Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $9.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Enigmas of the English Alphabet: and the Art of the Scribe
    Enigmas of the English Alphabet: and the Art of the Scribe
    Enigmas of the English Alphabet: and the Art of the Scribe
    Ebook165 pages57 minutes

    Enigmas of the English Alphabet: and the Art of the Scribe

    By Alvaro J. Alves-Milho

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    This book provides an easy-to-understand guide to the peculiarities of English Pronunciation and Spelling. It was created for students of English as a Second Language.


    It represents each different vocalic sound in the word itself by using a few diacritic symbols. This approach helps to understand the sound of a word directly a

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEwings Publishing LLC
    Release dateJul 25, 2022
    ISBN9798886400960
    Enigmas of the English Alphabet: and the Art of the Scribe

    Related to Enigmas of the English Alphabet

    Related ebooks

    ESL For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Rise and Fall of the English Sentence

      Nov 16, 2017

      An iconic sentence, this. But how did it ever make its way into the world? At 71 words, it is composed of eight separate clauses, each anchored by its own verb, nested within one another in various arrangements. The main clause (a decent respect to t

      13 min read

    • Article

      Triumph Of Te Reo

      Sep 11, 2023

      Triumph Of Te Reo
      4 min read

    • Article

      Is the Chinese Language a Superstition Machine?: How ambiguity in language can create unique taboos.

      Jan 5, 2017

      Every year, more than a billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year and engage in a subtle linguistic dance with luck. You can think of it as a set of holiday rituals that resemble a courtship. To lure good fortune into their lives, th

      9 min read

    • Article

      Is the Chinese Language a Superstition Machine?

      Apr 12, 2018

      Every year, more than a billion people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year and engage in a subtle linguistic dance with luck. You can think of it as a set of holiday rituals that resemble a courtship. To lure good fortune into their lives, th

      9 min read

    • Article

      What’s a Language, Anyway?

      Jan 19, 2016

      What’s a Language, Anyway?
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Science Of Accents

      Apr 4, 2021

      The Science Of Accents
      5 min read

    • Article

      Sokolowski’s Inspiring Word Work

      Dec 13, 2017

      As the editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski oversees the dictionary’s print and online content, which, in addition to word definitions, includes podcasts, videos, and blogs. In August Sokolowski and his fellow editors rolled out Time

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sokolowski’s Inspiring Word Work

      Dec 5, 2017

      As the editor-at-large of Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski oversees the dictionary’s print and online content, which, in addition to word definitions, includes podcasts, videos, and blogs. In August Sokolowski and his fellow editors rolled out Time

      2 min read

    • Article

      On The

      Aug 1, 2021

      On The
      4 min read

    • Article

      Language Both Enraptures and Deceives Us

      Sep 12, 2019

      The purpose of language is to reveal the contents of our minds, says Julie Sedivy. It’s a simple and profound insight. We are social animals and language is what springs us from our isolated selves and connects us with others. Sedivy has taught lingu

      13 min read

    • Article

      No Words for Blue

      Nov 1, 2021

      No Words for Blue
      6 min read

    • Article

      Fame for 23 Words is 15,000 Years Overdue: The search for our linguistic DNA.

      Sep 26, 2013

      Remember when everything was “2.0?” Michelle Obama was Jackie Kennedy Onassis 2.0? Facebook was considered an example of Web 2.0? We all got what it meant and it hung in the air, or in “cyberspace,”—another faddish word—for half a decade until it was

      7 min read

    • Article

      2B Or Not 2B

      Apr 5, 2019

      2B Or Not 2B
      3 min read

    • Article

      Translation as a Condition of Life: The Millions Interviews Aron Aji

      Sep 19, 2019

      One’s proficiency in a language has little to do with one’s birthplace. Proficiency requires training, study, and practice. The post Translation as a Condition of Life: The Millions Interviews Aron Aji appeared first on The Millions.

