In 1968 an American linguist, answering the question "How do you pronounce
TESOL?" (the acronym of the Association of Teachers of English to Speakers
of Other Languages) answered: "T as in castle, E as in
give, S as in island, O as in people, and L as
in calm."
In fact you can, with some use of proper names and loan words, create a
complete silent alphabet for English, as follows:
|
A as in BREAD B as in DEBT C as in INDICTMENT D as in HANDKERCHIEF E as in GIVE F as in HALFPENNY G as in GNAW H as in HOUR I as in FRIEND J as in MARIJUANA K as in KNOW L as in CALM M as the first M in MNEMONIC N as in AUTUMN O as in PEOPLE P as in PSALM Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surname) R as in FORECASTLE S as in ISLAND T as in CASTLE U as in GUARD V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name) W as in WRONG X as in SIOUX Y as in PEPYS Z as in RENDEZVOUS |
No wonder we need a phonetic alphabet for English and authors of pronouncing dictionaries get rich.