Why is the reading of English vowel letters so different in different words?
PRACTICAL QUESTIONS FOR THE EXAMINATION ON HISTORY OF ENGLISH
1. Why are the letters A, E, I, Оcalled [ei], [i:], [ai], [ou]?
English letters came from the Latin alphabet. The vowel letters A, E, I, O were named after the vowel sounds they stood for in Latin - the vowels resembling the Ukrainian A, E, I, O. In English they still kept their old names [a:], [e:], [i:], [ 
:] a few centuries ago, and the letter O was called [o:] as late as the 18th century.
Why and how then have A, E, I and O changed their names in English? Can it be that at some time or other someone decided to give them new names because the old ones seemed unsuitable? No, not really. The names of the letters have changed because the vowels they were written for have changed in course of time: the letters are still named after the sounds they represent, but the sounds have become different. The matter is that when vowels were used as names of letters they were long, because they made stressed open syllables, and English vowels cannot be short in such syllables, - at least, they have not been short in this position for many centuries. In the course of lime English long vowels generally become closer (narrower), that is, they are pronounced with the tongue higher in the mouth, which makes them sound different.
The long vowel [a:], which was the name of the letter A, changed to [æ:] in the 15th century. Later it narrowed to [e:]. Then the end of this long vowel became still closer and began to sound like [i]. So [e:] changed to [ei]. That is why the name of the letter A is now pronounced [ei].
Similarly, as [e:] became a closer vowel [i:], the letter E came to be called [i:].
[ :] the name of the letter O, also changed to a closer to vowel, [o:] and then the end of the vowel narrowed to [u], so that the name of the letter began to sound [ou].
The long vowel [i:l was as close as could be. It could not change to any closer vowel. Instead, its beginning came to be pronounced with the tongue lower and lower in the mouth, till [i:l changed to [ai], and that is now the name of the letter I.
All these changes in long vowels are part of the so-called Great Vowel Shift.
2. a Why do the English names of the letters В,C,D,G,P,T,Vend in [i:]?
Once all these names ended in a vowel resembling the Ukrainian E. The vowel was long, because it was at the end of the syllable, that is to say, the syllable was open, and English vowels are never short in stressed open syllables. Then the vowel [e:] became a closer vowel to [i:], the letter E came to be called [i:]. And so [be:], [se:], [de:], and the like, became [bi:], [si:], [di:], and so on.
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2 b. Why is К called [kei]?
Until about the 15th century К was called [ka:] in English, as in other languages. But, as between the 15th and the 18th centuries the English [a:] changed first to [æ:], then to [e:], [i:] and to [ei], the name of the letter К in Modern English became [kei].
3. Why is Rcalled [a:]?
Until the 15th century the name of the letter R in English was [er], as in other languages. Then the short vowel [e] changed to [a] before [r], because that consonant caused the preceding vowel to be formed with the tongue lower the mouth, and [e] was pronounced with the tongue lower and lower, till it sounded rather like [a] (a front a sound, a vowel made with the bulk of the tongue moved to the front part of the mouth, almost as in pronouncing [æ]). So [er] became [ar].
Later in Modern English the consonant [r], when not lowed by a vowel, changed to a weak vowel sound, a kind of [ə]. This happened because [r] began to be made with less energy, the tongue was raised less high, the air passage between the tongue and the roof of the mouth became wider, and sо a vowel was produced instead of a consonant: vowels are pronounced with a free air passage, while to produce a consonant the air passage must be temporarily closed or very much narrowed. The weak vowel sound, which developed from [r] merged with the preceding a sound, making it longer. In time the long vowel began to be produced with the bulk of the tongue in the back part of the mouth and so changed to [α:]. Now the long vowel [α:] is pronounced instead of [ar], whether it is part of a word (as in arm, once pronounced [arm], now [α:m]) or the name of the letter R.
4.Why is Ucalled [ju:]?
In Old English, as in Latin, the letter U was used for the long and the short u vowels [u:], [u], and was called [u:]. But in French the same letter came to be read (and called) [y(:)]. This kind of vowel is formed in the front part of the mouth like [i(:)], but with lips rounded, as when pronouncing [u(:)]. It resembles German ü.
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In the second half of the 11th century England was conquered by the Normans, who came from Normandy in Northern France. For some time after the Conquest the new rulers and most educated people of England spoke and wrote French. English words, too, began to be written to some extent after the French fashion, and French letter names, including that of the letter U, were taken over by the English. But instead of [y:] most English people pronounced [i΄u] or [i΄u:]. The unstressed [i] before the stressed [u:] changed to [j], as it often does before vowels, and so the name of the letter U began to be pronounced [ju:].