      17 min read

    • Article

      Society

      Oct 30, 2023

      Every now and then, a story will appear in the media about regional accents disappearing. About how everyone in the north of England will eventually sound the same, or maybe even how they will all start to sound like people from the South. How accent

      3 min read

    • Article

      Call Them What They Wants

      Sep 4, 2018

      Call Them What They Wants
      8 min read

    • Article

      Mind Your Language

      Oct 8, 2021

      if you watched The Matrix, you know that there is no reality – there is only perception. What we don’t all know, however, is the fact that the language we use shapes our perception of the world as well as our behaviour and actions in reaction to that

      3 min read

    • Article

      Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another

      Sep 9, 2020

      A few years ago, David Adger was in his office at Queen Mary University of London, where he is a professor of linguistics, when the phone rang. It was a British TV company that wanted him to invent a language for monsters with no lips, just big teeth

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Enigmas of the English Alphabet

    5/5

    1 rating1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Thank You This Is Very Good, Maybe This Can Help You
      Download Full Ebook Very Detail Here :
      https://amzn.to/3XOf46C
      - You Can See Full Book/ebook Offline Any Time
      - You Can Read All Important Knowledge Here
      - You Can Become A Master In Your Business

    Book preview

    Enigmas of the English Alphabet - Alvaro J. Alves-Milho

    Copyright © 2022 Alvaro J. Alves-Milho.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

    ISBN: 979-8-88640-094-6 (sc)

    ISBN: 979-8-88640-095-3 (hc)

    ISBN: 979-8-88640-096-0 (e)

    Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

    One Galleria Blvd., Suite 1900, Metairie, LA 70001

    1-888-421-2397

    This book is dedicated to Mr. Odon Betanzos,

    who encouraged me to continue my research,

    and to all seekers of truth.

    Visit www.EnigmasOfEnglish.com/chapters

    to see additional information and illustrations.

    Contents

    Chapter 1 Preface

    Chapter 2 Basic Concepts

    Chapter 3 The Invention of Writing

    Chapter 4 The Alphabet

    Chapter 5 The Latin and Romance Languages

    Chapter 6 Germanic Languages

    Chapter 7 French

    Chapter 8 Old English

    Chapter 9 Modern English

    Chapter 10 The Dictionaries

    Chapter 11 Frustrations of Learning English Spelling

    Chapter 12 Efforts to Fix the Problem

    Chapter 13 Possibility of Change

    Chapter 14 Basic Guide to English Pronunciation

    Chapter 15 Short Vowels

    Chapter 16 Long Vowels

    Chapter 17 Learn by singing

    Chapter 18 Conclusion

    Chapter 19 Bibliography

    Appendix A: English suffixes

    Appendix B: Examples of English writing using diacritical symbols

    Appendix C: Word List A

    Appendix D: Word List B

    1

    PREFACE

    English is the most used language in the World. In fact, there are more people learning it as a second language than there are native speakers.

    Nevertheless, English has a number of peculiar features that are not well known, not only to foreign-language students, but even to those who were born in it.

    This work focuses on the written representation of the English language, particularly its spelling rules (or lack of them), from the viewpoint of a foreign-language speaker who may be used to specific rules in his or her own language and may be wondering: What exactly are the rules for English?

    In the English language the concept that the way a word is spelled represents its sound does not apply consistently. As opposed to most other major European languages, English does not have a definite set of rules to specify how words should be written. Due to circumstances that will be discussed later, the pronunciation of words diverged from their original writing to a point that, as described by Benjamin Franklin: our words will gradually cease to express sounds, they will only stand for things, as the written words do in the Chinese Language.¹

    As a consequence, English is probably the only major European language that represents almost each word in its dictionaries with a pronunciation guide.

    Other languages do not need this guide as their use of the alphabet has been standardized, with greater or lesser complexity, so that each combination of letters by itself is enough for the trained reader to reproduce the sound of a word, even if he has never read that word before.

    The negative effects of English’s irregularity are dismissed by traditional linguists, explained away by the fact that English uses approximately forty different sounds (the number of which varies according to geographical location) that are represented by only twenty-six letters. However, this situation might explain why Americans seem to take longer to read and write than speakers of other languages, as well as other situations where a difficulty to read and write is diagnosed as an illness, or using a more modern term a disorder, when in many cases that difficulty may be related to the facts described here.

    As fascinating as the irregularities of English are the constant and vain efforts that were undertaken by men such as Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster and others to correct the situation, which have unfortunately failed, partly due to a tendency toward complexity and excessive localization in the solutions proposed.

    The first part of this book provides some of the facts that made English spelling become what it is, while the second part gives a few guidelines that can be useful in determining the pronunciation of many English words.

    Understanding these facts can help a student of English, and in particular the foreign-language student, to improve his or her reading and pronunciation skills.

    ¹ Bill Bryson, The

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1