Traditionally the sound 'cs' is written with the letter x (as in 'tax'), or the letters 'cs' (tics, facsimile) or 'cks' (bricks) or 'cc' (accept, accelerate, success, eccentric). The letter 'x' is also used for many other sounds - including 'gz' (exist and auxiliary); 'z' (xylophone); and 'csh' (luxury). e-speec achieves a significant rationalisation by not using the letter 'x' - for example, acsept (accept), ecsept (except), sucses (success), zilofone (xylophone), angshus (anxious), ogzillery (auxiliary), egzist (exist), lucshury (luxury).
In Old English the sound ‘qu’ was spelt ‘cw’ – for example: cween (queen). Then, when French words
were introduced into England, the letters 'qu’ were often used to repesent the 'c‘ sound - as in ‘antique’. So
in modern English we find that the use of ‘qu’ is very inconsistent - for example it is sometimes used to
represent the sound 'c' as in 'antique' or 'cheque' or 'conquer' or 'lacquer' – while on the other hand the 'qu'
sound is sometimes represented by other letters - as in 'choir', 'cuisine', 'awkward' or 'inkwell'. So people
learning to spell are sometimes unsure whether to use 'q' or not. To be consistent,
e-speec uses 'cw'
for the 'qu' sound, and 'c' for the 'c' sound - for example, cween (queen), anteec (antique), chec (cheque),
concer (conquer), laccer (lacquer), cee (quay, key), cyu (queue), cwire (choir, quire), cweezeen (cuisine),
orcwood (awkward), incwel (inkwell).
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