American English Spelling: An Informal Description - Softcover

Cummings, Prof D. W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801879566 ISBN 13: 9780801879562

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004

Synopsis

In this study of the English language as it is spelled in America, D. W. Cummings demonstrates that behind the apparent disorder of spelling in American English lies a self-regulating and self-reorganizing system that is responsive to four kinds of imperative: phonetic, semantic, etymological, and systemic. Cummings offers a systematic theory of orthography and applies this theory to the American English vocabulary with numerous examples. Cummings also describes the explication of written words into their elements, particles, and processes, and he sets out the tactical and procedural rules that control the distribution and sequencing of vowels and consonants. In the largest section of the book, he provides an exhaustive description of the major and minor correspondences between the sounds of American English words and their spellings. An essential reference work, American English Spelling moves beyond questions of how words are spelled to an understanding of why they are spelled as they are.

About this title

Review:

"One needs to be reminded that English orthography does, in the main, make sense; there is an underlying structure to which most words adhere. In American English Spelling, D. W. Cummings updates Jespersen and other grammarians, elucidating the rules of English orthography in meticulous detail . . . It can be browsed with much profit, or used as a reference to answer specific questions."

About the Author:

D. W. Cummings is emeritus professor of English at Central Washington University. He can be contacted through his website, www.dwcummings.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0801879566
• ISBN 13: 9780801879562
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592