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10. Letter Patterns

Many of the words in the e-speec system follow patterns. A child learning to spell with this system just needs to learn a pattern and then the spelling of all words using that pattern becomes obvious.

Following are some of the patterns that we can find in the lists of e-speec words. Notice that in most cases the corresponding list of words spelt in the traditional way would not fit into any regular pattern.

Single long vowel:

Io (owe, oh)

Consonant and long vowel:

bi (by, buy, bye)fo (foe)bu (boo)
di (die)godu (do)
hi (high) lo (low)gu (goo)
mi (my)nohu (who)
si (sigh)ro (row, roe)ju (jew)
ti (tie)so (so, sow, sew)lu (lieu, loo)
wi (why)to (tow, toe)yu (you, yew)

Consonant and 'ee':

bee (be, bee)cee (key, quay)
feelee (lee, lea)
mee (me)see (see, sea)
tee (tee, tea)wee (wee, we)

Consonant - short vowel - consonant:

batbac (back)
bethed (head)
bithil (hill)
bogcof (cough)
bugcum (come)

Consonant - long vowel - consonant - 'e':

matewate (weight, wait)
mitenite (night, knight)
motebote (boat)
rudelute (lute, loot)

Consonant - 'ee' - consonant:

been (been, bean)feel
heet (heat)seed (seed, cede)

Consonant - 'ay':

dayway (way, weigh, whey)

Ending of: short vowel - double consonant - 'y':

dittysitty (city)
pritty (pretty)taccy (tacky)
jazzy

Ending of: long vowel - single consonant - 'y':

bonyholy (holy, wholly)
mity (mighty)weedy
seedy

Ending of: short vowel (or 'ee') - consonant(s) - 'l':

dabl (dabble)litl (little)
fondl (fondle)feebl (feeble)

Ending of: long vowel (not 'ee') - consonant(s) - 'el':

bibel (bible)libel
titel (title)

Sequence of: short stressed vowel - doubled consonant - unstressed vowel:

hatterhammer
craccer (cracker)vannish (vanish)
dammij (damage)nollij (knowledge)
pezzent (peasant)

Sequence of: long vowel - single consonant - unstressed vowel:

hatersober

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