It has often struck me as surprising that many even thoroughly fluent users of EFL continue year after year using strikingly inappropriate pronunciations of various individual words. Perhaps some such speakers, knowing that many English words are current in two or more variant but equally acceptable forms, imagine that their version is a valid alternative. I have long pondered on what might be the best way to tackle this problem. I suspect that one possible line of attack would be to recommend that users of English as an extra language should undertake to review their impressions from time to time of how the GB (ie General British) or GA (ie General American) English phonemes are represented in traditional orthography. With this in mind I included in the chapter Orthography in my 1969 Guide to English Pronunciation a section which went through the English phonemes one by one showing the ordinary spellings they received and listing the most notable departures from those patterns. The following is an enlargement of that list. The generalisations it contains should not necessarily be taken as applicable to proper nouns and adjectives nor to subvariant alternant pronunciations. 

The word ate is pronounced / eɪt / the north of England and by educated Americans. In the early twentieth century it was by GB speakers almost universally / et / but there is now in an increasingly large minority a tendency to conform this word to the value suggested by its spelling.
    The verb forms said and says have as normal GB values only / sed / and / sez /. The form /seɪz/ has been relatively recently recognised, perhaps controversially, by MWO (Merriam Webster Online). The word again is either /ə `ɡen/ or /ə `ɡeɪn/.
    This vowel is represented by the spelling ee in the most usual version of Greenwich / `ɡrenɪʧ /. When the word threepence was common currency (before the British adoption of a decimal coinage system in 1971) a very widely spread form of it was / `θrepəns /. It was very widely heard as / `θrəpəns / but also as / `θrʌpəns /,  in London as / `θrʊpəns / and occasionally by conservative elderly speakers as / `θrɪpəns /. Irish people it seems widely used to say / `θripəns/. These have all now been replaced except in archaistic or metaphorical usage by three `pence or three `p /pi/.
    The spelling ei for this vowel only occurs in leisure, heifer and, among common placenames, Leicester / `lestə /. In America leisure is usually / `liʒər /.
Only in the word friend / e / is represented by ie.  
    A few common words have eo for / e / eg leopard, and jeopardy. Cf Geoffrey.
Only in the words bury and burial / e / is u. The placename Bury (St Edmunds) also has / e /.
Although the suffix -ment is usually / -mənt /, in verbs when it becomes a penultimate syllable it is often /-ment /, eg in complemented, experimented and supplemented.
    In a notable number of words a final unstressed syllable spelt with e may not undergo the usual weakening to schwa but exhibit / e / eg comment, congress, contents, contest, digest, progress, protest. In American usage congress generally weakens to / -rəs / or / -rɪs /.

This vowel corresponds to ai in plaid and plait. Of loanwords lingerie may be /`lanʒəri/, meringue /mə`raŋ/ and timbre /`tambrə, `tambə/ or /`tãbrə/. It also may be heard in the first syllable of daiquiri as a subvariant form ie pronounced by a minority. The military term reveille is /rə`vali/. The names `Caithlin and `Plaistow have /a/ in their stressed syllables. See also the second paragraph on /ɑ/ immediately following this.

The seventy or so most common words which usually have /ɑ/ in General British are
/ ɑnd / command, countermand, demand, remand, reprimand, slander ; Flanders.
/ ɑnt / advantage, can’t, chant, grant, plant, shan’t, slant.  
/ ɑnʃ / avalanche, branch, ranch.
/ ɑːn / aunt, banana, sultana, soprano.
/ ɑns / advance, answer, chance, chancellor, dance, France, glance, lance, trance.
/ ɑm / drama, example, panorama, sample.
/ ɑf / after, behalf, calf, craft, draft, graph, half, laugh, shaft, staff, telegraph.
/ ɑθ / bath, path.
/ ɑð / lather, rather. These have /a/ in GA.
/ ɑs/ ask, bask, basket, flask, mask, rascal, task;brass, class, glass, grass, pass; clasp, gasp, raspberry / `rɑzbri /.
aghast, blast, broadcast, cast, castle, contrast, disaster, fast, fasten, forecast, ghastly, last, mast, master, nasty, past, vast.

