Consonants without doubled spellings: - English, 1: Consonants

English, 1: Consonants

3.8 Consonants without doubled spellings:

/h ŋ ∫ ʒ θ ð w j/

3.8.1 /h/ as in who

Occurs only before a vowel phoneme, therefore never word-finally.

THE MAIN SYSTEM

Basic grapheme <h> 97% e.g. behave, have Other frequent graphemes (none)

THE REST

Oddities <j> only in fajita, jojoba (twice), marijuana, mojito, Navajo

<wh> 3% - only in who, whom, whose, whole, whoop(er/ing), whore 2-phoneme graphemes (none)

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 87

NOTES

/h/ is rare medially, but cf. adhere, behave, behind, bohemian, cahoots, clerihew, cohere, cohort, enhance, inhabit, inherit, mayhem, perhaps pronounced /pəˈhæps/ rather than /præps/, prehensile, shanghai, and compound words such as anyhow, meathook, mishap, mishit, peahen, poorhouse, prehistoric, sawhorse, sunhat, warhead, warhorse.

Because Carney (1994) did not include function words such as who, whom, whose in his frequency counts, his percentage for /h/ spelt <wh> is distinctly lower than if he had included them.

3.8.2 /ŋ/ as in ring

Occurs only post-vocalically, and therefore never word-initially (in English).

Also, except in very rare cases such as spraing, occurs only after short vowel phonemes (and even then never after /ʊ/ (in RP); also very rare after /e, ə/ - see Notes)

THE MAIN SYSTEM

Basic grapheme <ng> 75% e.g. bang, sing, zing, long, lung Other frequent

grapheme

<n> 25% before /k, g/, however spelt, e.g. sink, zinc, anxious, conquer, ankle, uncle, length; longer, kangaroo, anxiety. See Notes

THE REST

Oddities <nc> only in charabanc /ˈʃærəbæŋ/

<nd> only in handcuffs, handkerchief /ˈhæŋkʌfs, ˈhæŋkəʧɪf/

<ngh> only in dinghy, gingham, Singhalese /ˈdɪŋiː, ˈgɪŋəm, sɪŋəˈliːz/ (contrast shanghai /ʃæŋˈhaɪ/)

<ngu> only in a very few suffixed forms of words in next category, namely haranguing, tonguing.

3.8.3 /∫/ as in fission

THE MAIN SYSTEM

Basic grapheme <sh> 37% e.g. ship, fish; regular in initial and final positions; rare medially, but cf. ashet, baksheesh,

banshee, bishop, buckshee, Bolshevik, bolshie, bushel, cashier, cashmere, cushion, dasheen, dishevel, fashion, geisha, kosher, kwashiorkor, marshal, pasha, pashmina, ramshackle, sashay, worship, yashmak and words with the suffix -ship. For exceptions in initial and final positions see the Oddities, below. Also see Notes Other frequent

graphemes

All these graphemes occur only medially

For all these categories see Notes and Table 3.6

<ti> 55%

(with <ci, si, ssi>)

regular medially, e.g. nation, but there are many exceptions

<ci> e.g. commercial, crucial, delicious, judicial, logician, magician, official, racial, social, special

<si> e.g. aversion, emulsion, pension, repulsion, reversion, tension, torsion, version

<ssi> e.g. accession, admission,

discussion, emission, intercession, obsession, passion, percussion, permission, recession, remission, session

Rare grapheme <ce> regular medially in /eɪ∫əs/ spelt <-aceous>, e.g. cretaceous, curvaceous, herbaceous, sebaceous – see Notes and Table 3.6; otherwise only in cetacean, crustacea(n), Echinacea, ocean, siliceous

THE REST

Oddities 8% in total

- in initial position

<ch> only in 30+ words of mainly French origin, namely chagrin, chaise, chalet, chamfer pronounced /ˈʃæmfə/

(also pronounced /ˈʧæmfə/), chamois (whether pronounced /ˈʃæmiː/ or /ˈʃæmwɑː/), champagne, chancre, chandelier, chaperone, charabanc, charade, chardonnay, charlatan, Charlotte, chassis, chateau, chauffeu-r/se, chauvinis-m/t, chef, chemise, chenille, cheroot, chevalier, chevron, chi-chi (twice), chic, chicane(ry), chiffon, chignon, chivalr-ic/ous/y, chute

