Why are many English words pronounced differently from the way they are spelt?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word, That looks like beard and sounds like bird, And dead: it’s said like bed, not bead, For Goodness’ sake, don’t call it deed! Watch out for meat and great and threat, They rhyme with suite and straight and debt. (Anon) English spelling is unpredictable at the best of times, and occasionally totally chaotic – an opinion no doubt shared by UK schoolchildren and those studying English around the world. However, studies of the language claim that there are only about 400 words in English whose spelling is wholly irregular. Unfortunately many of them are among the most frequently used. The problems with English spelling came about partly as a result of the slow development of the language over a period of 1,000 years. Some complications arose early on when the Romans tried to write down Old English using the 23 letter Latin alphabet. Old English contained nearly 40 vowels and consonants. The influence of French after the Norman Conquest also had an enormous i
