22/06/2019
The English Dictionary.
First, let's look at how many words are in the Dictionary. The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use (and 47,156 obsolete words).
The average adult person needs 20,000 words to speak English with the knowledge of about 40000 words total.
One needs only 26 letters to write all those words
21 out of the 26 are consonants and 5 of them are vowels, although the letter W and Y can also represent consonants and vowels depending on how they are used.
In the word "yes" the Y represents a consonant, whereas in the word "type" it represents a vowel. The same goes for the letter W as in "wait" representing a consonant and as in "bowl" representing a vowel.
the tricky part about the consonants and the vowels is the way they sound in the words. In the alphabet, they have clear and definite sounds, but when they are placed in words they have different sounds and often times they are voiceless.
You will find several words with double consonants in them, but fortunately never more than two.
Sometimes double consonants in some of the words are only used for the sake of spelling, but not to pronounce.The also have different meanings even though they may be voiceless. For example: the words "but" and "butt" are homophones. Just by adding the letter T to the word "but" you have something else but only to spell, you pronounce them the same way.
What is also tricky is the several ways the vowels sound. In the alphabet they are clear. Each of them has their own sound, but when they are placed in words they change completely.
Let's take a look at them separately and in words
A, E, I, O, U.
No problems there, right?
Now, let's see what happens to them in different words.
The letter "A" has at least 5 different sounds as in the following words:
Tape, tap, talk, and, article.
For the letter E, I have found at least 4 different sounds as in the following words:
Beg, fern, next, behave.
The "I" has at least 3 different sounds as in bite, bit, dirt.
As for the letter O there are at least 11 different sounds. Top, coffee, poke, neighbor, purpose, London, bottle, combination, comb. (Why on earth is the letter B there?). And last but not least, the letter U.
Busy, bury, but, use, umbrella, put.
The vowels are also used in words where two of the same are placed in the word, forming a diphthong or just one sound that makes you wonder why it is there in the first place. Words such as, floor, flood, food, beef, see, vacuum, Hawaii, eye, either, peak, beach, and so on.
The double E in the words may have the clear purpose of differing it from the letter "I" as in beet and bit or teen and tin. That's all well and good, but why EA to give the words the same sound as double E? Beats me!
Uh oh, beets me would make no sense at all.
And you have the "IE" and the "EI" to form the very same sound. How would you know which one to use? The rule is "I" before "E" except after "C", but it is WEIRD.
It has been said that the writing is the representation of the sp*ech and not the other way around. What does that even mean?
In order to write all the words the Oxford English Dictionary contains you only need 26 letters, but here's a glutton sentence that consumes the entire English alphabet to write only 9 words: "The quick, clever, brown fox jumps on lazy dogs".
