Spoken and written language symbols

Contents

• Introduction
• Consonants
• Vowels and diphthongs
  • Short vowels
  • Long vowels
  • Diphthongs
  • Weak vowels
• Exercise

The text you can read from books is in written form. The symbols used for the written language are called letters. A set of letters of a certain language is called an alphabet.

English has the following alphabet:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (CAPITAL LETTERS)

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z (small letters)

Whatever you hear from others is spoken. You listen to the news; it is spoken. There are also letters or symbols for the spoken language called phonemes or the phonetic alphabet. They are usually written between two slanting lines like //. Most of the phonemes share the sounds they represent with the written symbols; some do not. These latter must be learned. Here are those phonemes.

Consonants

The following consonant phonemes have unusual sounds:

tʃ          the sound of ch in chain

dʒ        the sound of j in jam

θ          the sound of th in thin

ð          the sound of th in this

ʃ           the sound of sh in shoe

ʒ          the sound of s in vision

ŋ          the sound of ng in sing

j           the sound of y in yes

The rest of the consonants share their sound with the written letters. They are the following: b, d, g, h, v, z, l, r, w, m, n, p, t, k, f, s.

There is a reason for having different symbols for spoken and written language. It can be explained with a simple example. The word ‘shake’, for example, has five letters: S–H–A–K–E. But we say it as a combination of three sounds: sh-a-k /ʃeɪk/. This difference is reflected by written and spoken language symbols.

Vowels and diphthongs

Short vowels

The following sentence has all the short vowel sounds:

That pen is not much good.

/ðæt pen ɪz nɒt mʌtʃ ɡʊd/

The vowel sounds represented by the italicised letters are in boldface.

/ə/ as in aback /əˈbæk/ is also a short vowel, called schwa.

Now you have a total of seven short vowels.

Long vowels

English has the following five long vowels:

iː          the sound in beat /biːt/ and mean /miːn/

ɜː         the sound in bird /bɜːd / and curd /kɜːd/

ɑː          the sound in card /kɑːd/, half /hɑːf/ and past /pɑːst/

ɔː         the sound in born /bɔːn/ and horse /hɔːs/

uː         the sound in food /fuːd/ and soon /suːn/

/ː/ is the long vowel marker.

Diphthongs

They are combinations of two vowel sounds each. English has the following eight diphthongs:

eɪ        the sound following the s in say /seɪ/

əʊ       the sound following the g in go /ɡəʊ/

aɪ        the sound following the m in my /maɪ/

ɔɪ        the sound following the b in boy /bɔɪ/

aʊ       the sound following the n in now /naʊ/

ɪə        the sound following the n in near /nɪə/

eə       the sound following the h in hair /heə/

ʊə       the sound following the p in poor /pʊə/

/oʊ/ is the American alternative to /əʊ/.

/ɪə/, /eə/ and /ʊə/ are usually replaced with /ɪ/, /e/ and /ʊ/ respectively in American English.

Weak vowels

/i/ and /u/ are called weak vowels.

/i/ can be pronounced in three ways: /ɪ/, /i/ or a compromise between the two as in happy /hæpi/. The sound itself represents the third way.

/u/ represents a weak vowel that varies between /uː/and /ʊ/ as in stimulate /stɪmjuleɪt/.

An optional sound in variant pronunciations is sometimes given in superscript.

Exercise

Read the following sentences written in spoken letters:

1. /ðə kwɪk braʊn fɒks dʒʌmps əʊvə^r ðə leɪzi dɒɡ/
2. /aɪ wɒnt tə pɑː^rk ðæt kɑːr əʊvəðeə^r/
3. /du ju laɪk kɒfi/
4. /wɒt s jɔː^r neɪm/
5. /hi ɪz maɪ ʌŋkl/
6. /ðeɪ ə^r frəm əmerɪkə/