5 a. Why is Wcalled ['dΛblju:] ("double U")?
The name "double U" was given to the letter W because this letter was formed by combining two U or V signs (UU or VV), which until the 17th century were regarded not as different letters, but as two different ways of writing the same letter (U), just as we give different shapes to the letter д: д and д.
5 b. Why is Ycalled [wai]?
In Old English the letter Y was written for the long and short vowels [y:], [y] (it resembles German ü.). In Middle English [y(:)] changed to [i(:)]. But instead of naming Y [i:] after the vowel this letter now represented, it was given a new name [ui:] to distinguish it from I. Perhaps it was thought that Y was made of an U (which was often given the angular shape V) resting on an I. The unstressed [u] changed to [w] before the stressed vowel [i:] (just as unstressed [i] changed to [j] before [u:]): [ui:] became [wi:]. Then [i:] changed to [ai], (the long vowel [i:] was as close as could be. It could not change to any closer vowel. Instead, its beginning came to be pronounced with the tongue lower and lower in the mouth, till [i:] changed to [ai], and that is now the name of the letter I), and the name of Y became [wai].
6. When and why don't we read the letter eat the end of an English word?
The letter e is read at the end of those words of one syllable which contain no other vowel letter, such as be, he, me, we and a few others. But when the word does contain another vowel letter (or letters), then e at the end of it is not read, it is mute (except in some learned words of foreign origin, such as apostrophe, catastrophe, and the like). Why is it so? The explanation is as follows.
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Most of those English words that are now written with a mute e at the end, that is, an e which is not read, once ended in a weak unstressed vowel [ə], spelt e. For instance, the words name, time were pronounced ['nа:mə], ['ti:mə]. In the 13th - 14th centuries the weak final vowel sound was lost (stopped being pronounced). But the letter e usually continued to be written, even though it was no longer read.
In words of two syllables ending in [ə] (spelt e) the stressed vowel was long, as a rule, when there was only one consonant after it, or two consonants which went to the unstressed syllable, leaving the stressed syllable open. Such a stressed vowel remained long when the final [ə] was lost and the letter e at the end of the word became mute. So, people got used to finding a mute e at the end of words with a long vowel and began to write it even in those words of one syllable with a long vowel which had never had another vowel at the end, such as bone, house, mouse, stone, wine (earlier bon, hus, tnus, ston, win).
Besides, quite a number of words with a mute e at the end (such as cigarette, vase, scene and others) came from French, where the final e became mute in more or less the same way as in English.
Why is the reading of English vowel letters so different in different words?
First of all, it must be noted that each vowel letter was from the very start used both for a long vowel and for a short one. As a matter of fact, that kind of difference between the vowels spelt by the same letter was small in comparison with the difference we now find, for instance, between the vowels spelt i in pin ([i]) and in pine ([ai]). The difference between the long and the short vowels increased in course of time, as the long vowels changed very noticeably in the so-called Great Vowel Shift, while the short vowels either remained almost unchanged or changed in different ways from those in which the long vowels developed. In Chaucer's time (the second half of the 14th century) the vowel spelt a was longer in bake [ba:ka] than in bak [bak] (now written back), but otherwise it sounded almost the same in the two words. Now we can easily make out the difference between the [ei] in bake and the [ae] in back.
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Each vowel letter in present-day English is used for more than two vowels, that is to say, is read in more than two different ways in different words. For instance, a stands not only for [ei], as in Kate, name, take, and [æ], as in bad, cat, pan, but also for [a:], as in arm, car, fast, half, [εə], as in care, hare, [ ], as in want, wash, what, [ :], as in all, salt, war, and so on. A similar variety of readings ("sound values") is observed with other vowel letters. Whence came this variety?
The explanation is that a vowel, whether long or short, may develop in different ways depending on the nature of the neighbouring sounds, especially consonants. We shall speak about that in more detail when explaining the various readings of each individual vowel letter. Here we shall deal with the influence of [r] - the consonant which has the greatest effect on the development of vowels in English.
