ABSTRACT
There are a number of reasons why spellings can appear to be riddles when they do not follow the standard pattern of letters found elsewhere. Spelling rules explain why the word ‘dinner’ contains two ‘n’s. However, whilst many spellings do follow this rule, many other spellings don’t. One reason for this is that words arriving from Latin and French root words did not follow the double-consonant-after-a-short-vowel spelling pattern. ‘Feather’ and ‘bead’ have similar letters, but the ‘ea’ pattern within them both is pronounced differently. Spellings containing the ‘sk’ spelling pattern are mostly found in words which originated from Old Norse – brought over by the Vikings. This compares with the ‘sc’ spelling pattern more often found in spellings rooted in Old French. Many of the silent letters people see in their spellings today, used to be sounded. Having been introduced to the key rules and roles of vowels it does not take long before variations become evident within English spellings.
