The English spelling system is one of the most irregular spelling systems in current use. Although French presents a similar degree of difficulty when encoding (writing), English is more difficult when decoding (reading). English has never had any formal regulating authority, like the Spanish Real Academia Española, Italian Accademia della Crusca or the French Académie française, so attempts to regularize ...

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English spelling, English spelling - History of the English spelling system, English spelling - Irregularities in the English spelling system, English spelling - The state of English spelling

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Note: This information applies to RP. Other than variations in the possible onsets with or without final /j/, and the presence or absence of the phoneme /ʍ/, it also applies to the other main varieties of English. /ʍ/ only occurs syllable-initial and does not occur in clusters. English phonology - Syllable structure. The syllab ...

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English phonology, English phonology - English phonemes, English phonology - The history of English pronunciation, English phonology - Some noteworthy phonological processes in English, English phonology - æ-tensing, English phonology - Bad-lad split, English phonology - Cot-caught merger, English phonology - English phonotactics, English phonology - Syllable structure, English phonology - Syllable-level rules, English phonology - Word-level rules

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Since Dutch has many more vowels than the Latin alphabet, a system has come into use indicating vowels by an intricate system of single and double vowels or consonants. The same letter is used to indicate a pair of vowels that are close to each other in the IPA vowel space. Depending on the particular phonological treatise, the members of each pair are given various names: sharp/dull, clear/dim, free/checked, tense/lax, open/closed, long/short. Although vowel length is not phonemic in Dutch, one of each pair is pronounced slightly longer by many speakers, so the naming long/short is probably most ...

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Dutch orthography, Dutch orthography - Regularity, Dutch orthography - Spelling reform, Dutch orthography - Doubled vowels or consonants, Dutch orthography - The 't kofschip rule

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See International Phonetic Alphabet for English and IPA chart for English for charts of the English phonemes. The number of speech sounds in English varies from dialect to dialect, and any actual tally depends greatly on the interpretation of the researcher doing the counting. The Longman Pronunciation Dictionary by John C. Wells, for example, using symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet, denotes 24 consonants and 23 vowels used in Received Pronunciation, plus two additional consonants and four additional vowels ...

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English phonology, English phonology - English phonemes, English phonology - The history of English pronunciation, English phonology - Some noteworthy phonological processes in English, English phonology - æ-tensing, English phonology - Bad-lad split, English phonology - Cot-caught merger, English phonology - English phonotactics, English phonology - Syllable structure, English phonology - Syllable-level rules, English phonology - Word-level rules

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The King James Version (KJV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible, commissioned for the benefit of the Church of England at the behest of King James I of England. First published in 1611, it has had a profound impact not only on most English translations that have followed it, but also on English literature as a whole. The works of famous authors such as John Bunyan, John Milton, Herman Melville, John Dryden, and William Wordsworth are replete with inspiration apparently derived from the King James Version. Bibles from the Engl ...

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• King James Version of the Bible - Background
• King James Version of the Bible - The Project
• King James Version of the Bible - Committees
• King James Version of the Bible - Literary attributes
• King James Version of the Bible - Translation
• King James Version of the Bible - Style
• King James Version of the Bible - Subsequent history
• King James Version of the Bible - Difference in the contents
• King James Version of the Bible - Prefatory material
• King James Version of the Bible - Typeface spelling and format
• King James Version of the Bible - The current text
• King James Version of the Bible - Copyright status
• King James Version of the Bible - Literary influence

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In order to keep up with changing usage, Dutch orthography is revised at regular intervals. In an international co-operation between the Netherlands, Flanders and Suriname, the "Nederlandse Taalunie" regulates orthography on an official basis. The official system is known as the "De Vries en Te Winkel" spelling. It was established in 1863 in Belgium, implemented in the Netherlands from 1883, and reformed in 1946 (Belgium) and 1947 (Netherlands) and in 1996 (Belgium and Netherlands). In everyday use, the authority on orthography is the Woordenlijst Nederlandse taal, known unofficially ...

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Dutch orthography, Dutch orthography - Regularity, Dutch orthography - Spelling reform, Dutch orthography - Doubled vowels or consonants, Dutch orthography - The 't kofschip rule

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Weak verbs form their past tenses by addition of a dental, ‹d› or ‹t›. Because final consonants are always devoiced, there is no difference in pronunciation between these in the participle. However, the orthography operates as though this devoicing did not take place. The rule is that words ending in voiceless consonants take the voiceless -t-, voiced consonants the voiced d. Dutch children are taught the rule 't kofschip is met thee beladen, ("the merchant ship is loaded with tea"), that is, if the verb stem in the ...