Under the influence of [r] the preceding vowel formed in a somewhat different way: more towards the middle part of the mouth (where [r] itself is produced) and with the tongue in a lower position. It becomes what is called more open. Then, between a stressed vowel and the following [r] there often develops a very weak short [ə] - like sound - the glide [ə]. Lastly, in the 17th – 18th centuries [r] in word final (at the end of the word) and before consonants changed to a weak vowel [ə], which merged with the preceding vowel. If that vowel had been short, it became long; if it had been long, it formed a diphthong with the glide [ə] (a diphthong is a close combination of two different vowel elements belonging to the same syllable and pronounced with the organs of speech gradually changing their position):
[ar] became [α:], as in car,
[ r] became [ :], as in port,
[ur]
[er] became [ə:], as in fur, her, girl,
[ir]
[i:r] became [iə], as in here,
[ε:r] became [εə], as in there,
[ :r] became [ ə], as in more,
[u:r] became [uə], as in sure.
As a result of these changes, the reading of vowel letters in combination with the following r is different from the way they are read when there is no r after them.
8. Why is i read [i] in sit, but[ai] in time, [i:]in machine, [ə:] in first, [aiə] in irony?
1. The letter i in English used to be written for the short [i] and the long [i:]. The short [i] has, as a rule, remained practically unchanged all through the history of English, so that words like fist, his, it, lid, lip, live, mist, pin, sit, still, and others, still have [i] (spelt i), as in Old English, and history, picture, and others keep their Middle English [i].
2. The Middle English long [i:], on the other hand, changed to [ai] in the course of the Great Vowel Shift. This [ai] continues to be spelt i, as was the long [i:] it developed from. That is why the letter i stands for [ai] in words like bind, blind, bite, child, find, five, like, nine, rise, side, time, white, wise, write, and so on.
On the model of older English words, i is also read [ai] in stressed open syllables, and in syllables which look open in writing, being spelt with a mute e at the end after a single consonant (see answers to questions 1 and 3 in this chapter), of a number of words which appeared in English in modern times: bronchitis, file, silent, silo, and others.
3. However, some words taken over from French during the Modern English period keep their i vowel spelt i, instead of replacing it with [ai]. That is why i is read [i:] in such words as caprice, fatigue, intrigue, machine, marine, police, prestige, regime, routine, sardine, technique, unique, and a few others.
4. In combination with the following r at the end of a word or before a consonant, as in bird, circle, circumstance, dirty, fir, firm, first, girl, sir, shirt, skirt, third, thirty, and so on, i is read [ə:]. The vowel [ə:] developed from short [i] + [r]: [i] changed to [ə] under the influence of the following [r], and this [ə]became long, merging with the [ə] sound which developed through the weakening of the [r]. The new vowel is still spelt ir, as was the sound combination [ir] it developed from. That is why the letter combination ir is now read [ə:].
5. When the letter i in combination with r is followed by another vowel letter, it is read [aiə], as in desire, fire, Irish, irony, tired, wire, and the like, [ai] in such words comes from [i:], and [ə] developed as a glide between the diphthong and [r], and later also from [r] itself, through its weakening to a vowel sound in word-final and before consonants.
9. Why do we read ai, ayand eylike eiand in the same way as the letter a?
Remembering that in Middle and early Modern English у was regarded as just another way of writing i, one should not be surprised to find that ay is read in the same way as ai, and ey is read like ei: compare day and daily, they and eight. But why should ay and ai be read like ei and like the letter a? The answer is as follows.
In Middle English the spellings at, ay, on the one hand, and ei, ey, on the other, were at first used for different diphthongs: [ai] (as in dai, day) and [ei] (as in weij wey). But later in the Middle English period these diphthongs coincided in one, pronounced [æi] or [ai] (with [a] produced close to the front part of the mouth where [æ] is made). The diphthong was spelt ey, ei, or more commonly, ay, ai. So, the word once written wei or wey began to be spelt way, like day.
Still later the diphthong seems to have changed to a long simple vowel, as the weak unstressed second part of the diphthong was lost and the energy no longer spent on it went to make the remaining vowel longer. Something similar is happening in colloquial pronunciation today: for instance, fire is pronounced [faə], [fa:] instead of [faiə]. In Modern English the vowel, which developed from the Middle English diphthong, coincided with the long vowel developing from Middle English [a:] (the development of Middle English [a:]. It became closer and closer, and in the 18th century changed to the diphthong [ei]. That is why we now read ai, ay, ei and ey in one and the same way, as [ei], which is also the alphabetical reading of the letter a, so that in pairs of words such as tail and tale, veil and vale both words sound exactly the same.
