Editing English orthography (section)

=== 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).