<s> only in sugar, sure and (German pronunciations of) spiel, stein, strafe, stumm

<sch> only in schedule (also pronounced with /sk/), schemozzle, schist, schistosomiasis, schlemiel, schlep, schlock, schmaltz, schmo(e), schmooze, schnapps, schnauzer, schnitzel, schnozzle, schuss, schwa

<sj> only in sjambok - in medial position

<c> e.g. officiate, speciality, specie(s), superficiality and sometimes ap/de-preciate, associate. See Notes

<ch> only in about 20 words of mainly French origin, namely attaché, brochure, cachet, cachou, cliché, crochet, duchesse, echelon, embouchure, Eustachian, machete, machicolation, machine, marchioness, nonchalant, parachute, pistachio, recherché (twice), ricochet, ruching, sachet; also sometimes in (Greek) chiropody (hence the punning shop name Shuropody)

<che> only in rapprochement

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 91

<chs> only in fuchsia

<s> only in asphalt pronounced /ˈæ∫felt/ (also pronounced /ˈæsfælt/), censure, commensurate, ensure, insure, tonsure

<sc> only in conscie, conscientious, crescendo, fascis-m/t. See Notes

<sch> only in maraschino, meerschaum, seneschal

<sci> only in conscience, conscious, fascia, luscious. See Notes

<se> only in gaseous pronounced /ˈgeɪ∫əs/ (also pronounced /ˈgæsiːjəs/). See Notes

<ss> only in assure, fissure, issue, pressure, tissue

<t> mainly before <-iate> with the <i> spelling /iː/ (and with ‘invisible’ /j/-glide), e.g. differentiate, expatiate, ingratiate, initiate, negotiate, propitiate, satiate, substantiate, vitiate, plus minutiae, otiose pronounced /ˈəʊʃiːjəʊs, ˈəʊʃiːjəʊz/ (also pronounced /ˈəʊtiːjəʊs, ˈəʊtiːjəʊz/), partiality, ratio; also novitiate pronounced /nəˈvɪʃiːjət/ (also pronounced /nəˈvɪʃət/). See Notes - in final position

<ce> only in liquorice pronounced /ˈlɪkərɪ∫/

<ch> only in Welch and, in phonemically word-final position, fiche, gouache, moustache, niche pronounced /niː∫/, pastiche, quiche, ruche, where the <e> is part of the split digraphs <a.e, i.e, u.e> spelling /ɑː, iː, uː/

<che> only in about 12 words of mainly French origin, namely avalanche, barouche, brioche, cache, cartouche, cloche, creche, douche, farouche, gauche, louche, panache 2-phoneme

graphemes

/k∫/

(1) spelt

<x>

only in flexure, luxury, sexual /ˈflekʃə, ˈlʌkʃəriː, ˈsekʃ(uːw)əl/

(2) spelt

<xi>

e.g. anxious: see under /k/, section 3.7.1

NOTES

Because /∫/ is a sibilant consonant, adding any of the suffixes regular noun plural and third person singular person tense verb (both spelt <s> where the stem ends in <e>, otherwise <es>) and regular singular and irregular plural possessive (spelt <’s>) to a stem ending in /∫/ adds a syllable /ɪz/

as well as a morpheme: quiches, fishes, Bush’s. See also /z/, section 3.7.8, and /ɪ/, section 5.4.3.

Some rules could probably be given for when <sh> is regular medially, but these would be more complicated than giving the list of examples, above.

As spellings of medial /∫/ in stem words, <ti, ce, ci, sci, se, si, ssi> occur only at the beginning of the final syllable of a word and immediately after the stressed syllable, and the final syllable is always one of /əl, ən, əs/ or (very rarely) /əm/ (consortium pronounced /kənˈsɔːʃəm/ (usually pronounced /kənˈsɔːtiːjəm/), nasturtium), /əns/ (conscience) or just /ə/ (e.g. consortia

pronounced /kənˈsɔːʃə/ (usually pronounced /kənˈsɔːtiːjə/), fascia, militia);

and <si> is always preceded by a consonant letter (except in Asian).

Exceptions with these features but other spellings of medial /∫/: bushel, marshal, seneschal; cushion, Eustachian, fashion; fissure, fuchsia, geisha, pressure.

