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Is English pronunciation based on spelling?
It is important to understand that English is not a phonetic language. So we often do not say a word the same way it is spelled. Some words can have the same spelling but different pronunciation, for example: I like to read [ri:d].
Is English a phonographic language?
Like we all know, the English alphabet has 26 letters. This, consequently, makes English a non-phonetic language, which means that the pronunciation of a word is not dependent on its spelling.
What is the problem with English spelling?
English spelling is littered with irregularities: lurking mute letters, treacherous doubled consonants or slippery spellings with multiple pronunciations, which are, in most cases, far more confusing than those of French spelling, a close second when it comes to languages with a low graphy to sound correlation.
How English is not a phonetic language?
Always remember that English is not “phonetic”. That means that we do not always say a word the same way that we spell it. The English language may have 26 letters of the alphabet, but it has at least 44 sounds. Knowing and recognizing those sounds will help to give you good pronunciation.
Are phonemes always spelled the same way?
In many cases, a single letter represents a single phoneme, but in most cases, there are multiple ways of representing a particular phoneme in English spelling. So, a single phoneme such as /n/ may be represented by letters in numerous different ways such as n, nn, kn, gn, or pn.
How are logograms used in modern shorthand?
Logograms are used in modern shorthand to represent common words. In addition, the numerals and mathematical symbols are logograms – 1 ‘one’, 2 ‘two’, + ‘plus’, = ‘equals’, and so on. In English, the ampersand & is used for ‘and’ and (as in many languages) for Latin et (as in &c for et cetera ),…
Why do some logographic systems have a phonetic dimension?
All historical logographic systems include a phonetic dimension, as it is impractical to have a separate basic character for every word or morpheme in a language. In some cases, such as cuneiform as it was used for Akkadian, the vast majority of glyphs are used for their sound values rather than logographically.
Is there a purely logographic script for other languages?
A purely logographic script would be impractical for many other languages, and none is known. All logographic scripts ever used for natural languages rely on the rebus principle to extend a relatively limited set of logograms: A subset of characters is used for their phonetic values, either consonantal or syllabic.
What is the Chinese writing system called?
Chinese characters (pronounced hanzi in Mandarin, kanji in Japanese, hanja in Korean and Hán tự in Vietnamese) are generally logograms, as are many hieroglyphic and cuneiform characters. The use of logograms in writing is called logography, and a writing system that is based on logograms is called a logography or logographic system.