ENG 487

Project #1
Phonology and Spelling

Excerpt from
The Little Engine that Could
The little train rumbled over tracks. She was a happy little train for she had such a jolly load
to carry. Her cars were filled full of good things for boys and girls.
There were toy animalsgiraffes with long necks, teddy bears with almost no necks at all,
and even a baby elephant. Then there were dollsdolls with blue eyes and yellow curls, dolls
with brown eyes and brown bobbed heads, and the gayest little toy clown you ever saw. And
there were cars full of toy engines, aeroplanes, tops, jack knives, picture puzzles, books, and
every kind of thing boys or girls could want.
But that was not all. Some of the cars were filled with all sorts of good things for boys and
girls to eatbig golden oranges, red-cheeked apples, bottles of creamy milk for their breakfasts,
fresh spinach for their dinners, peppermint drops, and lollypops for after meal treats.
The little train was carrying all these good things to the good little boys and girls on the other
side of the mountain. She puffed along happily. Then all of a sudden she stopped with a jerk.

Symbol
p
b
t
d
k

g
m
n
ng //
f
v
s
z
h
sh //
zh //
w
y
l
r
ch /t/
j /d/
th/ / bath

Grapheme-Phoneme Chart
Consonants
Examples (Basic spelling)
picture, puzzles, lollypops, puffed
boys, bears, baby, blue, brown, books,
but, big, breakfast
train, track, to, toy, teddy, tops, treats
dolls, dinners, drops

Alternate Spellings
happy, apples, peppermint, stopped
bobbed

cheeked, puffed, stopped

teddy, little, bottles, sudden, rumbled, bobbed
track, carry, car, necks, curls, clown, jack,
kind, cheeked
could, picture, creamy (occupy), (character),
(unique)
good, girls, gayest
(ghost)
animals, almost, milk, peppermint, meal (thumb) (autumn)
necks, no, not
knives (knight) (gnaw)
xxx
things, long, carrying
for, filled, full, breakfast, fresh
giraffes, elephant, puffed (half) (laugh)
over, even, ever, knives
of
saw, some, sorts, spinach, side, sudden, (cite) (cent) (cyclone) (scent) (psyche)(pass)
stopped
(zipper) (zero)
puzzles, oranges, engines, girls
happy, had, her, heads
(whom)
(nation) (session) (special) (chef)
she, fresh (ship)
(equation)
(vision) (fusion)
was, were, with, want
(once) (quiet) (what)
yellow, you
(onion)(opinion)
little, load, long, lollypops
rumbled, jolly, filled, full, little, all puzzles
rumbled, red
carrying (wrong) (wrapped)
picture, (stitch)
cheeked, spinach
engines, oranges, giraffes, (gentle) (badge),
jolly, jack, jerk
(gym), (judge), (edge)
xxx
thing

th // bathe

Symbol
Short vowels
i /I/
bit
e //

bet

a //

bat

ah //

hot

u //

but

about, sofa
// book
aw // dawn,
Long vowels
a_e /ey/ cane
ee /iy/ beet

the, there, then, that, their, these, other

Vowels
Examples (basic spelling)

Alternate Spellings

little, filled, with, picture, big, milk,

dinners
necks, teddy, then, yellow, ever,
engine, every, red, fresh
track, happy, had, and, at, that,
apples, after
jolly, dolls, bobbed, tops, not,
drops, lollypops, stopped
rumble, puzzle, but, puffed, such
sudden
a, animals, breakfast, along, was
good, books
saw, (lawn)

oranges, spinach

aeroplanes (cake)
cheeked, (sleet), (meet)

train, baby, gayest, (steak)

she, jolly, carry, teddy, even, baby,
eat, cream, meal, treats, these
eyes, kind, (idle), (sigh) (tie) (my)
load, almost, no, yellow, golden
(toe) (crow)
to, blue, you, (student), (mute),
(new)
(oil), (void)
mountain

i_e /ay/ bite

o_e /ow/ cone

knives, side
over, (phone)

/u/

(soon),(cool)

boot

xxx

heads, breakfast
(have), (plaid)
(caught),(squad)
of, some, other
the, elephant, engines
full, could
all, want, on, long

oy /y/ boy
ow /aw/ gown
r-colored vowels
ar
far
r //
fur
er
fair

boys, toy
brown, clown

ir

fear

(hear) (dear)

(heart), (barrow)
her, were, girls, giraffe, jerk
carry, there, bears, aeroplanes,
their, (share)
(deer), (here), (tier)

or
ur

for
poor

for, or, sorts

(moor)

(your), (course)
(pure), (sure)

cars, (start)
picture, curls
(hair), (pair)

Spelling Rules

1. G" followed by "e, i or y" usually makes the sound of "j". ( giraffe, gentle, engines)
2. C followed by an e,i,or y usually makes the sound of s. (cent, cite, cyclone)
3.

dge may be used to make the j sound after a short vowel sound. (badge, edge, judge)

4. CVC, when a syllable ends in a consonant and has only one vowel, that vowel is short.
(Big, red, had, not, but)

5. VCe, when a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent "e" is a signal that the vowel in front
of it is long. (over, side, cake, phone, mute)
6. When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usually long and the second is
silent. (train, cream, load, meal, blue)
7. CV, when a syllable ends in any vowel and is the only vowel, that vowel is usually long.
(she, ba/by, no, e/ven)
8. One syllable words ending in a single vowel-consonant combination will double the
consonant when adding a suffix. (bobbed, stopped, wrapped)
9. When a base word ends in a voiceless sound, the past tense ed will be the voiceless /t/.
(Cheeked, puffed, stopped, wrapped)
10. When a base word ends in a voiced sound, the past tense ed will be the voiced /d/.
(rumbled, bobbed)
11. When y follows a consonant at the end of a word with more than one syllable, it
usually sounds like //. (jolly, baby, teddy)
12. s-h is used at the beginning of a word, at the end of a syllable, but not at the beginning of
any syllable after the first one. (she, ship, fresh)
13. t-i, s-i, and c-i are used to say /sh/ at the beginning of any syllable other than the first one.
(nation, session, special)
14. l, f, and s is often doubled at the end of a one syllable word. (puff, full, doll, pass)
15. ck is used only after a single vowel which makes a short vowel sound (neck, track, jack)
16. e at the end of a word is silent after l but must be there because every syllable must have
a vowel. (rumble, little, puzzle, idle)
17. when the letter r follows a vowel, the vowel usually changes its sound (car, sort, curls)