Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.
SPELLING PRONUNCIATIONS
are an oddity. The spoken language of course came first, and the written language is mostly an accommodation to it. But our literate society puts such emphasis on spelling that a good many people believe that the written form of a word is somehow truer and more basic than the spoken one. So it should not surprise us to find unwary speakers deciding that since often is spelled with a medial -t-, that hitherto silent consonant should be pronounced, as AWF-ten. And so too it is that although forehead has long been pronounced without an h, as FOR-id, many people, conscious of the spelling, say it FOR-HED. It is spelling pronunciation too that gives us the second pronunciations of gunwale—GUHN-il and GUHN-WAIL—and forecastle—FOK-suhl and FOR-KAS-il. And in at least one instance spelling pronunciation has given us both a second pronunciation and then a second spelling as well: originally boatswain was pronounced something like BOT-SWAIN, and inexperienced landlubbers may still pronounce it that way, working as they must from the printed word. But nautical folk came to pronounce it BOS-uhn, and Gilbert and Sullivan were early users of the now widely current variant spelling bosun. See SYNCOPE.
Some spelling pronunciations catch on and ultimately become Standard, at least in divided usage; others remain odd and Nonstandard or disappear. In any event you’ll be wise to check your dictionary when unsure.