It corresponds to the spelling au only in aunt, draught and laugh.
It corresponds to the spelling ear only in heart and hearth.

The vowel /ɑ/ corresponds to the spelling er only in clerk and sergeant and the names Berkshire, Berkeley, Hertfordsire and Derby. In General American Berkeley, clerk and Derby have /-ɜr-/.

These matters are dealt with more fully at §3.1.27 on this site.

This is usually spelt o but corresponds to the spelling a in yacht /jɒt/, au in because, cauliflower, sausage, laurel & the names Laurie, Maurice, Vauxhall and to aw in Lawrence and Lawrie.
It corresponds to the spelling o .. e only in gone and shone (Tho this last rhymes with bone in GA).
It corresponds to the spelling ou in cough, lough /lɒx/ trough /trɒf/. Cf Gloucester.
It corresponds to the spelling ow only in acknowledge and knowledge.
There is no direct regular equivalent to this GB vowel in GA. Such words as borrow, dog, fog, long, orange, wash and water may be heard in GA with either / ɔ / or / ɑ /.
Anomalously it corresponds to the spelling eau in bureaucracy and tho in the last is simply regarded as an error by LPD and ignored by EPD and ODP. 

This is usually spelt au, aw, oar or or but corresponds to the spelling oa only in broad and abroad.
It corresponds to the spelling oor exclusively only in door and floor and it is the usual vowel in poor, sure and moor.

This is usually spelt u or oo but corresponds to the spelling o only in bosom, wolf, woman and worsted. Cf courier / `kʊriə/ and the placename Worcester.  The suffix -ful has this vowel in nouns eg boxful, mouthful, spoonful but not in adjectives eg useful, beautiful, hopeful which instead have either /ə/ or more usually no vowel.  
    Of the twenty GB vowel phonemes /ʊ/ rates only 13th in frequency of occurrence. It appears mostly after labial consonants. Examples are bull, full, pull, bush, put, bushel, butcher, pudding, pulpit, push, sugar.

This vowel is usually represented by the spelling oo but it corresponds to o only in cantonment, tomb, womb, who, whom and do.
It corresponds to the spelling oe only in canoe, manoeuvre and shoe. It also occurs in the name The Domesday Book.
And to the spellng o..e only in lose, move, prove and whose.
And the spelling ui in bruise, bruit, cruise, fruit, juice, nuisance, pursuit, recruit, sluice, suit etc.
And the spelling uu in vacuum (and the rare exotic words muumuu and puukko).

This is usually represented by <u> but corresponds to the spelling oe only in does.
It corresponds to the spelling oo only in blood and flood.
    In many words spelt with non-final ur-, urr-, or- GB has this vowel rather than GA / ɜː/. These include borough, current, curry, flurry, furrow, hurry, nourish, occurrence, thorough and worry. However, when the final element of the word is not a derivative but an inflectional suffix, then GA and GB agree on / ɜː/ as in furry and occurring. This vowel is used in the GB names Durham, Murray etc.
    Beside and between the letters  m, n, v, w and h as well as the digraphs sh, th etc the letter o more often than not has this sound as in among, brother, colour, come, comfort, cover, done, dove, front, govern, honey, love, monger, mongrel, monk, monkey, mother, none, nothing, one, once, other, plover, pommel, shove, shovel, smother, son, stomach, ton, tongue, won, wonder and worry. GA is more conservative in its preservation of /ʌ/ in hover which GB has converted to a better spelling match with /ɒ/.
    It corresponds to the spelling ou in courage, flourish, nourish; chough, rough, slough, sough, southern, tough, young; Brough, Clough, Hough, Loughborough, Southwell.   (This pattern is traceable to deficiencies in medieval handwriting.)

This is usually spelt er, ir or ur but it corresponds to the spelling or only in attorney, whorl, word, work, world, worm, worse, worship, worst, worth and worthy.
    It corresponds to the spelling our only in courteous, courtesy, journal, journey and scourge; and to yr(r) in myrrh and myrtle. Also to eu in adieu, milieu
    It corresponds to the spelling ear in dearth, earl, early, earn, earnest, Earp, earth, heard, hearse, learn, pearl, rehearse, search, yearn and in subvariant versions of hear, here, year and less commonly in words of the types Europe, curious etc.

