letters) may be pronounced differently when occurring in different positions within a word. For instance, {{vr|gh}} represents {{IPA|/f/}} at the end of some words (''tough'' {{IPAc-en|t|ʌ|f}}) but not in others (''plough'' {{IPAc-en|p|l|aʊ}}). At the [[syllable onset|beginning of syllables]], {{vr|gh}} is pronounced {{IPA|/ɡ/}}, as in ''ghost'' {{IPAc-en|ɡ|oʊ|s|t}}. Conversely, {{angbr|gh}} is never pronounced {{IPA|/f/}} in syllable onsets other than in [[inflection|inflected]] forms, and is almost never pronounced {{IPA|/ɡ/}} in [[syllable coda]]s (the proper name ''[[Pittsburgh]]'' is an exception).

Some words contain [[silent letter]]s, which do not represent any sound in modern English pronunciation. Examples include the {{vr|l}} in ''talk'', ''half'', ''calf'', etc., the {{vr|w}} in ''two'' and ''sword'', {{vr|gh}} as mentioned above in numerous words such as ''though'', ''daughter'', ''night'', ''brought'', and the commonly encountered [[silent e|silent {{vr|e}}]] (discussed further below).

=== Word origin ===
{{See also|Hard and soft C|Hard and soft G|Silent k|Palatalization (phonetics)}}

Another type of spelling characteristic is related to word origin. For example, when representing a vowel, {{vr|y}} represents the sound {{IPAslink|ɪ}} in some words [[Loanword|borrowed]] from [[Greek language|Greek]] (reflecting an original [[upsilon]]), whereas the letter usually representing this sound in non-Greek words is the letter {{vr|i}}. Thus, ''myth'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|θ}} is of Greek origin, while ''pith'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|ɪ|θ}} is a [[Germanic languages|Germanic]] word. However, a large number of Germanic words have {{vr|y}} in word-final position.

Some other examples are {{vr|ph}} pronounced {{IPAslink|f}} (which is most commonly {{angbr|f}}), and {{vr|ch}} pronounced {{IPAslink|k}} (which is most commonly {{vr|c}} or {{vr|k}}). The use of these spellings for these sounds often marks [[English words of Greek origin|words that have been borrowed from Greek]].

Some researchers, such as Brengelman (1970), have suggested that, in addition to this marking of word origin, these spellings indicate a more formal level of [[Stylistics (linguistics)|style]] or [[Register (sociolinguistics)|register]] in a given text, although Rollings (2004) finds this point to be exaggerated as there would be many exceptions where a word with one of these spellings, such as {{vr|ph}} for {{IPAslink|f}} (like ''telephone''), could occur in an informal text.

=== Homophone differentiation ===
Spelling may also be useful to distinguish in [[written language]] between [[homophone]]s (words with the same pronunciation but different meanings), and thus resolve potential [[ambiguity|ambiguities]] that would arise otherwise. However in most cases the reason for the difference is historical, and it was not introduced to resolve amibiguity.

;Examples

* ''heir'' and ''air'' are pronounced identically in most dialects, but spelt differently.

* ''pain'' and ''pane'' are both pronounced {{IPAc-en|p|eɪ|n}} but have two different spellings of the vowel {{IPA|/eɪ/}}. This arose because the two words were originally pronounced differently: ''pain'' used to be pronounced as {{IPA|/peɪn/}}, with a diphthong, and ''pane'' as {{IPA|/peːn/}}, but the diphthong {{IPA|/eɪ/}} merged with the long vowel {{IPA|/eː/}} in ''pane'', making ''pain'' and ''pane'' homophones ([[Phonological history of English diphthongs#Long mid mergers|''pane''–''pain'' merger]]). Later {{IPA|/eː/}} became a diphthong {{IPA|/eɪ/}}.

* ''break''  and ''brake'': (''She's breaking the car'' vs. ''She's braking the car'').

Nevertheless, many homophones remain that are unresolved by spelling (for example, the word ''[[wikt:bay|bay]]'' has at least five fundamentally different meanings).

