Spelling

Spelling is the order in which letters are put to make up words.

Many languages have phonetic spelling, in other words, each letter represents a certain sound, however in English this is not the case. An English letter can have many different sounds.

For example, the letter c can be pronounced:

The spelling of an English word depends very much on its linguistic origin. English is primarily derived from the Greek, Latin and Germanic languages and a the spelling comes across also.

Diacritics

Unlike many other langauges, diacritics (accents and so on) are rarely used in English. Mostly these are imported words - often from French - and it is increasingly common for the diacritic to be dropped. Thus whilst it is common to see crêpe in French, in English it may well be written as crepe.

History

The reason for the confused state of English spelling is tied up with the history of the langauge.

• Changes in pronunciation over time (such as the Great Vowel Shift).
• Imported words brining their original spelling over.
• Words imported from non-Roman alphabets being transcribed differently.
• Conquests bringing in changing ways of spelling.
• Early publishers writing words to reflect the way in which they pronounced them.