1. This is the vowel of unstressed syllables par excellence and by far the most often heard of all the English vowels in unhurried conversation. Among those knowledgeable about pronunciation matters it has its own special name schwa /ʃwɑ/. Most textbooks tend to claim that it never occurs in stressed sylables. This is quite untrue because most people have some words in which they stress it at least at times. The Queen has plainly been heard saying / `dəznt / for doesn’t in recordings. She shares this with many of us, but occasionally she pronounces doing as / `də.ɪŋ/ and then she tends to sound 'posh' to many of us.
As we havent got an accepted spelling for /ə/, when it develops from changes to words whose original spellings can't be used, people invent new spellings which aren’t really satisfactory but can’t be improved upon. Some examples of this are the very common conversational word-forms /kəz/ and /`gənə/ which have come to have their present pronunciations thru shortening of because and going-to.
    In the middle of the twentieth century /ə/ was the predominant stressed vowel in threepence / `θrəpəns / but that word became relatively unusual after the UK adopted decimal currency in 1971. The important fact for the EFL user to know is that stressed schwa is never essential for use in any word. More sophisticated speakers over the north of England use schwa wherever GB speakers use their / ʌ / eg saying funny as / `fəni/. (Less sophisticated northerners tend to say / `fʊni/.) Many American speakers have a quality of their / ʌ / which is closer to schwa than the usual GB values for / ʌ /.

2. The very common unstressed suffix -ate in adjectives and nouns regularly has schwa but is usually / eɪ / in verbs (and chemical terms). Compare alternate and separate, as adjectives or nouns / ɔːl`tɜːnət/ and / `seprət / but as verbs / `ɔːltəneɪt / and / `sepəreɪt /. There are a few exceptions. Candidate has all three possibilities / `kændɪdət, `kændɪdeɪt / and / `kændədɪt/. Climate is often / `klaɪmɪt / and private is / `praɪvɪt / for the majority of GB speakers (pacë LPD).

3. The words from twopence /`tʌpəns/ to elevenpence have since the 1971 British coinage decimalisation been superseded by compound expressions with pence as /pens/ except in historical and figurative contexts.

4. All words ending -berry and most ending -man or -land may take schwa.
Schwa or its elision is the predominant form in at least the commonest -berry words. However, they usually end with unreduced /-beri/ in GA.
Examples: blackberry, Burberry, cranberry, elderberry, gooseberry /`ɡʊzbri/, mulberry, raspberry GB /`rɑzbri/, strawberry /`strɔːb(ə)ri/. Items regularly spelt as two words or hyphenations such as logan berry don't belong in this group.

5. Most words ending -man take schwa barman, chairman, churchman, clergyman, dairyman, dustman, fireman, foreman, Frenchman, freshman, frogman, gentleman, horseman, henchman, infantryman, madman, milkman, penman, ploughman, policeman, salesman, seaman, spokesman, statesman, tradesman, Walkman, woodman.
Exceptions with /a/ include anchorman, badman, bogeyman, caveman, chessman, conman, gasman, handyman, jazzman, Kingsman, middleman, snowman, superman, whiteman.

6. Most words ending -land take schwa eg: Finland, foreland, highland(s), Holland, island, lakeland, lowland, Netherlands, Sutherland. Newfoundland is /`njufəndlənd /˃/-land/˃/nju`faʊndlənd/. Exceptions with usually or always predominant /a/: badlands, borderland, clubland, Disneyland, dreamland, fairyland, farmland, fatherland, gangland, grassland˂, headland˃, heartland, hinterland, homeland˂, mainland˃, moorland˃, motherland, overland, parkland, ploughland, (US plowland), swampland, tableland, tideland, wonderland. Names of specific countries or regions include: Baffinland, Dixieland, Lapland, Thailand and notably various African names including Basutoland, Bechuanaland, Matabeleland, Somaliland, Swaziland etc.