10. Why do we read the digraphsаиand aw as [ :]?
First of all, it must be made clear what a digraph is. A digraph is a combination of two letters which are not read separately but as one unit. Аи and aw are such combinations in Modern English: the letters a and u, or a and w, are not read separately, but together spell one vowel [ :].
A person who does not know English, but knows the Latin alphabet and can read Latin or, say, German, would most likely read the letter combination аи as [au]. And that is how аи was in fact read in earlier English, even as late as some four centuries ago. But the difference between the two elements of the diphthong [au] diminished, as its first element became more like the second, and the second, more like the first, till [au] was simplified into [ :]. The digraph au, however, continued to be written for the new simple vowel. So, au came to be read [ :], as in audience, August, author, autumn, cause, because, fault, pause, and so on, because the diphthong [au], for which it used to be written, changed to [ :].
The letter combination aw was originally written for the sound combination [aw]. But Old English [w] after a vowel changed to [u]. It was not much of a change really, because [w] and [u] (when it does not form a syllable) are very similar sounds. Anyway, as a result of this change the spelling aw came to stand for [au]. It began also to be used in words where the diphthong [au] did not come from Old English [aw] but had a different origin. Aw was still read [au] at the beginning of the Modern Period. Naturally, when [au] changed to [ :], the digraph aw which continues to be written for the new simple vowel in words like crawl, draw, gnaw, jaw, law, lawn, raw, saw, straw, came to be read [ :], just as the digraph au did.
11. Why is oo read [u:](as in moon),[u] (as in book),and[Λ](in blood and flood)?
1. The digraph oo came into use in Middle English. It was used to distinguish the long о vowels from the short [ ].
In Middle English oo was written for both long о vowels: the close [o:] and the open [ :]. But in the 15th century the close [o:], becoming still closer, changed to [u:], so that the difference between the two vowels became more obvious, and in the 16th century oo is the usual spelling for the closer vowel, while the more open vowel (Middle English [ :]), is spelt oa or o. As a result of these developments in pronunciation and spelling, oo is now read [u:], for instance, in boot, cool, food, fool, goose, hoof, loose, mood, moon, noon (and, of course, afternoon), pool, proof, roof, root, shoot, soon, spoon, too, tool, tooth, troops, and so on.
2. In the 16th century [u:] (like [ε:] was shortened in some words before dental consonants. Like the older [u], the new [u] was unrounded to [Λ]. Naturally, in those words where the shortened and unrounded vowel is spelt oo, this digraph is now read [Λ]: blood [blΛd], flood [flΛd].
3.In some other words [u:] changed to short [u] later, in the 17th - 18th centuries, before [k] and in a few words before [t], [d], as in book, brook, cook, crook, hook, look, rook, shook, took, foot, soot, good, hood, stood. In these words the short [u] has not been unrounded (the early Modern English unrounding of [u] was over before their [u:] had changed to [u]). So, here the digraph oo, which originally stood for [o:I and then for [u:], is now read [u].
The digraph oo is also read [u] in the words wood and wool. But historically speaking, they do not exactly belong to the group of words considered here: they had [u], not [o:], in Old and Middle English, and were spelt with u. This spelling was replaced by oo under the influence of those words in which [u] developed from [o:]. It must be noted, that in some parts of the country wood was pronounced with a long close vowel [o:] changing to [u:] in late Middle English.
12. Why are some consonant letters mute (not read) in a number of English words?
1. Mute consonant letters are for the most part written where a consonant was pronounced in earlier English. The consonant has been lost since, but the letter that once represented it continues to be written, ever though it is no longer read. Plenty of examples with such mute letters can be found in answers to the questions which follow.
The most usual cause of the loss of consonants is the so-called assimilation. Assimilationof a sound is a change (or a series of changes) in the way it is pronounced which makes it more similar to a neighbouring sound. The similarity may reach a point where the two sounds become identical and merge in one, so that the assimilatedsound (that is, the one which has been influenced by another sound into becoming similar or identical with it) no longer exists as a separate sound in the word. That is what happened, for example, with [n] in the combination [mn] at the end of such words as autumn and column. Under the influence of [m], [n] itself changed to [m], as it began to be produced like [m], by the work of the lips instead of the tongue, and merged with the preceding [m], so that now these words are pronounced [' :təm] and ['k ləm]. A number of other consonants have also been lost through assimilation in groups of consonants at the beginning or at the end of words. In a consonant combination which begins a word it is the first consonant that goes lost, in a combination which ends a word, it is the last one.
