Return-Path: <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j91IMwG21816; Sat, 1 Oct 2005 14:22:58 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2005 14:22:58 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <048801c5c6b5$08c8e150$0202a8c0@Tomschoice> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "John Nissen" <jn@cloudworld.co.uk> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-LD:4911] Number of phonemes in English X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2900.2180 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; Status: O Content-Length: 1534 Lines: 56 Hi again Andrea, As regards phonemes, they are most often counted as 44. I quote 44 myself in: http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/english-spelling-rules.htm Recently I have been using the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary as a reference. At the back it has the phonemes (it calls "sounds") listed as follows: Short vowels: 9 for UK, 8 for US (UK includes /o/) Long vowels: 5 for UK, 6 for US (US distinguishes central vowels in 'bird' and 'mother') Diphthongs: 8 for UK, 5 for US (US replaces UK schwa ending with /r/ colouring) Triphthongs: 2 for UK, 2 for US (the same) Consonants: 25 ---------------------------------- Total 49 for UK, 46 for US. However it treats short /ee/ in 'cosy' as separate from long /ee/ in 'see'; and it treats short /oo/ in 'influence' as separate from the long /oo/ in 'too'. Most people would not treat the short versions as different phonemes from the long versions. Hence one arrives at 44 phonemes for US English. Gosh! That's the first time I've worked it out! Cheers from Chiswick, John ----- Original Message ----- From: <AWilder106@aol.com> To: "Multiple recipients of list" <nifl-ld@literacy.nifl.gov> Sent: Saturday, October 01, 2005 4:01 PM Subject: [NIFL-LD:4909] Re: LD and intensive phonics > John, [snip] > By the way, I always read that there are 44 phonemes in English. Where > did this "fact" come from? Anyone know? Urban legend? I have a linguistic > source which cites 110 phonemes. > > I hope so. > > Thanks. > > Andrea >
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