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Dutch orthography, Dutch orthography - Regularity, Dutch orthography - Spelling reform, Dutch orthography - Doubled vowels or consonants, Dutch orthography - The 't kofschip rule

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See also History of the English language Around the late 14th century, English began to undergo the Great Vowel Shift, in which the high long vowels [iː] and [uː] in words like price and mouth became diphthongized, first to [əɪ] and [əʊ] (where they remain today in some environments ...

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English phonology, English phonology - English phonemes, English phonology - The history of English pronunciation, English phonology - Some noteworthy phonological processes in English, English phonology - æ-tensing, English phonology - Bad-lad split, English phonology - Cot-caught merger, English phonology - English phonotactics, English phonology - Syllable structure, English phonology - Syllable-level rules, English phonology - Word-level rules

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Stress changes in many English words came about when the word was used as either a noun or a verb. For example, a rebel (stress on the first syllable) is inclined to rebel (stress on the second syllable) against the powers that be. The number of words using this pattern as opposed to only stressing the second syllable in all circumstances doubled every century or so, now including the English words object, convict, and addict. Although regional variation is very great across English dialects, some ge ...

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English phonology, English phonology - English phonemes, English phonology - The history of English pronunciation, English phonology - Some noteworthy phonological processes in English, English phonology - æ-tensing, English phonology - Bad-lad split, English phonology - Cot-caught merger, English phonology - English phonotactics, English phonology - Syllable structure, English phonology - Syllable-level rules, English phonology - Word-level rules

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Most irregular verbs exist as remnants of historical conjugation systems. What is today an exception actually followed a set, normal rule long ago. When that rule fell into disuse, some verbs kept the old conjugation. An example of this is the word kept, which before the Great Vowel Shift fell into a class of words where the vowel in keep (then pronounced kehp) was shortened in the past tense. Similar words, such as peep, that arose after the Vowel Shift, use the regular -ed suffix. Groups of irregular verbs include: ...

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English irregular verbs, English irregular verbs - Origin, English irregular verbs - Common irregularities

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Languages, especially standard languages or official languages used in courts of law, for administration of government, and for the promulgation of official works, tend to acquire norms and standards over time. Once English became the language of administration of law in England, a form of late Middle English called chancery English became such a standard. When William Caxton introduced printing with movable ty ...

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Prescription and description, Prescription and description - Examples of linguistic prescription, Prescription and description - A history of linguistic prescription in English, Prescription and description - Topics in English usage prescription, Prescription and description - Additional resources

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Born in Dublin, Ireland to rather poor Protestant parents, Shaw was educated at Wesley College, Dublin and moved to London during the 1870s to embark on his literary career. He wrote five novels, all of which were rejected, before finding his first success as a music critic on the Star newspaper. In the meantime he had become involved in politics, and served as a local councillor in the St Pancras district of London for several years from 1897. He was a noted sociali ...

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George Bernard Shaw, George Bernard Shaw - Biography, George Bernard Shaw - Vegetarianism, George Bernard Shaw - Socialism and Political Beliefs, George Bernard Shaw - Quotations, George Bernard Shaw - Works, George Bernard Shaw - Dramatic, George Bernard Shaw - Novels & collections of essays, George Bernard Shaw - Music criticism

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English verbs, like those in many other western European languages, have more tenses than forms; tenses beyond the ones possible with the five forms listed above are formed with auxiliary verbs, as are the passive voice forms of these verbs. Important auxiliary verbs in English include will, used to form the future tense; shall, formerly used mainly for the future tense, but now used mainly for commands and directives; be, have, and do, which are used to form the supplementary tenses of the English verb, ...