2. In some words which came (or were once believed to have come) into English from foreign languages certain letters have been mute from the start: these letters are written after foreign models, but the sounds they stand or once stood for in the foreign originals, have never been pronounced in English, as p in receipt, or p, s and t at the end of words taken over from French in modern times (coup [ku:], corps [k :], ballet ['bælei], and so on).
13. Why are the letters t, d, сwritten but not read in the middle of some words?
1. T is not read in castle, whistle, wrestle, Christmas, fasten, listen, and a few other words. In all these words the letter t originally stood for the consonant [t]. But in such combinations of three consonants as [stl], [stm], and [stn] the middle consonant [t] was rather weak, and it was dropped first in quick careless speech and then in more careful pronunciation, though the letter t still continues to be written.
The words fasten and listen look in writing as if they had a vowel between [n] and the preceding consonant. But actually the spelling en stands here for the consonant [n] alone, not preceded by any vowel, only this [n] is syllabic: it behaves like a vowel, forming a syllable with the preceding consonant. Such a syllabic [n] sounds very similar to [ən], and that accounts for the spelling.
The words often and postman are pronounced [ofn] and [pousman], without [t], by some people, while others pronounce them with [t] (['oft(ə)n], ['poustmən]) under the influence of the spelling and, in the case of postman, also under the influence of the word post.
Simplification of consonant groups, which may result in making a consonant letter mute, occurs not only in English, but in other languages as well. To take some examples nearer home, in Russian and in Ukrainian the consonant combination [stn], and sometimes [stl], is also made simpler through the loss of the middle consonant, as in the Russian words честный, счастливый (with a mute m)and the Ukrainian чесний, щасливий (where no letter is written for the lost consonant [t]).
2. The letter d is mute in handkerchief, handsome and often in handcuff, handful, in grandma, grandpa and often in other words which begin with grand-, such as grandchild, granddad, granddaughter, grandfather, grandmother, grandparent, grandson, and usually in landlady, landlord, sandwich, Wednesday. That means that the sound [d] is dropped for some reason or other. To find out the reason why it is dropped in these particular words, let us compare them to see if they all have anything in common: such a common feature may account for the loss of [d] in all of them. Indeed, it comes out that in all these words [d] is lost in combinations of three or more consonants, when preceded (or followed, as in Wednesday), by [n].
So, it appears that difficult groups of consonants have been made simpler and easier to pronounce through the assimilation of [d] to [n] and the merging of the two originally distinct sounds in one. As a matter of fact, it might be expected that [d] should easily merge with [n], for these two consonants are very similar. They are made with the tongue in the same position, only with [n] the air passes through the nose, while with [d] it breaks through between the tip of the tongue and the teeth-ridge (the part of the gum just behind the front upper teeth).
It might be helpful to remember that in Russian, too, the difficult consonant combination [zdn] is simplified through the loss of [d], as in поздно, праздник (pronounced ['poznə], I'praznik]). And in Ukrainian even the letter д is no longer written in similar cases, so that the word spelt поздно in Russian is written пiзно in Ukrainian, just as it is pronounced.
3. The word muscle is written with с in English because it is spelt like that in the French language, from which it came into English, and in Latin. In the French word muscle and the Latin musculus (originally meaning "little mouse") с stood for the sound [k]. But the English people found it hard to pronounce the consonant combination [skl], and dropped the middle consonant in pronunciation. That is how the letter с became mute in this word.
14. Why is сread [k] in some words and[s] in others?
Learners of English sometimes get into trouble with the letter c, because it has two quite different readings (sound values). The well-known rule is that с has the "soft" reading [s] before e, i and y, for example, in centre, face, officer, city, decide, cylinder, democracy, and so on (as well as before the digraphs ae and oe, which occur in some learned words of Latin and Greek origin); before other letters than those mentioned or at the end of the word, с is read [k], as in cat, class, cry, cup, fact, music, and the like (this is the so-called "hard" reading of c).
Both sound values of с are found side by side in those words which have cc before e or i: accept [ək´sept],accident ['æksidənt], success [sək'ses], and so on. The hard reading of the letter с goes back to Old English times: in the Latin alphabet used by the Old English people (the Anglo-Saxons) this letter stood for [k]. The soft reading of с dates from the Middle English period: in Old English с was never read [s], no matter what letter followed. This reading has its origin in French, where it developed as a result of historical changes in the consonant represented by the letter c. What were those changes?