=== Marking sound changes in other letters ===
{{See also|Silent e|Double letter}}

Some letters in English provide information about the pronunciation of other letters in the word. Rollings (2004) uses the term "markers" for such letters. Letters may mark different types of information.

For instance, {{vr|e}} in ''once'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|w|ʌ|n|s}} indicates that the preceding {{vr|c}} is pronounced {{IPAslink|s}}, rather than the more common value of {{vr|c}} in word-final position as the sound {{IPAslink|k}}, such as in ''attic'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|æ|t|ɪ|k}}.

{{vr|e}} also often marks an altered pronunciation of a preceding vowel. In the pair ''mat'' and ''mate'', the {{vr|a}} of ''mat'' has the value {{IPAslink|æ}}, whereas the {{vr|a}} of ''mate'' is marked by the {{vr|e}} as having the value {{IPA|/eɪ/}}. In this context, the {{vr|e}} is not pronounced, and is referred to as a "[[silent e]]".

A single letter may even fill multiple pronunciation-marking roles simultaneously. For example, in the word ''ace'', {{vr|e}} marks not only the change of {{vr|a}} from {{IPAslink|æ}} to {{IPA|/eɪ/}}, but also of {{vr|c}} from {{IPAslink|k}} to {{IPAslink|s}}. In the word ''vague'', {{vr|e}} marks the long {{vr|a}} sound, but {{vr|u}} keeps the {{vr|g}} hard rather than soft.

[[Digraph (orthography)#Homogeneous_digraph|Doubled consonants]] usually indicate that the preceding vowel is pronounced short. For example, the doubled {{vr|t}} in ''batted'' indicates that the {{vr|a}} is pronounced {{IPAslink|æ}}, while the single {{vr|t}} of ''bated'' gives {{IPA|/eɪ/}}. Doubled consonants only indicate any lengthening or [[gemination]] of the consonant sound itself when they come from different morphemes, as with the {{vr|nn}} in ''unnamed'' (''un''+''named'').

=== Multiple functionality ===
Any given letters may have dual functions. For example, {{vr|u}} in ''statue'' has a sound-representing function (representing the sound {{IPAslink|u}}) and a pronunciation-marking function (marking the {{vr|t}} as having the value {{IPAslink|tʃ}} opposed to the value {{IPAslink|t}}).

=== Underlying representation ===
Like many other [[alphabet]]ic orthographies, English spelling does not represent non-contrastive [[phonetics|phonetic]] sounds (that is, minor differences in pronunciation which are not used to distinguish between different words).

Although the letter {{vr|t}} is pronounced by most speakers with [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] {{IPA|[tʰ]}} at the beginning of words, this is never indicated in the spelling, and, indeed, this phonetic detail is probably not noticeable to the average native speaker not trained in phonetics.

However, unlike some orthographies, English orthography often represents a very abstract [[underlying representation]] (or [[morphophonology|morphophonemic]] form) of English words.{{sfn|Rollings|2004|pages=16–19}}{{sfn|Chomsky|Halle|1968}}{{sfn|Chomsky|1970}}

{{Blockquote| [T]he postulated underlying forms are systematically related to the conventional orthography ... and are, as is well known, related to the underlying forms of a much earlier historical stage of the language. There has, in other words, been little change in lexical representation since [[Middle English]], and, consequently, we would expect ... that [[lexicon|lexical]] representation would differ very little from dialect to dialect in [[Modern English]] ... [and] that conventional orthography is probably fairly close to optimal for all modern English dialects, as well as for the attested dialects of the past several hundred years.{{sfn|Chomsky|Halle|1968|page=54}}}}

