![]() What makes these words different is the first sound (technically, the onset).Įnglish syllables must have a nucleus, which in 99.9% of words is a vowel. The nucleus and coda together form the rime (note the spelling), which, indeed, is responsible for the rhyme. So, these words all end with /ks/, despite the different spellings (technically, these sounds form the coda of the word) and all have /ɒ/ in the middle (technically, the nucleus). ![]() (Technically, the /s/ sound and letter represent a separate morpheme, or unit of meaning. In the case of socks, the /s/ sound and letter is in a sense ‘detachable: we can have a /sɒk/. In the case of fox, box and Knox, the /ks/ sounds are bound together and integral to the meaning of the word: we can’t have a /fɒk/, a /bɒk/ or a /nɒk/ (at least not with the same meaning). two letters represent one sound: = /k/.one letter represents two sounds: = /ks/.(We could write ‘nox’ and get the same pronunciation.) a letter represents no sound: on the beginning of ‘Knox’. ![]() In these four words we have = /f/, = /s/, = /b/, = /n/ and = /ɒ/. ![]() Ideally, a writing system for a language should correspond to the pronunciation of that language, but for various reasons this is rarely (if ever) the case for any language, and is certainly not the case for English. These four words all consist of four sounds, but in no case do the sounds and the letters match exactly (for a start, fox and box have three letters and socks has five). ![]()
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