The default spelling of medial /∫/ is <ti>; for example, it is regular in words ending in /eɪ∫ən, eɪ∫əl, iː∫ən, əʊ∫ən, (j)uː∫ən/, e.g. nation, spatial, accretion, lotion, evolution, pollution (exceptions: Asian, racial, cetacean, crustacean, Grecian, ocean, Confucian, Rosicrucian). However, because medial /∫/ has so many other spellings, the major patterns are set out in Table 3.6. What does not come over particularly clearly even then is that the only case where there is substantial three-way confusion is over final /ɪ∫ən/: the majority spelling is <-ition>, e.g. volition, but there is competition (!) from <-ician, -ission> – see the top right-hand and bottom left-hand boxes of the Table (and beware of Titian).

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 93 TABLE 3.6: THE DISTRIBUTION OF <ti, ce, ci, si, ssi> AS SPELLINGS OF MEDIAL /∫/.

Default spelling: <ti> Exceptions (in addition to those in <sh> listed under the basic grapheme and those listed among Oddities above or under Subpatterns and Sub-exceptions below):

<ci>: facial, glacial pronounced /ˈgleɪ∫əl/ (also pronounced /ˈgleɪsiːjəl/), racial,(e)special, financial, provincial, social, commercial, crucial; Grecian; academician, electrician, logician, magician, mathematician, mortician, musician, obstetrician, optician, patrician, phonetician, physician, politician, statistician, tactician (N.B. most words in <-ician> are occupations);

suspicion; Confucian, Rosicrucian; precious, specious; siliceous; auspicious, avaricious, capricious, delicious, judicious, malicious, meretricious, officious, suspicious, vicious; atrocious, ferocious, precocious and various other rare words

<si>: controversial, torsion

<ssi>: fission

Each of the subpatterns below is an exception to the rule that the default spelling is <ti>, and each subpattern has its own sub-exceptions (some of which revert to <ti>)

Subpattern Sub-exceptions

For /eɪ∫əs/ the regular spelling is <-aceous>, e.g. cretaceous, curvaceous, herbaceous, sebaceous plus about 100 other words, mostly scientific and all very rare For /ɪ∫əl/ the regular spelling is <-icial>, e.g. artificial,

beneficial,(pre)judicial, official, sacrificial, superficial (but this is a very small set)

initial plus 4 other rare words in

<-itial>

For /∫ən/ preceded by /ɜː/ spelt <er, ur> or by /l, n/

spelt <l, n>, the regular spelling is <-sion>, e.g. (a/

re-)version, excursion, emulsion, expulsion, pension, tension

Cistercian, coercion (also pronounced with /ʒ/), exertion, Persian (also pronounced with /ʒ/), tertian;

gentian For /∫ən/ preceded by /æ, e, mɪ, ʌ/ spelt <a, e, mi, u>, the regular spelling is <-ssion>, e.g. (com)passion; (ac/con/inter/pro/re/se/suc)cession, con/pro-fession, ag/di/e/in/pro/re/retro/trans-gression,

com/de/ex/im/op/re/sup-pression, session and all its compounds;

(ad/com/e/inter/intro/manu/per/re/sub/trans)mission; con/dis/(re)per-cussion

national, ration, (ir)rational;

Prussian, Russian

Spellings of medial /∫/ with <c, sc, t> always have a following <i(e)>, but the <i(e)> is a separate grapheme spelling /iː/. Some of the relevant words have alternative pronunciations with /s/, e.g. appreciate /əˈpriː∫iːjeɪt, əˈpriːsiːjeɪt/, negotiate /nɪˈgəʊ∫iːjeɪt, nɪˈgəʊsiːjeɪt/, species /ˈspiːʃiːz, ˈspiːsiːz/.

And then there seems to be a phonological constraint in many RP-speakers’ accents against medial /∫/ occurring twice in words ending in /iːjeɪt/ which already have one medial /∫/ and then would acquire another if suffixed to end in /iːˈjeɪ∫ən/. For example appreciation and negotiation are mainly pronounced /əpriːsiːˈjeɪ∫ən, nɪgəʊsiːˈjeɪ∫ən/, not /əpriː∫iːˈjeɪ∫ən, nɪgəʊ∫iːˈjeɪ∫ən/. But this in turn does not apply in words which do not end in /eɪ∫ən/ spelt <-ation>: conscientious is always pronounced with two occurrences of medial /∫/: /kɒn∫iːˈjen∫əs/, and recherché obviously has two: /rəˈʃeəʃeɪ/. The constraint also clearly does not apply to words with the –ship suffix, e.g. relationship /rɪˈleɪʃənʃɪp/.