First of all, it must be remembered that the French language has developed from Latin and most French words are Latin by origin. In Latin the letter с was, and still is, written for [k]. But in the so-called vulgar or popular Latin (the kind of Latin spoken by the "vulgus" or "populus", the common people), which gradually developed into Old French, the back consonant [k] changed under the influence of the following front vowel. It became [ts], which is produced in the front part of the mouth (while the back [k] is made in the back part of the mouth, with the back part of the tongue raised).
In Old French [ts] further changed to the simple consonant [s]. As с continued to be written for the changed sound, this letter came to be read [s].
During the Middle English period, after the conquest of England by the Normans, who came from Normandy in Northern France and spoke a kind of French, large numbers of French words were borrowed into English, that is, began to be used in the English language. As might be expected, the letter с in such words was, and still is, read as in French. The same is true of those French words which came into English in later times, as well as of words from Latin: in the Middle English period Latin words began to be read by English people after the French fashion. By analogy with words of French origin, like advice, face, place, and so on, the letter с is read [s] before the mute final e in a few native English words (ice, truce and the plural forms lice and mice), where the spelling с replaced the earlier s.
That is how the soft reading of с before e, i and у has become a general rule in English. There are, however, a few exceptions to this rule. The most important of them is the hard reading of с before e in scepsis, sceptic, sceptical and scepticism (read ['skepsis], ['skeptik], and so on). The explanation of the peculiar reading of the letter с in these words lies in the fact that they, or their roots, have been borrowed from Greek in modern times, have been generally known to be of Greek origin, and so are pronounced like the Greek words they come from, with [k] before [e].
Of course, exceptions are inconvenient. To avoid the inconvenience, the words scepsis, sceptic and others of the same root are spelt with k (skeptic and so on) in America and by some people in Britain.
Anyway, these few words of Greek origin make an exception that proves the rule, as the saying goes. As a rule, с is read [s] before, e, i, у also in words which are ultimately Greek by origin, such as centre, cycle, cylinder, and others. The reason is that for centuries Greek words came into English not directly from Greek, but through Latin, which had borrowed them at an earlier date, therefore they are spelt and read like Latin words.
15. Why is gread[g] in some words,[d3] in others, and[3]in a few words like regime?
1. G is perhaps the most troublesome of English consonant letters. Like c, it has a hard and a soft reading. The hard reading of g is [g], the soft reading is [d3].
Like c, g is soft only before certain letters, namely e, i, y, as in agent, engine, general, giant, gymnastics, and so on. When not followed by any of these letters, g is usually hard, as in again, dog, glad, good, etc. What complicates matters is that g can also be hard before e, i and y, as in the words begin, geese, get, girl, give, gift, gynaecology [gani'k 
ləd3i], together and others.
Historically speaking, [g] is the original sound value of the letter g. It goes back to Latin. In Old French g was also read like that when it was not followed by the front vowels spelt e, i, y. But before these letters it came to be read [d3], because old Latin [g] changed to [d3] (just as [k] changed to [ts]) under the influence of the following front vowel in late popular Latin, which gradually developed into French.
In French words which came into English during the Middle Period, after the Norman Conquest of England, as well as in some words taken over ("borrowed") from French later on, the letter g was, and still is, read as in Old French. For instance, it is read soft in gender, change, engine, but hard in agree, glory, government, and so on. Since Middle English times it has been read according to the same Old French rule in words from Latin: [d3] in gerund, gesture, margin, and the like, but [g] in agriculture, ambiguous, ingredient, etc.
As the soft reading of g has its origin in Late Latin and Old French, it should not be surprising that g can be hard before e and i in words which do not come from French or Latin (nor from Italian, which has also developed from late Popular Latin). Examples of such words have already been given. Most of them come from the Old English stock and from Germanic languages related to English, especially Scandinavian.
In some learned words borrowed from Greek in modern times or made on the basis of Greek words, such as demagogic, demogogy, gynaecology, hegemony, pedagogy, and some others, g is read [g] before e, i and у because the Greek ancestors of these words have [g]. But the soft reading of g is also possible for most of such words and is usual for words of Greek origin generally, where g (like c, and for the same reason) is for the most part read as in words from Latin.
In eager and tiger the spelling -er replaced the earlier -re: in Middle English they were spelt egre, tigre (from the French aigre, tigre). This explains the hard reading of g in these words.
2. In a few words, namely gendarme, genre, regime, rouge, barrage, camouflage, espionage, mirage, prestige, and often in garage, g is read [3]. All these words have come from French in modern times and have kept the Modern French reading of g: in French [d3]was simplified to [3], and so the letter g before e, i, у came to be read [3].
