944: Spelling Conventions (with IPA) Jul 10, 2017

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It shouldn't come as any surprise that English orography is not only inconsistent but arbitrary. Many people complain about certain things including the amount of silent letters, and the fact that the same combinations of letters will not necessarily represent identical sounds, but the issue is far bigger than that. This problem of arbitrary, or at least somewhat arbitrary spelling exists to some degree within the international phonetic alphabet (IPA). For example, the sound /k/ like in /skɪp/ (skip') is indistinguishable in terms of pronunciation from a /g/ in that word. This is not the case for every instance when a /k/ would appear, such as /kɪʔən/ ('kitten'), but in general, when preceded by an /s/, there is no reason except for convention that the word could not be spelt with a /g/ as in 'sgip'. This is also true of the /t/ in 'stop' which could just as well be a /d/, and the /p/ in 'spring' which could be a /b/.

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