Spelling Based on Sound

*Moderate   *Not messy   *30 minutes 

The International Phonetic Alphabet

Anyone who has learned to read and write, especially in a language like English, knows that there is not a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds, and word spellings often do not match the way they are pronounced. For example, we do not pronounce the ‘g’ in the words ‘though’ and ‘thought’, or the ‘e’ in the word ‘because’. This presents a problem for linguists, who need to be able represent spoken sounds with as much accuracy as possible. Imagine, for example, you are an English-speaking linguist working on documenting a language spoken by people in a faraway land, which has sounds that do not occur in English.  How do you do this accurately? For situations like this, linguists have invented what is called the International Phonetic Alphabet (or IPA). The IPA is used to write words from any language based on how people pronounce them (and NOT how they are spelled in that language). 

The IPA uses symbols from Greek and the alphabet, so some of them may look familiar (but beware: not all the alphabet symbols in IPA match how we say them in English!). Here are some important principles to keep in mind when writing words using IPA: 

  • One symbol is used to represent each sound. 
    • This is different from English spelling, where, for example, the ‘th’ sound is represented with two letters. 
  • Each symbol corresponds to only one sound. 
    • This is also different from English, where, for example, the letter ‘c’ can sound like ‘k’ or ‘s’ (as in ‘car’ vs. ‘science’).   

The IPA has symbols for vowels and consonants: 

Vowels are sounds made without blocking the airflow from our lungs through our larynx (or “voice box”), like the “a” in bat or the “e” in bet.  

Consonants are sounds produced when the airflow is blocked by your lips, teeth, tongue, or throat before it leaves your mouth, like the “c” in can, or the “b” in ban.  

Let’s look at some examples from English: 

  • What is the difference between the versions of “read” in the following sentences? 

Sentence 1: I like to read. 

Sentence 2: I read a book yesterday. 

    • In the first sentence, read is said with the same “e” vowel as in in keep, but in the second sentence, it is said with the same “e” vowel as in bed.

 

  • We can illustrate this difference using the IPA! We’ll use square brackets (like this: [ ]) to distinguish IPA symbols from regular letters. 
    • I like to r[i]d. 
    • I r[ɛ]d a book yesterday 
  • Notice how some of the symbols look different from what we typically use in English: 
    • [i] represents the “long e” sound (like in keep) 
    • [ɛ] represents the “short e” sound (like in bed) 

Vowels can sometimes be a little tricky because there are two types: Monophthongs and diphthongs. Some languages don’t use diphthongs, but English uses quite a few! You will also notice that English has a lot more than just 5 vowels in its inventory. 

Monophthongs are simply one vowel sound, like the ones in “cat” or “spoon” which are written in IPA as / kæt/ and /spun/. 

Diphthongs are vowels that are combinations or blends of two sounds, like the vowels in “float” or “nice” which are written in IPA as /floʊt/ and /naɪs/. 

Interesting tidbit: Vowels can also vary depending on what dialect or version of English you speak! For example, some people pronounce the words “cot” and “caught” the same: /kɑt/. Others pronounce “caught” differently: /kɔt/. (Self-check: Do you pronounce these words the same, or do they sound different when you say them?) 

Now that you’ve learned a little bit about the IPA, let’s try an activity to practice and test out your knowledge! 

 

Materials: 

 

Directions: 

  1. Print out the Spelling Based on Sound Task Sheet (listed in the materials above). (You can also just view it and make notes on a tablet or a separate sheet of paper.) 
  2. Read the poem, follow the directions, and use the IPA charts online to help you answer the questions. 
  3. Come back to this page to check your answers. 

 

Discovery Questions 

 

Before the Activity 

What is the difference between consonants and vowels? 

  • Vowels are sounds produced without blocking the airflow out your mouth in any way, like the sounds “e”, “a”, and “o.” Consonants are produced with some sort of constriction or blocking of this airflow using your lips, teeth, tongue, or throat, such as “s”, “k”, or “m.”

There are two types of vowels. What are they called and how are they different from each other?

  • There are monophthongs, which are vowels that are a single sound represented by one symbol, and then there are diphthongs, which are “blends” of two vowel sounds treated as a single sound. 

After the Activity 

True or false: The IPA is a universal set of symbols that allows us to transcribe the pronunciations of words from almost any language. 

  • True: The IPA transcription of a word only ever reflects its sound, NOT spelling! IPA will show that we do not actually pronounce the “b” in a word like “thumb” which would be transcribed in IPA as / θʊm/ 

 

Answer Key

Consonants:

  1. nɪt 
  2. θɪŋk 
  3. fɪʃ 
  4. dʒus 
  5. bɹɪŋ 
  6. sændwɪtʃ 
  7. fɹoʊzɪn 
  8. hæpi 
  9. fɑðɹ 
  10. kwɪkli 

Vowels (there are multiple options depending on your dialect!):

  1. mæt 
  2. but 
  3. dɪp 
  4. hʊni 
  5. sɑk or sɔk
  6. bɛd 

 

Summary/Key Takeaways 

The IPA allows us to write words from almost any language exactly as they are pronounced, regardless of how they are spelled. This can be helpful when we are learning about the sounds other languages use, documenting differences between dialects of the same language, and distinguishing between words that have the same spellings but different pronunciations. 

 

Key Words 

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA): system of symbols used by linguists to write how words in any language are pronounced 

Vowel: sounds produced without blocking the airflow before it leaves the mouth 

Consonant: sounds produced when the airflow is totally or partially blocked by the throat, tongue, teeth, or lips before leaving the mouth 

Monophthong: vowels that are a single sound 

Diphthong: blends of two vowels, treated as one sound

 

“Spelling Based on Sound” by Rose Fisher, Cole Callen, and Sarah Schaech