From the INTRODUCTION: THE difficulty of inferring the pronunciation of English words from their written form is mainly due to the frequency with which the same symbols are used to represent different sounds, and to the uncertain position of the stress in words of two or more syllables. To become familiar with the pronunciation of the language as a whole the foreign student must either receive prolonged instruction from a teacher, or must make extensive use of phonetic transcriptions and pronouncing dictionaries. With ...
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From the INTRODUCTION: THE difficulty of inferring the pronunciation of English words from their written form is mainly due to the frequency with which the same symbols are used to represent different sounds, and to the uncertain position of the stress in words of two or more syllables. To become familiar with the pronunciation of the language as a whole the foreign student must either receive prolonged instruction from a teacher, or must make extensive use of phonetic transcriptions and pronouncing dictionaries. With either or both of these methods the correct reading of English in the ordinary spelling must from the outset be largely a matter of memory. It is possible, however, by the use of a comparatively small number of diacritics to remove the greater number of the uncertainties, and to make the usual spelling of the words sufficiently phonetic for practical purposes. With the addition of these marks, the current spelling of English becomes a real guide to the pronunciation, as soon as a few general rules have been grasped. The application of such a system to English corresponds very closely to the method followed in languages which are written with the Arabic alphabet. In these languages the beginner learns from books in which the whole apparatus of vowel-signs and other auxiliary marks is employed. As he makes progress in his knowledge of the language, these marks become less and less essential to him, until at last he is able, like the native reader, to dispense with them altogether. Similarly the foreign student of English would at first practise his reading on texts provided with all the marks which serve as a guide to the correct pronunciation. In course of time many of these would become unnecessary, and in the end he would be able to interpret the ordinary spelling without these extraneous aids. A system of this kind has at least one advantage over a phonetic transcription. Where this is employed, it is usually printed on the opposite page to the text in the ordinary spelling, so that the learner's attention must continually be transferred from the one to the other. In this way the ordinary spelling makes less impression on the eye and mind than it would do if it were the only object of study. "With the system here proposed the attention of the learner is from the beginning fixed upon the only current form of the words, a fact which is of great importance for the acquisition of correct spelling. In this connexion it is worth remarking that the ordinary spelling of a large number of English words is really as phonetic as it can well be, whatever charges may be brought against English orthography as a whole. It would be difficult, upon any system, to improve the spelling of scores of words such as left , dwelt , send , hint , pond , boil , to say nothing of the simpler forms pen , pin , don , dot , &c. The principle upon which the system is chiefly based is that of leaving unmarked everything which conforms to some simple rule. Those words which in an ordinary spelling-book would be mentioned as exceptions to the rule, to be remembered by the learner without further aid, are here so marked that they simply fall into place elsewhere and impose no such burden on the memory....
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Add this copy of The Pronunciation of English Reduced to Rules By Means to cart. $16.37, new condition, Sold by Paperbackshop rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Bensenville, IL, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Forgotten Books.
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