7. The suffix -ful in adjectives may have schwa but more often it's / -fl /. With all nouns it's /-fʊl/. Eg awful / `ɔfl /, beautiful / `bjutəfl /; boxful / `bɒksfʊl /, mouthful / `maʊθfʊl /, spoonful / `spunfʊl /.

8. The suffixes -less and -ness both regularly contain schwa. A few (especially Conspicuous GB speakers) can still be heard to use the Victorian and early twentieth century preference / ɪ / but its value is probably nearer to schwa than the one that they use in stressed syllables with / ɪ /. The main exceptions are business, which is to be heard with either schwa or / ɪ / about equally often, and the name Guinness which practically universally has / ɪ /. The tendency to vowel harmony seems to be at work in these two.

9.More than GA, GB  avoids sequences like /ndn, ntn, nzdn, nstn ŋtn, ŋdn, ŋdm, mdn, mzdn, ndm, bdn, m(p)tn, ptn /. Thus schwa is regularly heard in words like abandon, abundant, accountant, acquaintance, attendant, badminton, correspondent, defendant, dependant, descendant, eastern, independent, informant, instance, kingdom, lantern, lieutenant, penance, piston, random, redundant, remnant, sultan, superintendent, tendon, wanton and western; and in names like Antony, Ashton, Boston, Brompton, Camden, Clarendon, Compton, Constance, Hampton, Hebden, Huntingdon, Kempton, Lipton, London, Rampton, Ramsden, Repton, Rushton, Stilton, Swindon, Taunton, Upton, Vernon, Wellington, Weston, Whittington, Winston and Washington.

Orthographic < t > is ‘silent’ in words where the spelling has < st > followed by syllabic /l/ or /n/ eg   castle,  thistle, whistle,  fasten, listen, mustn’t. Christmas has no /t/. Soften never has a /t/ but often often does. The words asthma and isthmus most often have no sound corresponding to their <th>.
    It is also ‘silent’ for many speakers in words where the spelling has initial <ts> eg tsar (most usually /zɑː/and spelt czar), tsarina, tsetse, tsunami,Tswana etc.

    In many words with endings like <-tia, -tion, -tial, -tious> orthographic <t> corresponds to /ʃ/ eg  inertia, militia, nation, motion, initial, impartial, ambitious, facetious.  In equation only it's replaced by /ʒ/.

This regularly corresponds to the spelling < d > as in  day, did, dyed except that in past forms of verbs ending with voiceless consonants such as with cooked, dropped, washed  etc when it is /t/ unless the <ed> ending has its vowel sounded as in dusted, pasted etc.

This interpretation of the letter s of English spelling is very often extremely difficult. There are many words that show variation between / s / and / z / within one variety and many more that show differences of usage between varieties. Within GB there is more or less equal favouring of the alternative values of the s of numbers of words including abrasive, absorb, delouse, derisory, evasive, explosive, grandiose, resource, supposed-to, treatise, valise etc. Yet the greatest number of words have settled usages.  
    One pattern that should be noted is the alternation between pronunciation / z / as verb and / s / as noun etc in the words abuse, close, diffuse, excuse, house, use and misuse. Notice that disuse, which is mainly a noun, shows the same pattern by having /s/. The noun usage is heard with both values but /s/ seems the more usual.
This pattern is made explicit by the occurrence of spelling with c of the nouns in the pairs advise/advice and devise/device.     The verbs grease and mouse no longer commonly have / z /. Cf peace and appease / ə`piːz/. In the pairs practise/practice and prophesy/prophecy the differentiation is purely visual only / s / being used for both s and c. Whether verb or noun crease, increase and release have only / -s /. Compare also grass/graze and brass/brazen.  
    Common EFL problems include failing to differentiate cease from seize and loose / lus / from lose / luz/ and failing to notice the very anomalous way in which house / haʊs / has the plural / `haʊzɪz /.  
    The way the past of the verb use differentiates its two senses of was accustomed to with / s / and employed with / z / is exemplified in the sentence It was what they used to use to heat houses / ɪt wz wɒt ðeɪ `jus tə `juz | tə hit `haʊzɪz /.     
    The sequence supposed to is very commonly heard with / s / though / z / is common enough not to sound unusual.
The spellings c, sc and st often represent / s / but virtually never / z / (See Consonant 14 for electricity).
    The suffix <-ous> only has / s / eg in amorous, famous, porous, raucous.
Orthographic < s > is ‘silent’  in aisle, corps, desmene, island, isle and also in French loanwords like the rare pas and as the commoner element of compounds like pas de deux.
    The letter z represents / s / in chintz, chutzpah, eczema, howitzer, quartz and waltz.

