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Tense vowels are distinguished from lax vowels with a "silent" e that is added at the end of words. Thus, a in hat is lax /æ/, but when e is added in the word hate a is tense /eɪ/. Heavy and tense-r vowels follow a similar pattern, e.g. ar in car is heavy /ɑːr/, ar followed by silent e in care is /ɛər/.
Many of these are degenerations in the pronunciation of names that originated in other languages. Sometimes a well-known namesake with the same spelling has a markedly different pronunciation. These are known as heterophonic names or heterophones (unlike heterographs, which are written differently but pronounced the same).
The spellings listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Plurals of consonant names are formed by adding -s (e.g., bees, efs or effs, ems) or -es in the cases of aitches, esses, exes. Plurals of vowel names also take -es (i.e., aes, ees, ies, oes, ues), but these are rare.
Whenever the most common spelling in English-language reliable sources is the person's real name, or the name with the diacritical marks simply omitted, the proper name (with the diacritics) is normally used. Exceptions include some historical persons (as foreign personal names were often anglicized in the past) and naturalized citizens who ...
the macron (English poetry marking, lēad pronounced / l iː d /, not / l ɛ d /), lengthening vowels, as in Māori; or indicating omitted n or m (in pre-Modern English, both in print and in handwriting). the breve (English poetry marking, drŏll pronounced / d r ɒ l /, not / d r oʊ l /), shortening vowels; the umlaut , altering Germanic vowels
There are two complementary definitions of vowel, one phonetic and the other phonological.. In the phonetic definition, a vowel is a sound, such as the English "ah" / ɑː / or "oh" / oʊ /, produced with an open vocal tract; it is median (the air escapes along the middle of the tongue), oral (at least some of the airflow must escape through the mouth), frictionless and continuant. [4]
The etymologically correct original spelling fetus reflects the Latin original and is the standard spelling in medical journals worldwide; [46] the Oxford English Dictionary notes that "In Latin manuscripts both fētus and foetus are used". [47] The Ancient Greek diphthongs <αι> and <οι> were transliterated into Latin as <ae> and <oe>.
The term checked vowel is also useful in the description of English spelling. [8] As free written vowels a, e, i, o, u correspond to the spoken vowels / eɪ /, / iː /, / aɪ /, / oʊ /, / uː /; as checked vowels a, e, i, o, u correspond to / æ /, / ɛ /, / ɪ /, / ɒ /, / ʊ /. In spelling free and checked vowels are often called long and ...