Neuphilologisches Institut
Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg
This lecture is dedicated to English orthography and phonology. It starts with a general introduction to writing systems and introduces the conventions of the International Phonetic Alphabet. The first sessions deal with different stages of English language history and illustrate the development of spelling and pronunciation through Old, Middle and Early Modern English. Subsequently the Present-Day English sounds of Received Pronunciation are presented and related to their possible origins and modern spellings. The final focus is on General American orthography as well as the emergence of novel spellings, as evident, for example, in colloquial English as well as many different types of computer-mediated communication.
There is no single textbook covering all aspects of this lecture. Some particularly useful works are listed below.
Some important publications:
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Cook, Vivian, The English Writing System (Oxford and New York, 2004).
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Cruttenden, Alan, Gimson's Pronunciation of English, 7th ed. (London, 2008).
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Horobin, Simon, Does Spelling Matter? (Oxford, 2013).
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Sauer, Walter, A Drillbook of English Phonetics, 3rd ed. (Heidelberg, 2006).
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Upward, Christopher, and George Davidson, The History of English Spelling (Chichester, 2011).
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