The Spelling of Vowels Is Influenced by Australian and British English Dialect Differences

Abstract

Two experiments examined the influence of dialect on the spelling of vowel sounds. British and Australian children (6 to 8 years) and university students wrote words whose unstressed vowel sound is spelled i or e and pronounced /I/ or /∂/. Participants often (mis)spelled these vowel sounds as they pronounced them. When vowels were pronounced similarly in both dialects (e.g., comic, with /I/; fossil, with /∂/), British and Australian writers wrote the correct spelling similarly often. For vowels pronounced as /I/ in British English but /∂/ in Australian English and spelled with i (e.g., muffin), British writers correctly wrote i significantly more than Australian writers. For vowels with this same pronunciation pattern but spelled instead with e(e.g., rocket), Australian writers correctly wrote e significantly more often than British writers. Dialect-related phonological differences influenced the spelling of both beginning and skilled spellers across both familiar and unfamiliar words.