Lecture 14

ModE Spelling

NE Spelling

ME Spelling

OE Spelling

Historical Background of Modern English Spelling

Lecture 13

· based on phonetic principle;

· employed Latin characters;

· one letter = one sound;

Exceptions: ζ, f, s, ð(1 letter = 2 or more sounds).

 

· based on conventional principle;

· more ambiguous and less stable (printing was not introduced yet and the manuscripts contained numerous variants of spelling – practically each scribe had its own way to spell the words);

· digraphs (2 letters = 1 sound) appear + 1 letter = several sounds, several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound (these were the deviations from phonetic principle):

 

1 letter = several sounds several letters/combinations of letters = 1 sound
letter sounds letters sound
o [o], [u], [o:], [ǿ] g, dg, j [dζ]
c [s], [k] k, c, q [k]
g [g], [dζ]    
u [u], [v]    

 

· based on conventional principle was preserved;

· new digraphs appeared (indicated borrowings from other languages) – ph, ps, ch;

· spelling became fixed.

 

There reasons for such stabilisation were as follows:

· Introduction of Printing (1475) (see Lecture 9) à one obligatory standard!

· Normalisation of the language (17th – 18th c.) (see Lecture 9)à one obligatory standard!

 

Modern English spelling reflects pronunciation of the 14th – 15th c.

See also Table 12 on p. 216-218 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева.