Graphic positions

Most vowels of English may be represented in various ways in spelling. Vowel digraphs often represent free vowels (ie diphthongs, eg plain plejn, piece pijs, boat bəwt), but sometimes checked (ie short) vowels (eg bread bred, wool wul, double dəbəl). The single vowel letters, on the other hand, may regularly represent both free and checked vowels, as shown in the table.

English spelling indicates whether a given single vowel letter represents a free or a checked vowel by the letters following them. These patterns are called graphic positions. There are two types of graphic positions: free and covered.

free position A vowel letter is in free graphic position if it is either not followed by a consonant letter at all (as the U in gnu or nuance), or it is followed by a consonant letter that is itself followed by a vowel letter (as in nuke). Note that we are talking about vowel letters, not vowels here: the E at the end of nuke is not a vowel, because it is not pronounced, the word nuke ends in a consonant (k). Graphic positions, however, are about spelling: there is a vowel letter at the end of this word. It is because of this vowel letter that the only vowel of the word, represented by U, is in free graphic position.

covered position A vowel letter is in covered graphic position if it is not in free position: ie if it is followed by a consonant letter that is either at the end of the word, or is itself followed by another consonant letter. Examples for both free and covered graphic positon are shown below.

free

bra, she, hi, sky, go, flu
brace, these, hike, skype, gone, flute

covered

brat, shed, hit, gym, got, flub
brand, shelf, hint, Gypsy, ghost, flung

consonant digraphs and X Consonant digraphs count as single consonants. There are four such combinations in English spelling: CH, PH, SH, and TH.There’s also GH and WH, but they are never involved in such a configuration. Accordingly, the first vowel in the following words are in free graphic position: ache, hyphen, kosher, bathe. The consonant letter X, on the other hand, counts as two consonants,This letter usually represents a consonant cluster: ks, kʃ, gz, or gʒ. therefore any vowel letter followed by X is in covered position.

stop+liquid There is a special set of clusters, called stop+liquid clusters, that comprise of B, C, D, F, G, P, or T as their first member and L or R as their second.F occurs in this set unexpectedly, since it represents a fricative, not a stop. A combination of one of these two sets of letters is always followed by a vowel letter in spelling. A vowel letter before such a combination (highlighted in the following examples) is also in free graphic position.

able, sabre, acre, cradle, Hadrian, flagrant, maple, apron, hatred, Hebrew, secret, cathedral, Negro, metre, Bible, fibre, micron, idle, trifle, migrant, disciple, title, mitre, hybrid, cycle, hydra, Cyprus, noble, cobra, Proclus, ogle, ogre, Constantinople, appropriate, chipotle, ruble, rubric, nuclear, lucrative, bugle, duplex, cupric, nutria

The basic spelling rule is that free vowels are represented by a vowel letter in free graphic position and checked vowels are represented by a vowel letter in covered graphic position, as shown here.

silent E Note that each word with a free vowel ends in an E in spelling. The function of this letter is to create free graphic position for the first vowel. This is the only way the last vowel of a consonant-final word may be in free position. In fact, this E is usually omitted whenever the word is suffixed with a vowel-initial suffix: capable, scenic, hiding, usage, since the first, stressed vowel of these words is in free graphic position anyway.

Word-final silent E’s have another function: they may be used to indicate the “soft” pronunciation of the preceding C or G, as in nice najs or age ejʤ.The “hard” pronunciation is k and g, respectively. While s can also be spelled by the letter S, ʤ is not normally spelled by J word finally, but by GE. This makes it more complicated to spell a checked vowel followed by word-final ʤ. The solution is to add another consonant, a D, to create covered position for the checked vowel: eg badge baʤ, edge eʤ, fridge friʤ, dodge doʤ, fudge fəʤ.G is doubled as DG then. C may be doubled as CK, eg Vic ~ Vicky.

If the stressed vowel is not in the last syllable of the word, the unstressed vowel following will serve to create free graphic position: eg famous fejməs, fetus fijtəs, climate klajmət, asylum əsajləm, cosy kəwzij, funeral fjuwnərəl.

consonant doubling If a checked vowel is followed by a single consonant which is not word final, then the letter representing this consonant is very often doubled to create covered position for the vowel: eg capped kapt, hidden hidən. There is no doubling in scented or blocking, of course, as these words already have two consonant letters after their stressed checked vowel. X is also not doubled: taxing, since — as we have seen above — it counts as two consonant letters. Somewhat more surprisingly consonant digraphs also remain, although in other respects they count as single consonants: fishing fiʃiŋ, frothed froθt. On the other hand, the first member of stop+liquid clusters is regularly doubled after a checked vowel: maple mejpəl vs apple apəl, title tajtəl vs little litəl, ogle əwgəl vs toggle togəl.

Consonants are only doubled after stressed vowels to achieve covered position. Hence we find doubling in forgétting, but not in tárgeting, also cf commítted vs vómited, phótoshòpping vs devéloping, cónned vs póisoned, etc. The American spelling tradition follows this principle consistently, the British tradition makes an exception for words ending in L. Thus there is uniform doubling after a stressed vowel: compélling, but after an unstressed vowel L is only doubled in the British tradition: trávelling (Am tráveling), cóunsellor (Am cóunselor), etc. The practice may also vary with S: bías(s)ed, fócus(s)ing.

V Apart from a very small number of exceptions,Exceptions are bevvy, chavvy, civvy, lavvy, rev, revving, revved, savvy, mostly diminutive forms. the letter V in English is always followed by a vowel letter. This means that it cannot be followed by consonant letter (so it cannot be doubled) and it cannot occur at the end of a word. As a result the spelling cannot create covered graphic position before v. Accordingly it is unpredictable from the spelling whether a diphthong or a short vowel occurs before V: hive hajv vs give giv, behave bəhejv vs have hav, move muwv vs love ləv.

before R Up to this point we have only looked at words that did not have the letter R after their stressed vowel. We have seen that in the latter case we typically find long monophthongs, although diphthongs and short vowels are also possible. This is shown in the following examples.

The letter-to-sound equivalences in the above chart all follow from what has been said so far. Pre-R vowels in free position are pronounced as the pre-R equivalent of their diphthong counterpart, pre-R vowels in covered position are pronounced as the pre-R equivalent of their short vowel counterpart. If the R is followed by a vowel, then the carrot phenomenon is in force: the vowel is not influenced by the R, it remains checked.

digraphs The two R vowels that are expected to occur only in free graphic position are the two smooth vowels, iː and eː. Indeed, the only exception is the word scarce skeːs. For any other word in which a smooth vowel occurs in covered position we will find a digraph spelling: fair feː, laird leːd, fierce fiːs, weird wiːd, beard biːd. In fact, it is generally true that when a free vowel occurs in a position where producing free position in spelling is not available or downright impossible, then a digraph is used in spelling. The latter case occurs before consonant clusters: eg fiend fijnd, beast bijst, wildebeest wildəbijst, paint pejnt, coast kəwst, hoax həwks, wound wuwnd, roost ruwst. Instead of free position, a free vowel is often indicated by a digraph in covered position: beat bijt, beet bijt, thief θijf, aim ejm, group gruwp. Words like these may have a final E for various reasons, though: in piece pijs or peace pijs it indicates that the C is “soft” (s, not k), in waive wejv the E is the obligatory vowel letter following V, etc. On the other hand, the E at the end of the name Shakespeare is truly redundant, the name could — and used to be — spelled either as Shakespear or as Shakespere.

diphthong in cov. pos. You may recall that the seven diphthongs all have more or less common digraph spellings, but this is the least typical of aj: this vowel is most often spelled by the single vowel letter I or Y. As a result, when this vowel is followed by two consonants, it is often spelled irregularly, by a single vowel letter in covered position: eg blind blajnd, Christ krajst, wild wajld, pint pajnt. Less commonly ej and əw are also found in similarly spelled words: eg waste wejst,cf the regularly spelled waist range rejnʤ, ancient ejnʃənt; ghost gəwst, both bəwθ, don’t dəwnt, old əwld, only əwnlij, roll rəwl.cf the regularly spelled role There is a set of words with word-final -IGN in spelling (eg align, benign, malign, sign) pronounced as ajn, and with -IGH in spelling (eg fight, knight, light, might, night, right, sight, high, sigh, thigh) pronounced as aj in each case. Also note the words Ruth ruwθ, bass bejs,homophonous with base gross grəws.

While there are words in which a single vowel letter in covered graphic position, their number is not very large. There are many more words in which a single vowel letter is in free graphic position, nevertheless it is pronounced as a checked vowel, despite the basic spelling rule mentioned above. We have already seen that a vowel letter before V is almost always in free graphic position, irrespective of whether it is free or checked. However, there are numerous other cases. Some of these are sporadic discrepancies, others fall under the scope of some more general pattern. We will now look at some of these patterns.

last syllable For a single vowel letter in the last syllable to be in free graphic position it must either be word final, or be followed by a silent E. A word-final vowel letter may or may not be followed by silent E. Word-final vowels are never checked, this is an exceptionless phonotactic regularity in English: eg she ʃij, hi haj, pie paj, fly flaj, dye daj, go gəw, foe fəw, flu fluw, blue bluw. However, word-final stressed A is ej only if followed by a silent E (brae brej, Mae mej), otherwise it always represents aː (bra braː, schwa ʃwaː). Consonant-final word are generally spelled regularly, although there are some exceptions. Besides words ending in v (eg have, give, love) we have gone gon, shone ʃon, allege əleʤ, and pre-R are aː, were wəː.

endings Stressed vowels in free position in the second last syllable are the most unpredictable. The following pairs demonstrate this: the first in each is a checked (“lax”) vowel, the second is either free or smooth (this is the category we called “tense”). Their spelling does not indicate which one.

atom atəm vs datum dejtəm
devil devəl vs evil ijvəl
lemon lemən vs demon dijmən
very verij vs Very viːrij
triple tripəl vs disciple disajpəl
syrup sirəp vs Cyrus sajrəs
study stədij vs Judy ʤuwdij

There is, however, a set of endings before which a single vowel letter in free position is regularly checked. These are listed and exemplified below.

-ic

panic panik, cleric klerik, clinic klinik, topic topik

-id

valid valid, tepid tepid, vivid vivid, solid solid

-it

tacit tasət, credit kredit, digit diʤit, vomit vomit

-et

tablet tablət, tenet tenət, driblet driblət, comet komət

-el

panel panəl, bevel bevəl, swivel swivəl, brothel broθəl

-ish*

vanish vaniʃ, perish periʃ, finish finiʃ, polish poliʃ

Note that examples with U are missing above. This is because words with U representing their stressed vowel mostly have a free vowel before these endings: music mjuwzik, humid hjuwmid, unit juwnit, strudel struwdəl. (There are three words exceptional in this sense: public pəblik, publish pəbliʃ, and punish pəniʃ.) Here are some other exceptions (free vowels before these endings): basic bejsik, phonemic fənijmik, scenic sijnik, aerobic eːrəwbik, psychic sajkik; David dejvəd, hybrid hajbrəd; secret sijkrət; navel nejvəl, libel lajbəl, hazel hejzəl, sequel sijkwəl.

A further comment is due about the ending -ish. The examples given above are either a verb or a noun or both. Adjectives ending in -ish do not regularly have a checked vowel: Danish dejniʃ, Swedish swijdiʃ, Irish ajriʃ, Polish pəwliʃ, modish məwdiʃ (though some do: British britiʃ, Spanish spaniʃ, Flemish flemiʃ).

trisyllabic laxness A stressed vowel in the third last syllable is also generally short. The following words all satisfy this criterion and they all have a short (ie checked) vowel in stressed position.

sanity sánətij, marathon márəθən, federal fédərəl, heroine hérəwin, typify típəfaj, miracle mírəkəl, protestant prótəstənt, coronal kórənəl

As above, U is not subject to trisyllabic laxness, words containing U in free position in the stressed third last syllable have a free (or smooth) vowel: eg universe juwnivəːs, duplicate ʤuwpləkejt, puritan pjuːrətən, security səkjuːrətij.

Note that we are here talking about the third last syllable of words that do not contain a smaller word within them. Therefore we do not expect to find a checked vowel in laziness lejzijnəs, because this word contains the smaller word lazy lejzij, in which the stress vowel is not the third from the end.

free U In a smaller set of words we can observe that a checked vowel is found when the next vowel letter is a pronounced U in free graphic position.Note that the U in this case has to be pronounced: the vowel is not checked in plague plejg or vague vejg. Compare the following pairs.

status stejtəs vs statue staʧuw, stature staʧə
Venus vijnəs vs venue venjuw
minus majnəs vs minute minət

We see that a vowel letter may represent a free vowel if the following U is in covered position, however, if the following U is in free position, the vowel letter before it is often checked. As above, U itself is not subject to this regularity: usual juwʒuwəl, mutual mjuwʧuwəl.

CiV There is yet another configuration that shows some consistency in vowel equivalents. A stressed vowel followed by a consonant letter (C, in fact a stop+liquid cluster also qualifies), an I (or Y or even E), and a vowel (V) is checked if it is I or Y and free (or smooth) otherwise. The “CiV” portion of the following words and the preceding vowel in the transcription are highlighted.

There are words that defy the generalization above by having a checked vowel before CiV: 1. Italian, Slovakia, retaliate, valiant, glacier; 2. premier, special; 3. Nokia, Sonia, soviet, Votyak (these last ones are not very serious counterexamples); onion (in which the vowel quality is also deviant, it’s a love word); 4. bunion.

prevocalic position To end this survey of graphic positions, let us note that the basic phonotactic constraint that only diphthongs are found before vowels is also in force when the laxing environments mentioned above would otherwise apply. Only trisyllabic laxness and the endings listed above may come into this conflict, and, of course, neither trisyllabic laxness applies in such words (eg violate vájəlejt, sobriety səbrájətij, alveolar alvíjələ, Theodore θíjədoː, poetry pə́wətrij), nor do endings cause laxing (mosaic məwzéjik, heroic hirə́wik, stoic stə́wik Aeneid iníjid, Noel nə́wəl).

show me the questions
let’s go back to the contents page