This corresponds to the spelling ss only in brassiere, dessert, dissolve, possess, scissors, hussar and common variant pronunciations of hussy, business and pessimist. A few informal names have /z/ for ss including Aussie, Issy and Ossie. So have Rossetti and Missouri.
    The word electricity has a common subvariant form with its c represented by /z/.
Different preferences between / z / and / s / are notable contrasts between varieties of (educated) English. GA prefers or at least uses / s / in names such as Chrysler, Denise and Leslie in which GB usually employs / z /. A similar contrast occurs with the words blouse, erase and valise. In GA the suffix -ese may be heard with / s / which is hardly known in GB except in Peloponnese. Scottish English often has / z / for the c in December, but / s / for the first s in houses which is normally /`haʊzɪz/ in GA and GB.
Orthographic z is /s/ in blitz, intermezzo, quartz, scherzo & schizophrenia.

This is never heard in GB before a pause or as the invariable possibility where it precedes another consonant sound. (In GA any written r may be uttered tho many more are elided than is no doubt the general impression eg in a word like surprise which often loses its first /r/.)
    In GA in one unique word / r / is heard where no r appears in the spelling viz  colonel / `kɜrnl /.)
Any word ending with the spelling -r or -re when followed in close rhythmical connection with a vowel sound usually has the an r pronounced. Such an / r / is known as a linking / r /.
    It is also normal in GB to insert a linking / r / between any word-final schwa and a rhythmically closely following vowel sound as in the idea of it / ði aɪ `dɪər əv ɪt /.
    Linking / r / is also used  by most GB speakers when / ɜ / ends a word in such situations and also similarly with  / ɑ / or / ɔ / even when no < r > is involved in their spelling. At one time purists criticised such usages as not being "justified" by the spelling but they are now so commonplace that they almost invariably pass unnoticed.

Consonant 22 / j / (often known as "yod")

This is chiefly notable for the considerable number of words from which it is usually omitted rather than kept. These include most words of which a minority pronunciation exists with one of the sequences / θju, sju, zju/ or / lju/ such as enthusiast, suit, supermarket, lewd, ludo, lure and absolute. However, assume, consume, presume, resume and subsume predominantly have yod in GB. Never now heard with yod are lunatic and the names Lewis, Lucy, Luke, Luther, Luton, Sue and Susan. GA avoids all such yods and, unlike GB, has no yod in such words as tune, due and new.
    After / ʧ, ʤ, r / and / l / plus a consonant no yods are used (in GA or GB) eg chew, clue, June, rule and blue.
In the expression hallelujah alone /j/ is represented by the letter j thus usually differing solely from Alleluia /alə`lujə/ by the presence of its initial /h/. There are also the proprietary German loanword terms Jaeger /`jeɪɡə/ and Jagermeister (Jägermeister) /`jeɪɡəmaɪstə/.

This consonant is not heard in the words spelt heir, honest, honour, hour and their derivatives nor after the prefix ex- in words like exhaust, exhilarate and exhort. However, it is used in exhale and by some GB speakers in exhume.
    It is not heard in shepherd or posthumous and often not in abhorrent and adhesive. It is not ordinarily heard in words beginning wh- in GB but is a common minority usage in them in GA. It is often omitted from words in which it begins an unstressed initial syllable like historical. Unlike GA, GB doesn't omit / h / from herb, huge, human or humour.
    In the Spanish loanword junta it is the usual sound for the <j>in American usage as /`hʊntə/ but the predominant form of the word in Britain is /`ʤʌntə/.  
    It corresponds to the spelling ch in chutzpah and Chaim to j in La Jolla.
See also blog 335. 

  

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