대한언어학회 전자저널

Kang, Seok-keun, and Seon-ki Yang. (2016). A Phonological Analysis of Phonetic Spellings in English SMS. The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 24(3), 109-123. This paper aims to provide a phonological account of phonetic spellings used in English SMS. To this end, we collected 1159 tokens from various online dictionaries, websites, and blogs, and analysed the phonetic spellings of vowels and consonants used in them. First, we show that, unlike the standard orthography of English, there exist the following default spellings of vowels in texting: /ǝ/ → , /ɛ/ → , /ey/ → , /ay/ → , /ʌ, ʊ, u/ → , /ɔ, ow/ → , /i, ɪ/ → . Second, we claim that a default spelling does not necessarily represent a specific vowel, but it can also substitute for more than one vowel, which is often closely related to prosodic structure. Specifically, we argue that the letter spells /ey/ in closed syllables and /ay/ in open syllables, and that the letter replaces /ɔ/ in closed syllables and /ow/ in open syllables. Third, we propose that there may be more than one way to spell a vowel in texting: /ey/ is spelt as or , and /ay/ as or , depending on syllable structure. With respect to the phonetic spellings of consonants, we claim that there is also a similar tendency to use default spellings. Besides, consonant cluster reduction takes place in an effort to save time and space in texting. Finally, we also show that phonetic spelling includes eye dialect, which substitutes letters in irregular standard spellings for those which more regularly correspond to the particular sound.

# 약어(abbreviation) # 기본철자(default spelling) # 발음 철자법(phonetic spelling) # SMS # 문자소 대체(grapheme substitution) # 음절구조(syllable structure)

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