Anomalies between Orthography and Pronunciation in English and Suggestions to Mitigate the Problems

Dr. Arun Behera

Phonetic; Sound; Spelling; Language; L2 Speaker; Pronunciation

English is one of only a handful few non phonetic dialects where there are heaps of oddities among spellings and sounds. Obviously, one of the fundamental reasons is that English has 26 letters that can generate 44 sounds. Letters of the English are stringed together in a specific order to shape words which are portrayed with phonetic features. There is an absence of pattern as far as letters and sounds are concerned thus making the pronunciation erratic especially for L2 speakers. It is therefore necessary that these errors are identified correctly for the non-native speakers of English to avoid lapses. This investigation attempts to distinguish and analyse the explanations behind this issue and also to offer a few recommendations to mitigate the issues relating to spelling and sound.

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