The alphabet which we use to write English has 26 letters but (British) English has 44 sounds.
Inevitably, English spelling is not a reliable guide to pronunciation because ...
- Some letters have more than one sound
- Sometimes letters are not pronounced at all
- The same sound may be represented by different letters
- Sometimes syllables indicated by the spelling are not pronounced at all.
The letters of the alphabet can be a poor guide to pronunciation. Phonemic symbols, in contrast, are a totally reliable guide. Each symbol represents one sound consistently.
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