Symbols and their Names

We've talked about schwa and glottal stop, so you all know the symbols and their names. Some of the other symbols have names too. Here they are:

ə- schwa

ʔ- glottal stop

ɜ- epsilon (This is the name the Greek letter ɜ.)

θ- theta (This is the name the Greek letter θ.)

æ- ash (This was a letter in Old English, pre-Roman alphabet, for the ash tree, so it has retained this name in English. /æʃ/)

ð- /ɜð/ (This is from Old English and how it was pronounced in Old English. There is a song by the band Rush that mentions the name of this symbol. You can check it out here.)

ɑ- script a (This is because of how the letter a is handwritten- script- without the top mark.)

ʒ- /ɜʒ/ (This symbol is from the cursive form of z.)

ŋ- ing

If these characters have names in English, I have not been able to find them. Perhaps we should have a naming contest!

ɔ
∫
ʧ
dʒ
ʊ

We have a submission for ∫!!

English Spelling is Not Your Friend & Other Miscellany

As we've been discussing in class, you cannot rely on English spelling to tell you how to pronounce words in English. There are many incidents when we don't pronounce a letter in a word, like:

debt- there's no b
climb- there's no b
indict- there's no c
apartment- there are no t's
colonel- has only one l sound and no o's
camera- there are no e's
clothes- there is no th
favorite- there is no o

However, there are also many words that have the same spelling (or same spelling of the vowels) but different pronunciations, like:

bass- /beys/ or /bæs/
sow- /sow/ or /saw/
cough- /kɑf/
bough- /baw/

Homework practice:
Many students say they would like to hear a recording of the homework before they record it. You can find such a recording here. I've included both my husband and myself recording English Spelling is Not Your Friend and my recording of the names homework. Enjoy and good luck!!

English Spelling is Not Your Friend and Other Miscellany- Teresa


English Spelling is Not Your Friend and Other Miscellany- Eric


Names Practice- Teresa


I hope that helps!