IS ENGLISH SPELLING CHAOTIC? MISCONCEPTIONS CONCERNING ITS IRREGULARITY

An overview of the goals of English orthography counters the misconception that its spelling is chaotic and unprincipled. Direct representation of the speaker’s phonemes is not its only goal. But even the sound-to-letter correspondences are not as inconsistent as widely believed. A survey of first-grade text vocabulary shows that spelling consistency is increased significantly if one takes into account the position of the phoneme within the syllable and the identity of the phonemes in the environment. Environmental influences within the rime are especially important. Understanding these patterns may reduce the complexity of spelling for learners and those with spelling problems.

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