3.8.4 /ʒ/ as in vision

The least frequent phoneme in spoken English.

THE MAIN SYSTEM

For all three categories see also Notes.

Basic grapheme <si> 91%

(with <s>)

e.g. freesia, vision. Only medial

Rare graphemes <s> only medial before <u> and only in casual, usual, visual;(dis/en/fore-) closure, composure, embrasure, erasure, exposure, leisure, measure, pleasure, treasure, treasury, usur-er/y/ious

<ge> 4% never initial; medially, only in bourgeois(ie), mange-tout; regular in word-final position, where it occurs only in about 25 words of mainly French origin, namely beige, cortege, concierge, liege, melange,

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 95

rouge and, with the <e> also forming part of the split digraphs

<a.e, i.e, u.e> (for dual-functioning see section 7.1), in badinage, barrage, camouflage, collage, corsage, decalage, décolletage, dressage, entourage, espionage, fuselage, garage pronounced /ˈgærɑːʒ/, massage, mirage, montage, triage, sabotage; prestige; luge; only exception in

word-final position is raj /rɑːʒ/

THE REST

Oddities 5% in total

<ci> only, exceptionally but increasingly, in coercion pronounced /kəʊˈwɜːʒən/

(usually pronounced /kəʊˈwɜːʃən/)

<g> initially, only in genre, gilet; medially, only in aubergine, conge, dirigiste, largesse, negligee, protege, regime, tagine and lingerie pronounced /ˈlænʒəriː/

(also pronounced /ˈlɒnʤəreɪ/); never word-final

<j> only in jihad, raj and some rare French loanwords, e.g. bijou, goujon, jabot, jalousie, jupe

<se> only in nausea, nauseous pronounced /ˈnɔːʒə(s)/ (also pronounced /ˈnɔziːjə(s)/)

<ti> only in equation /ɪˈkweɪʒən/

<z> only in azure pronounced /ˈæʒə, ˈeɪʒə/

(also pronounced /ˈæzj(ʊ)ə, ˈeɪzj(ʊ)ə/), seizure /ˈsiːʒə/

<zi> only in brazier, crozier, glazier pronounced /ˈbreɪʒə, ˈkrəʊʒə, ˈgleɪʒə/ (also pronounced /ˈbreɪziːjə, ˈkrəʊziːjə, ˈgleɪziːjə/)

2-phoneme grapheme /gʒ/ spelt <x> see under /g/, section 3.5.3

NOTES

Because /ʒ/ is a sibilant consonant, adding any of the suffixes regular noun plural and third person singular person tense verb (both spelt <s> where the stem ends in <e>, otherwise <es>) and regular singular and irregular plural possessive (spelt <’s>) to a stem ending in /ʒ/ adds a syllable /ɪz/ as well as a morpheme: massages,(the) Raj’s (collapse). See also /z/, section 3.7.8, and /ɪ/, section 5.4.3.

As spellings of /ʒ/, <si, s> occur only medially and immediately after the stressed syllable, and are preceded by a vowel, and <s> is always followed by <u>. Almost all spellings with <si> are followed by <-on>, e.g. vision, but there are a few others, namely crosier, hosier(y), osier.

Although Carney gives 91% for <si, s> combined, it is clear that the great majority of these must be <si> spellings, since there are rather few words with /ʒ/ spelt <s> and a large number with /ʒ/ spelt <si>. This is why I have classified /ʒ/ spelt <s> as a rare grapheme.

