No. There also isn't one for "w", yet we get by with that as a letter.

lelanthran · 2024-04-11T22:05:30

> There also isn't one for "w", yet we get by with that as a letter.

Warning: Tangential rant ahead.

I'm teaching my toddler to read (Distar alphabet).

Even with the modified alphabet, it's a chore to "know" how to pronounce a letter.

'a' has at least 4 different pronunciations in words used by toddlers: apple, came, eat, bread.

All the vowels are like that, and even some consonants ('y' has at the very least: baby, yesterday, cycle, buy)

The only well-behaved letter in English is 'x': pronounced the same wherever you see it, as 'cks'[1].

[1] For toddlers, anyway. I doubt a 4-year old would be interested in LaTeX :-)

__float · 2024-04-11T22:24:33

Unless it's at the beginning of a word, like xylophone?

ssl-3 · 2024-04-11T22:58:24

The only rule in English is that there is an exception to every rule (including this one).

lelanthran · 2024-04-12T05:52:15

> Unless it's at the beginning of a word, like xylophone?

Well, we didn't cover sounding out of `ph` yet, and it isn't a toy he has, so thankfully it is not a word he uses.

Aloisius · 2024-04-12T03:04:18

> There also isn't one for "w"

There's dub.

Dub-dub-dub is pretty widely understood to mean www.