English Isn't Phonetic

Spelling, while quite possibly the most difficult part of any language, it particularly challenging in English. Even just some words like the ones in this sentence, nearly all of them have some sort of silent letters, or the letters together make a diphthong. English is said to be one of the hardest languages to learn, and I can vouch for that. Some of the things we do in English make no sense, or we no longer know the reason why certain things are done the way they are.

Let’s take the following sentence, put in both regular English and how it could be spelled at guessing the letters based on the sounds of the word: “Tragedy is a phenomenon that came into existence simultaneously with the gradual transformation of the Athenian state into democracy” (Sowerby, The Greeks: An Introduction to Their Culture, 149). To me, when said out loud, this sounds like: “trajedi iz uh fenahmehnahn ðat kaym intew egsihstens saymuhltayneeuhsliy wiθ ðuh gradʒoouhl trahnsformayshun uhv ðuh uhθeeneean stayt intew dehmahkruhsiy”.

That makes no sense, so maybe there is something to be said for the English spelling system, but if we look at words by themselves, then it could be a bit clearer. Take the word “phonetic” for example. We don’t say puh-hon-eh-tic, we say fun-eh-tik, or in IPA: fənɛtɪk. Although IPA is great when trying to show how to pronounce something, it would be terrible to write everything in. For example: if I say “təmeto (tuhmaytoe)” and you say “təmɑto (tuhmahtoe)”, both writings are for the word “tomato”, but the first is the more common in the US, where most of the readers are, so most people would write it “təmeto” and anyone spelling it “təmɑto” would be asked what the word is. In all fairness, if the word were said out loud, once people understood that you were talking about the ambiguous food that is scientifically a fruit but called a vegetable all the time, they would know what you mean.

IPA can be a great thing for people to use as a pronunciation guide, but only when the people reading it know what the letters or symbols mean. Take the English diphthong “th”: it can be written either θ or ð. The θ is like in theme, whereas the ð is like these. Both have the same English spelling, but neither are said in the same way.

Have fun with your spelling, and good luck in English (and any other languages)!

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