The American Way Of Spelling

Can ghoti really be pronounced fish? Why is "o" short in glove and love, but long in rove and cove? Why do English words carry such extra baggage as the silent "b" in doubt, the silent "k" in knee, and the silent "n" in autumn? And why do names like Phabulous Phoods and Hi-Ener-G stand out? Addressing these and many other questions about letters and the sounds they make, this engaging volume provides a comprehensive analysis of American English spelling and pronunciation. Venezky illuminates the fully functional system underlying what can at times be a bewildering array of exceptions, focusing on the basic units that serve to signal word form or pronunciation, where these units can occur within words, and how they relate to sound. Also examined are how our current spelling system has developed, efforts to reform it, and ways that spelling rules or patterns are violated in commercial usage. From one of the world's foremost orthographic authorities, the book affords new insight into the teaching of reading and the acquisition and processing of spelling sound relationships.

In this study of the English language as it is spelled in America, D. W. Cummings demonstrates that behind the apparent disorder of spelling in American English lies a self-regulating and self-reorganizing system that is responsive to four kinds of imperative: phonetic, semantic, etymological, and systemic. Cummings offers a systematic theory of orthography and applies this theory to the American English vocabulary with numerous examples. Cummings also describes the explication of written words into their elements, particles, and processes, and he sets out the tactical and procedural rules that control the distribution and sequencing of vowels and consonants. In the largest section of the book, he provides an exhaustive description of the major and minor correspondences between the sounds of American English words and their spellings. An essential reference work, American English Spelling moves beyond questions of how words are spelled to an understanding of why they are spelled as they are.

Is it "i before e except after c"? Or is it the other way around? Let's face it, most children struggle with spelling. But now they have a fun and easy way to learn all the tips and tricks to spell with confidence. With this book, kids will: Learn basic spelling rules, like "change y to i and add es." Understand punctuation, capitalization, and other technical parts of spelling. Pick up helpful tricks, like putting words into songs and rhymes. Learn fun games and exercises to practice spelling. Study spelling lists to master even the toughest words. And more! Along with 30 fun-filled puzzles and activities, this book offers children, parents, and teachers all the tools they need to buzz with spelling success!

Did you know that more than half of the letters in the alphabet can be silent? With all the oddities of the English language, it's no surprise that the top two Google searches for "How do you..." are "How do you spell..." and "How do you say...." Are you one of the millions endlessly looking up correct spelling and pronunciation? End your confusion forever with Complete English Spelling and Pronunciation Rules, from the language experts at Farlex International, publishers of Complete English Grammar Rules and creators of TheFreeDictionary.com, the trusted reference destination with 1 billion+ annual visits. Forget about memorizing the hundreds of thousands of words in the English language-get the only spelling and pronunciation guide that gives you all the tools you need to tackle even the hardest words to spell and say. Go beyond "I before E except after C" and get all the rules and exceptions, all in one place, all explained in plain English. Plus: Correct and incorrect examples displayed side-by-side. Quizzes after every lesson. Simple tips and tricks to avoid the most commonly misspelled words and pronunciation mistakes. Get Complete English Spelling and Pronunciation Rules and instantly start spelling and speaking with confidence. From Farlex International, the creators of the popular and award-winning TheFreeDictionary.com, comes Complete English Spelling and Pronunciation Rules, the third volume of The Farlex Grammar Book. The secret about spelling is that good spellers don't just rely on memory-they know the rules and patterns that tell them exactly how a word should be spelled and pronounced. Complete English Spelling and Pronunciation Rules is the only pronunciation and spelling guide that gives you direct access to all of those rules-and the many, many exceptions-with simple, easy-to-remember methods to handle every word that comes your way. Don't let spellcheck let you down when it counts-get the tools to start spelling and pronouncing words the right way every time. Packed with clear explanations, quizzes, examples, and common mistakes, Complete English Spelling and Pronunciation Rules is the only spelling and pronunciation guide you'll ever need.

Between 1780 and 1800, authors of imaginative literature in the new United States wanted to assert that their works, which bore obvious connections to anglophone literature on the far side of the Atlantic, nevertheless constituted a properly "American" tradition. No one had yet figured out, however, what it would mean to write like an American, what literature with an American origin would look like, nor what literary characteristics the elusive quality of Americanness could generate. Literature, American Style returns to this historical moment—decades before the romantic nationalism of Cooper, the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau, or the iconoclastic poetics of Whitman—when a fantasy about the unique characteristics of U.S. literature first took shape, and when that notion was linked to literary style. While late eighteenth-century U.S. literature advertised itself as the cultural manifestation of a radically innovative nation, Ezra Tawil argues, it was not primarily marked by invention or disruption. In fact, its authors self-consciously imitated European literary traditions while adapting them to a new cultural environment. These writers gravitated to the realm of style, then, because it provided a way of sidestepping the uncomfortable reality of cultural indebtedness; it was their use of style that provided a way of departing from European literary precedents. Tawil analyzes Noah Webster's plan to reform the American tongue; J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's fashioning of an extravagantly naïve American style from well-worn topoi; Charles Brockden Brown's adaptations of the British gothic; and the marriage of seduction plots to American "plain style" in works such as Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple and Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette. Each of these works claims to embody something "American" in style yet, according to Tawil, remains legible only in the context of stylistic, generic, and conceptual forms that animated English cultural life through the century.