Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Ceahorse]

I have been searching far and wide, through my pc, for a simple list of english phonetic/phonology rules, to no avail. I am able to only find complex explanitions using systems such as KK Phonetics. I being, a native english speaker use what is unformally refered to as "Natural pronouciation". Simply, i can read, but i just want a list of the rule to reading. Explainations are not nessecary, simply the letter/letter combo and and example of its use in a commonly used word.

ie..

a--- at
b---bat
a*e----mate

maybe a way of writing the long vowels vs the short ones would also be rather helpful....
a--- at
_
a*e---mate

if anyone knows of a simple system, and a link to its homepage, i would be very much thankful if they would respond to my posting

Ceahorse...

[asterix]

There's a set at the back of the Oxford Dictionary that you might find useful.

[iitimone7]

...there are many grammar textbooks that have a chart, also. iitimone7

[ebb]

There's no good charm for English spelling and pronunciation. Like Macduff, it does not come naturally. "Despair thy charm;/And let the angel whom thou still hast serv�d/Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother�s womb/Untimely ripp�d.� Final Act of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

The following was written as an illustration of the hopelessness of finding a phonetic key.

http://www.kith.org/logos/words/lower3/ggginger.html


The Chaos

by "Charivarius"

Dearest creature in Creation,
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy, [American version has "Suzy"]
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear.
So shall I! Oh, hear my prayer.
Pray, console your loving poet,
Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!
Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Made has not the sound of bade, [preferred pronunciation is /b&d/, not /beId/]
Say -- said, pay -- paid, laid, but plaid.
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as vague [plaque?] and ague,
But be careful how you speak,
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Previous, precious, fuchsia, via:
Pipe, snipe, recipe and chair, [this must be wrong; I doubt "via" and "chair" rhyme in any accent....]
Cloven, oven; how and low,
Script, receipt; shoe, poem, toe,
Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, reviles;
Wholly, holly, signal, signing;
Thames, examining, combining;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
From "desire": desirable -- admirable from "admire,"
Lumber, plumber, bier but brier:
Chatham, brougham; renown but known,
Knowledge done, but gone and tone,
One, anemone; Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind;
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.
Tortoise, turquoise, chamois-leather, [/'S& mi/]
Reading, Reading, heathen, heather, [I assume first two are /'ri dIN/ (participle of "to read") and /'rE dIN/]
This phonetic labyrinth
Gives moss, gross, brook, brooch, ninth and plinth,
Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would,
Viscous, viscount; load and broad;
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's O.K.
When you say correctly croquet; [modern American stresses second syllable of both rhyming words here, which throws scansion off]
Rounded, wounded; grieve and sieve;
Friend and fiend; alive and live.
Liberty, library; heave and heaven;
Rachel, ache, moustache; eleven.
We say hallowed but allowed,
People, leopard; towed but vowed.
Mark the difference moreover [I assume he pronounced "difference" with three syllables, both here and later]
Between mover, cover, and clover;
Leeches, breeches; wise, precise; [preferred pronunciation is /'brItS @z/, not /'britS @z/]
Chalice, but police and lice.
Camel, constable, unstable;
Principle, disciple; label,
Petal, penal, and canal;
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. [secondary pronunciation /pl&t/, rather than the preferred /pleIt/.]
Suit, suite, run circuit, conduit, [secondary pronunciation /'kAn d(w)It/]
Rhyme with "Shirk it" and "beyond it."
But it is not hard to tell,
Why it's Pall Mall, pall mall. [preferred pronunciation of the latter is /pEl 'mEl/]
Muscle, muscular; gaol, iron; [British /'aI @n/, roughly]
Timber, climber, bullion, lion;
Worm and storm; chaise, chaos, chair;
Senator, spectator, mayor. [I assume this rhymes better in British than in American.]
Ivy, privy; famous, clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
*beep*, hussy, and possess.
Desert but dessert, address;
Golf, wolf; countenance; lieutenants [British /lEf 'tEn @nts/]
Hoist, in lieu of flags, left pennants.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb;
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Soul but foul and gaunt but aunt [/&nt/, obviously]
Font, front, wont; want, grand, and grant, ["font" and "wont" rhyme for me, but my dictionary distinguishes them as /fAnt/ and /wOnt/]
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger.
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge, and gauge; [/'rI (@)l/, I guess, but "real" and "zeal" rhyme for me]
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.
Query does not rhyme with very, [it does for me, but /'kwI ri/ is preferred over my /'kwE ri/]
Nor does fury sound like bury. [you say /'bE ri/, I say /'b@ ri/; you say /'fju ri/, I say /'fj@ ri/]
Dost, lost, post, and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, job, blossom, bosom, oath [first two here are Biblical /dZob/ and working /dZAb/]
Though the difference seems little,
We say actual but victual. [some people incorrectly say /'vIk tSu @l/]
Seat, sweat, chaste and caste: Leigh, eight and height, [I've heard people say /keIst/, but it's /k&st/. And scansion is mangled here.]
Put, nut, granite but unite,
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Feoffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Dull, bull; Geoffrey, George ate late,
Hint, pint, senate and sedate;
Scenic, Arabic, pacific;
Science, conscience, scientific.
Tour, but our, succour, four, [British pronunciations to rhyme with next line]
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, guinea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.
Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion with battalion,
Sally with ally; yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, key, quay!
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Never guess -- it is not safe;
We say calves, valves, half but Ralph! [British /reIf/]
Heron; granary, canary,
Crevice and device and aerie;
Face, but preface, but efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic; ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging.
Ought, out, joust, and scour, but scourging
Ear, but earn, and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even;
Hyphen, roughen, nephew, Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, clerk, and jerk; [British /clArk/]
Asp, grasp, wasp; and cork and work.
Pronunciation -- think of psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits? [Were these once pronounced the same?]
It's a dark abyss or tunnel,
Strewn with stones, like rowlock, gunwale, [/'rA l@k/, /'g@n @l/]
Islington and Isle of Wight, [/'Iz lIN t@n/]
Housewife, verdict and indict.
Don't you think so, reader, rather, [rhymes with next line in British]
Saying lather, bather, father?
Finally: which rhymes with enough--
Though, through, plough, cough, hough, or tough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is -- give it up!
_________________
"This is insolence up with which I will not put." Winston Churchill, upon reading a newspaper�s criticism of his having ended a sentence with a preposition.

"You can get more with a kind word and a gun, than with just a kind word." Al Capone.