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English verbs, English verbs - Principal parts, English verbs - Infinitive and basic form, English verbs - Third person singular, English verbs - Present participle, English verbs - Preterite, English verbs - Past participle, English verbs - Tenses of the English verb, English verbs - Overview of tenses, English verbs - Present simple, English verbs - Present progressive, English verbs - Present Perfect, English verbs - Present perfect progressive, English verbs - Past simple, English verbs - Past progressive, English verbs - Past perfect, English verbs - Past perfect progressive, English verbs - Future simple, English verbs - Future progressive, English verbs - Future perfect, English verbs - Future perfect progressive, English verbs - Conditional, English verbs - Conditional perfect, English verbs - Present subjunctive, English verbs - Imperfect subjunctive

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English spelling contains many irregularities due to a number of factors. Borrowing from other languages is one of them; an even greater cause is the fact that English began to be widely written and printed during the Middle English period. While English spelling was relatively systematic during the Middle English period, the shift to modern English involved undergoing a Great Vowel Shift and many other changes in phonology. The older, etymological spel ...

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Spelling reform, Spelling reform - English spelling reform, Spelling reform - List of leading English spelling reform proposals, Spelling reform - Successes in spelling complication, Spelling reform - Successes in spelling simplification, Spelling reform - French spelling reform, Spelling reform - German spelling reform of 1996, Spelling reform - Indonesian spelling reforms, Spelling reform - Norwegian spelling reforms, Spelling reform - Portuguese spelling reforms, Spelling reform - Russian spelling reforms, Spelling reform - Spanish language spelling reforms

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One of the noted deficiencies of English spelling is a high number of silent letters. Carney distinguishes different kinds of "silent" letter, which present differing degrees of difficulty to readers and writers. Auxiliary letters which constitute digraphs, where 2 letters combine to represent a single phoneme. These may further be categorized as "exocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is different from that of either of its constituent letters. These are rarely considered "silent". There are exampl ...

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Silent letter, Silent letter - English

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The letters A, E, I, O, U are vowels; sometimes Y and rarely W function as vowels too, but more often they're semivowels. The remaining letters are consonants. The letter most frequently used in English is E. The least frequently used letters are Q, X, and Z. The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except in compound words like tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, aitch-less, wye-level, etc., and derived forms like exed out, effing, to eff and blind. The forms listed h ...

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English alphabet, English alphabet - Notes

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History of the English language - Old English. Beowulf lines 1 to 11, approximately AD 900 Hwæt! We Gar-Dena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon. Oft Scyld Scefing sceaþena þreatum, monegum mægþum, meodosetla ofteah, egsode eorlas. Syððan ærest wearð feasceaft funden, he þæs frofre gebad, weox under wolcnum, weorðmyndum þah, oðþæt him æghwylc þara ymbsittendra ofer hronrade hyran scolde, ...

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History of the English language, History of the English language - Proto-English, History of the English language - Old English, History of the English language - Middle English, History of the English language - Early Modern English, History of the English language - Historic English text samples, History of the English language - Old English, History of the English language - Middle English, History of the English language - Early Modern English, History of the English language - Modern English

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These words are compounds formed from Latin and Greek root words. Greek words are almost invariably Latinized (see transliteration of Greek into English). In English: Greek αι becomes e, or sometimes æ or ae in British English. Greek groups with γ plus a stop consonant such as γγ or γκ become ng and nc respectively. Greek ει often becomes i (occasionally it is retained as ei). Greek κ becomes c, ...

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Classical compound, Classical compound - A source of international technical vocabulary, Classical compound - Formation spelling and pronunciation, Classical compound - History and reception, Classical compound - More recent developments, Classical compound - Reference

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English alphabet - Phonology. The letters A, E, I, O, U are vowels; sometimes Y and rarely W function as vowels too, but more often they're semivowels. The remaining letters are consonants. The letter most frequently used in English is E. The least frequently used letters are Q, X, and Z. English alphabet - Letter names. The names of the letters are rarely spelled out, except in compound words like tee-shirt, deejay, emcee, okay, aitch-less, < ...

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English alphabet, English alphabet - Notes, English alphabet - Phonology, English alphabet - Letter names, English alphabet - Diacritics, English alphabet - Ligatures

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Many content words would be homographs of common function words if not for the latter's "redundant" letters: e.g. be/bee, in/inn, I/eye, to/two. Otto Jespersen, describing the phenomenon in 1909, suggested the short spelling was a marker of reduced stress. Content words always have at least one stressed syllable, whereas function words are often completely unstressed; shorter spellings help to reflect this. (Interjections such as ah, eh, lo, yo are always stressed. Pu ...

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Three letter rule, Three letter rule - Origin, Three letter rule - Exceptions

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