sound may be represented by several different letters or more than one letter diagraph. This inconsistency makes English orthography become inadequate to
represent the current English speech sounds. This lack of consistency can be assumed as an impact of the fact that the English writing system became fixed in
the past although the pronunciation of the words had remained to change since that period. Hence, phonetic transcription turns out to be the aid in order to clarify
the sound which is represented by the symbol letter. By these theories, it can be revealed that English orthography fails to fulfill
the ideal one sound-one graph model. As a consequence, some of English sounds are represented by a combination of letters. Thus, it is vital to differentiate
between the sound of the language and the way it is represented in the writing form. English cannot be recognized by the written form alone. Instead, it has to be
confirmed and verified through the spoken language that is pronounced by the native speaker. Hence, the data of written form alone will not be satisfying. The
list of phonetic symbols that represent the spoken form will show the occurrence of stop deletion that happen in English. The sounds and spellings can be compared
and analyzed to show the stop deletion that occurs in any derived words.
10. The Nature of Phonology and Orthography
In English, phonology and orthography signify a contrast difference in language representation. Phonology deals with the
‘phonic substance’ as the medium of the study where the orthography deals with
the ‘graphic substance’ as the object of the study Crystal, 1995: 291. Here, these two differences are
marked in terms of language use and structure in the extent that phonology and orthography have specific differences in the physical form between the spoken
and writing systems. Thus, it is considered important to review the nature of both these terms so that the differences can be noted more distinctly.
Phonology can be defined as a description of the systems and patterns of sounds. It is the representative of language in terms of the spoken form. Since
phoneticians transcribe an utterance, phonology tries to understand how phonetic transcription works in certain language and how sounds conduct dissimilarities in
meaning Ladefoged, 1993: 25. In essence, phonology deals with the sounds as a language that has significance in delivering meaning. The language is made by the
sounds representation in the phonetic transcription. The way how we speak describes the way sounds are produced to signify language. Thus, it can be stated
that phonology deals primarily with spoken language as the nature of speech. Likewise, Clark and Yallop 1990: 2 associate phonology with the study
of the organized speech sounds. It is focused on the systems and patterns of sounds that take place in specific languages. By this meaning, it can be stated that
phonology is the study of the sound pattern where the representation can be made and perceived according to the speech. Thus, despite the various or identical
spellings, the sounds still can be recognized and analyzed. Dealing with phonology means dealing with the words within the sounds as a pattern. The
length, manner, voicing, and nasality can be identified further through the phonology.
Moreover, Goldsmith et al. 2011: 29, 401 observe phonology as a representation that has a role to describe a class of utterances. It describes the
language as it is articulated. To be precise, it functions to distinguish one utterance from another within the phonetic descriptions. It studies variations
within speech as a single morpheme or word can be realized in more than one phonetic form in a single environment.
On the other hand, Fasold and Connor-Linton 2006: 404-416, 509 intensify the definition of orthography as the language’s writing system in the
standardized version. In this matter, the writing system itself can be classified according to the unit of language that is graphically represented. They are
logographic systems i.e. individual written symbol represents a certain morpheme or word, syllabic systems i.e. each symbol represents a certain
syllable, and alphabetic system. i.e. each letter represents a certain sound or phoneme. This classification shows how different written symbol will represent
different manifestation of units of language. Furthermore, O’Grady et al. 2005: 546-552, 646 define orthography as a
set of rules or standard for denoting language in written form. It is a set of conventions for signifying language in the written form. In English, it makes use
of the alphabetic orthography as the symbols that are utilized to represent individual consonant or vowels rather than syllables or words. It means that in
English, the sounds in the broader level as in the level of syllables or words cannot be depended by the orthography or more specifically, the spelling. For
instance, the spelling of bt in word doubt da ʊt cannot be paralleled directly to
the sounds in terms of the pronunciation since the b is gone in the level of syllable.
Specifically, they mention that there are at least five problems related to English orthography. The first problem, some letters do not signify any part in a
particular word. It happens in the case of sound deletion as in the word doubt
above. The second problem, a set of two or more letters can be utilized to signify a single segment. The examples are in the words think where the th represents a
single segment θ and philosophy where the phi and phy represent a single
segment f. The third problem, a single letter can signify a set of two or more segments. The instance is the word saxophone where the x represents two
segments ks. The fourth problem, the same letter can signify distinct segments in different words. The example is the letter o that can represent segment
ɒ as in the word on, or ow as in the word bone, or
ʌ as in the word son, or wʌ as in the word one. The fifth problem, the same segment can be signified by distinct
letters in distinct words. The example is the segment u that can be represented in the words rude, loop, soup, new, to, and two.
Sequentially, Fromkin, Rodman, and Hyams 2003: 71, 236, 589 define orthography as the written form of a language, or simply stated as spelling. They
relate that each word conveys a sound-meaning unit and it is stored in our mental lexicon. It then determines its pronunciation and its meaning with the
corresponding words. In this state, though alphabetic spelling signifies the pronunciation of the words, nonetheless, orthography does not represent the sound
of the words systematically in a language. The production of the different sounds as they are spelled in English words is moreover confusing since one letter may
represent some several different sounds. Thus, the inconsistency between orthography and sounds unceasingly occurs in English.
11. The Relation between Orthography and Phonology