Treating <ge> as the regular spelling of word-final /ʒ/ is justified by the first six words of French origin listed above: here the preceding vowel phonemes (plus the /n/ in melange) are represented without the aid of the word-final <e>. In the other 19 words <ge> is clearly still spelling /ʒ/, but it is necessary (and parallels other parts of the analysis) to analyse the <e>

as also forming part of the split digraphs <a.e, i.e, u.e> spelling /ɑː, iː, uː/

(even though the last two correspondences have only one instance with included <g> each) – for dual-functioning see section 7.1. Then I analyse the /e/ in cortege as spelt only by the first <e> because it is a short vowel and no short vowels (in my analysis) are spelt by split digraphs – see section A.6 in Appendix A. Then <g> has to be recognised as a grapheme spelling /ʒ/ separate from <ge> because of the few words listed where this correspondence occurs initially and medially and the following vowel letters are obviously (involved in) separate graphemes.

The spelling <zh> is also used to represent /ʒ/, but because this occurs only in transcriptions of Russian names, e.g. Zhivago, Zhores, I have not added it to the inventory of graphemes.

3.8.5 /θ/ as in thigh

THE MAIN SYSTEM

Basic grapheme <th> 100%

Other frequent graphemes (none)

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 97

THE REST

Oddities <phth> only in apophthegm /ˈæpəθem/, phthalate /ˈθæleɪt/

<the> only in Catherine with first <e> elided (see section 6.10), saithe (/seɪθ/, ‘fish of cod family’)

2-phoneme grapheme /tθ/

spelt <th>

see under /t/, section 3.5.7

NOTES

In the rare word saithe, the only function of the <e> seems to be to keep this word visually distinct from saith (/seθ/, archaic form of says) with the rare spelling <ai> for /e/.

3.8.6 /ð/ as in thy

THE MAIN SYSTEM

Basic grapheme <th> 100%

Other frequent graphemes (none)

THE REST

Oddity <the> <1% only word-final and only in breathe, loathe, seethe, sheathe, soothe, staithe, teethe, wreathe. See Notes 2-phoneme graphemes (none)

NOTES

In all the words listed under Oddity, the vowel digraphs preceding <-the>

spell a long vowel or diphthong, and there is therefore no need to analyse the final <e> as part of complex split graphemes <ea.e>, etc. However, in bathe, lathe, unscathed (the free form scathe meaning ‘to harm’ does not occur, but underlies both unscathed and scathing), swathe, blithe, lithe, tithe, writhe, clothe, hythe, scythe, the final <e> is part of the split digraphs <a.e, i.e, o.e, y.e> spelling /eɪ, aɪ, əʊ, aɪ/, so here /ð/ is again

spelt <th>. The final <e> keeps breathe, loathe, seethe, sheathe, soothe, teethe, wreathe, bathe, lathe, swathe, clothe visually distinct from breath, loath (also spelt loth), seeth (/ˈsiːjɪθ/, archaic third person singular present tense form of see), sheath, sooth, teeth, wreath, bath, lath, swath, cloth. For the few minimal pairs differing only in having /θ/ or /ð/ see section 9.36.

The fact that both /θ/ and /ð/ are spelt <th> is useful in writing: people whose accents have different distributions of the two phonemes nevertheless spell the relevant words identically. This is particularly the case with some plural nouns, e.g. baths pronounced /bɑːðz/ in RP but /bæθs/ by many people from the North of England; the singular has /θ/ in both cases. But this does not help people trying to read unfamiliar words containing <th>

- though again see section 9.36.

3.8.7 /w/ as in well

Occurs only before a vowel phoneme, and therefore never word-finally

THE MAIN SYSTEM

For all these categories, and /w/ not represented at all, see Notes.

Basic grapheme <w> 64% e.g. word. regular initially, rare medially

Other frequent graphemes

<u> 31%, of which 27 percentage points are occurrences of /kw/ spelt

<qu>

e.g. quick, language. Never initial, regular medially

<wh> 5% medially, only in erstwhile, meanwhile, narwhal, over-/under-whelm; otherwise only initial and only in whack, whale, wham(my), whang, wharf, what, wheat, wheedle, wheel, wheeze, whelk, whelp, when, whence, where, wherry, whet,

The phoneme-grapheme correspondences, 1: Consonants 99

whether, whey, whiff, whiffle, Whig, which, while, whim, whimper, whimsical, whimsy, whin, whine, whinge, whinny, whip, whippersnapper, whippet, whippoorwill, whirl, whir(r), whisk, whisker, whisk(e)y, whisper, whist, whistle, whit, white,

whither, whitlow, Whitsun, whittle, Whitworth, whiz(z), whoa, whomp,

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