In these cases, a given [[morpheme]] (i.e., a component of a word) has a fixed spelling even though it is pronounced differently in different words. An example is the [[past tense]] [[suffix]] -{{vr|ed}}, which may be pronounced variously as {{IPA|/t/}}, {{IPA|/d/}}, or {{IPA|/ᵻd/}}{{efn|name=schwa|The vowel of the suffixes -{{angbr|ed}} and -{{vr|es}} may belong to the phoneme of either {{IPA|/ɪ/}} or {{IPA|/ə/}} depending on dialect, and {{angbr IPA|ᵻ}} is a shorthand for "either {{IPA|/ɪ/}} or {{IPA|/ə/}}". This usage of the symbol is borrowed from the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.}} (for example, ''pay'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|eɪ}}, ''payed'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|eɪ|d}}, ''hate'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|eɪ|t}}, ''hated'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|h|eɪ|t|ᵻ|d}}). As it happens, these different pronunciations of -{{vr|ed}} can be predicted by a few [[phonology|phonological]] rules, but that is not the reason why its spelling is fixed.

Another example involves the vowel differences (with accompanying stress pattern changes) in several related words. For instance, ''photographer'' is derived from ''photograph'' by adding the [[Morphological derivation|derivational]] suffix -{{vr|er}}. When this suffix is added, the vowel pronunciations change largely owing to the moveable stress:

{| class="wikitable"
! Spelling
! Pronunciation
|-
| ''photograph''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|oʊ|t|ə|ɡ|r|æ|f}} or {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|oʊ|t|ə|ɡ|r|ɑː|f}}
|-
| ''photographer''
| {{IPAc-en|f|ə|ˈ|t|ɒ|ɡ|r|ə|f|ər}}
|-
| ''photographical''
| {{IPAc-en|ˌ|f|oʊ|t|ə|ˈ|ɡ|r|æ|f|ɪ|k|əl}}
|}

Other examples of this type are the -{{vr|ity}} suffix (as in ''agile'' vs. ''agility'', ''acid'' vs. ''acidity'', ''divine'' vs. ''divinity'', ''sane'' vs. ''sanity''). See also: [[Trisyllabic laxing]].

Another example includes words like ''mean'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|iː|n}} and ''meant'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɛ|n|t}}, where {{vr|ea}} is pronounced differently in the two related words. Thus, again, the orthography uses only a single spelling that corresponds to the single morphemic form rather than to the surface phonological form.

English orthography does not always provide an underlying representation; sometimes it provides an intermediate representation between the underlying form and the surface pronunciation. This is the case with the spelling of the regular [[plural]] morpheme, which is written as either -{{vr|s}} (as in ''tat, tats'' and ''hat, hats'') or -{{vr|es}} (as in ''glass, glasses''). Here, the spelling -{{vr|s}} is pronounced either {{IPAslink|s}} or {{IPAslink|z}} (depending on the environment, e.g., ''tats'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|æ|t|s}} and ''tails'' {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|eɪ|l|z}}) while -{{vr|es}} is usually pronounced {{IPA|/ᵻz/}}{{efn|name=schwa}} (e.g. ''classes'' {{IPA|/ˈklæsᵻz/}}). Thus, there are two different spellings that correspond to the single underlying representation |{{IPA|z}}| of the plural suffix and the three surface forms. The spelling indicates the [[Epenthesis|insertion]] of {{IPA|/ᵻ/}} before the {{IPA|/z/}} in the spelling -{{vr|es}}, but does not indicate the [[Voice (phonetics)|devoiced]] {{IPA|/s/}} distinctly from the unaffected {{IPA|/z/}} in the spelling -{{vr|s}}.

The abstract representation of words as indicated by the orthography can be considered advantageous since it makes etymological relationships more apparent to English readers. This makes writing English more complex, but arguably makes reading English more efficient.{{sfn|Chomsky|1970|page=294}}{{sfn|Rollings|2004|page=17}} However, very abstract underlying representations, such as that of Chomsky & Halle (1968) or of [[underspecification]] theories, are sometimes considered too abstract to accurately reflect the [[communicative competence]] of native speakers. Followers of these arguments believe the less abstract surface forms are more "psychologically real" and thus more useful in terms of [[pedagogy]].{{sfn|Rollings|2004|pages=17–19}}