16. Why is x read [ks| and|gz]?
It is not by chance the English letter x looks exactly the same as the familiar Russian and Ukrainian x: they come from the same Greek letter X. Why then is the reading so different?
The basic reason is that X had different sound values in different forms of the Old Greek alphabet. In the common ancient Greek alphabet X stood for the aspirated sound [kh] (a [k] pronounced with a strong puff of breath), which later changed to [x]. With this sound value it was taken over into the Old Slavic (the so-called Cyrillic) alphabet, on which the modern Russian and Ukrainian alphabets are based, and the letter x still stands for the sound [x] in these languages. The English alphabet, on the other hand, has its x from Latin, which took it from a western form of the Old Greek alphabet, where X stood for [ks].
So, in English, as in Latin, whence most words with the letter x came into English (directly or through French), this letter usually stands for [ks]; e. g., in axis, box, exercise, express, fix, fox, next, six, tax, and so on. But between an unstressed and a stressed vowel x is read [gz], as in exact, examine, executive, exhaust, exhibit, exist, and the like.
The voiced reading of x may partly have its origin in French, where x is read [gz] between vowels. Yet the really decisive cause must be the voicing of [s] between an unstressed and a stressed vowel in English (compare the voicing of [s] in deserve, possess, and the like, for [ks] remains voiceless in English between a stressed and an unstressed vowel, as in 'exercise, 'execute, execution, exhibition, etc., while in the French words exercise, executer, and others of this kind, x has its voiced reading. It remains to explain what is pretty obvious anyway: when in the combination [ks] [s] became voiced into [z], it influenced the preceding consonant, making it voiced, too. That is how [ks] changed to [gz].
17. Why is t read [∫] in words like nation and [t∫] in words like nature, question?
1. Т is usually read [t] in English, as in Latin and in other languages using the Latin alphabet. However, it is read [∫] after a stressed syllable, when followed by i+ another vowel letter, especially before such terminations as -ial, -lent, -ion, e. g., in initial, partial, patient, composition, conversation, description, direction, examination, exhibition, nation, station, also in initiative and some other words, [∫] in such words has developed from [sj]. This happened through assimilation, as described in answer to the preceding question.
But why should ti have ever been read [sj]? This reading is found in words from French and Latin, and it has its origin in French, where [s] replaced [ts], which had developed from [t] under the influence of the following [j] (or a short unstressed [i]) in popular Latin. As a result of these sound changes, the letter combination ti, which stood for [ti] or [tj] in classical Latin, came to be read [sj] (or [si]) in French.
As a matter of fact, ti is still often read [si] (or [sj]) before a full (unreduced, that is, not weakened) vowel, as in negotiate [ni'gousieit], negotiation [ni,gousi'ei∫(ə)n],though the pronunciation with [∫i] ([ni'gou∫ieit, ni/gou∫i'ei∫(a)n])is probably more common.
2. After [s], [tj] did not change to [sj] in French, and in English this [tj] became [t∫] through assimilation. That is why in such words as digestion, question, suggestion t is read [t∫] and not [∫], as in other words ending in -tion.
T is also read [t∫] before the termination -ure, as in adventure, creature, culture, departure, feature, furniture, future, literature, nature, picture, signature, temperature, and so on, and before и in some words where the letter и stands for an unstressed vowel and ends, or seems to end, the syllable in the written form of the word, as in century, fortune, etc, In such words the [∫] which changed [t] to [t∫] was originally part of the sound combination [ju(:)]spelt u.
18. Why is ch read [t∫] (as in chair, chalk), [k] (as in character), [∫] (as in machine), [d3]
(as in sandwich)?
1. The digraph ch has a long history.
In ancient Latin ch was used to spell an aspirated k sound [kh] in words of Greek origin. In English such words (e. g., character, cholera, chorus, architect, epoch, patriarch, and so on) are generally spelt as in Latin, with ch read [k]. The same applies to words derived from Greek roots, such as chemistry.
Ch is also read [k] in the verb to ache and the noun ache, though these are not Greek but native English words. Till the 18th century the noun was pronounced with [t∫], like speech, and the verb, with [k], but then it was also spelt with k: to ake, like to speak and to take. The pronunciation {k] for ch in the noun ache and the spelling ch for [k] in the verb to ache owe their acceptance to the famous eighteenth-century scholar Samuel Johnson, who mistakenly believed that these words came from the Greek word akhos (meaning "pain, ache"): for almost a century Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language was regarded by educated English people as supreme authority in matters of word usage, spelling and, to some extent, pronunciation.
2. In Old French ch came to be used for the consonant [t∫], which developed from an earlier ksound, where this became palatalized, that is, pronounced as if followed by [j], somewhat like the initial consonant in the Ukrainian word кiно. In those French words that came into English during the Middle Period, such as chair, change, chief, achieve, approach, branch, etc., ch continues to be read [t∫]. Moreover, in Middle English ch began to be written, after the French fashion, for the consonant [t∫] in words which came from Old English: chalk, cheese, chest, child, each, much, and others. This consonant developed at the end of the Old English period from a palatalized k sound, as did the similar consonant in Old French.
3. In French, however, [t∫] did not remain unchanged. It became [∫], so that ch is read [∫] in Modern French, and the same reading is found in a number of words which have come into English from French during the Modern Period, that is, since the 16th century: champagne, chandelier, charade, chauffeur, chef, machine, moustache, parachute, and a few others.
4. Lastly, at the end of a few words, such as sandwich, spinach, and geographical names ending in -wich, of which the best known is Greenwich, ch is read [d3]. Originally ch was written in such words for [t∫]. But [t∫] has become voiced after an unstressed vowel and so changed to [d3], while the spelling ch remains unchanged.
19. Why is gh read [f] in words like enough and not read at all in words like daughter,
night?
In Middle English the digraph gh was written for a fricative consonant resembling the Ukrainian or Russian [xj. But in some dialects [x] changed to the lip consonant [f] after vowels produced with lip rounding ([u:] and the glide [u]). Some of the [f] forms now belong to Standard English: cough, enough, rough, tough, laugh (pronounced [k ux], [e'nu:x], [ru:x], [tu:x], [laux] in the 14th - 15th centuries).
More commonly, however, the fricative consonant weakened and then disappeared altogether (probably as early as the 15th century in the speech of London). To be more exact, the consonant changed to a vowel-like sound similar to the preceding vowel and easily absorbed by it: [w, u] after [u:] or the glide [u], as in bough (once pronounced [bu:x]), bought (once bouxt), brought, caught, daughter, dough, drought, plough, though, through; [j, i] after [i], as in bright, light, night and other words or after a diphthong ending in [i], as in eight, neighbour.
It must be noted that the consonant spelt gh was regularly lost before [t], where it was weaker than at the end of a word. But laughter has [f] for gh, like laugh, and so has draught.
By the time the changes described here had taken place, English spelling had already become fixed in its main features, so that gh continues to be written, even though the sound it once stood for has disappeared or changed to [f]. That explains why gh is now read [f] in some words and not read at all in others.
After gh had become mute in native words (those coming from Old English), it was introduced in the word delight, because this word was mistakenly associated with light, though actually it came from the Old French word delit which had nothing to do with light, and had never been pronounced with [x].
Another word in which gh has been mute from the start, because it has never been pronounced with [x], is haughty. This word was made by adding the suffix -y to an earlier adjective haught, which came from the Old French word hault or haul and was written simply haut in Middle English. It began to be spelt with gh on the model of the participles like caught, taught, bought, brought, thought, and so on. As a matter of fact, many words which had never had [x] were written with gh by some people in the 15th century; for instance, hough for how, ought for out, wright for write, and the like.
20. Why is wh read [w] in what and most other words, but[h] in who and whole?
The spelling wh is usually found in those words which were pronounced with [hw] and spelt with hw in Old English. As [h] is a voiceless sound, fw] also became voiceless in this combination, changing to [ 
], a sound produced with rounded lips, like [w], but without voice and with greater force of breath. In the 13th century this sound began to be spelt wh instead of hw, with the letter h coming second, as in "the Latin digraphs ch, ph, th, and in the digraph gh which also came into use at that time.
The voiceless labial sound [ ], with or without the preceding [h], continues to be pronounced where the spelling has wh by many people in Britain, especially in the north of England and in Scotland, as well as in America. But in southern England it has become voiced into an ordinary [w]. It is this [w] that usually corresponds to the spelling wh in the so-called Received Pronunciation of English, which is the type of pronunciation widely used by educated English people and generally adopted in teaching English to foreigners.
However, while wh is read [w] or [ ] in what, when, where, which, why, wheat, wheel, whether, while, whip, whisper, whistle, white, and other words, it stands for [h] in who, whom, whose, where the labial consonant has merged with the following rounded vowel in whole and in a few less common words.
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