THE SPELLINGS OF ALL MONOSYLLABIC WORDS IN THE CORE VOCABULARY OF AMERICAN ENGLISH WERE ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE DEGREE OF CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN A PHONEME AND A SINGLE GRAPHEMIC REPRESENTATION IN THIS SET OF WORDS. A PHONEMIC CLASSIFICATION WAS DEVISED, AND COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY WAS USED TO ANALYZE THE PHONEME-GRAPHEME CORRESPONDENCE OF THESE WORDS IN TWO WAYS--(1) THE SPELLING OF A GIVEN PHONEME ANY PLACE IN MONOSYLLABIC WORDS AND (2) THE SPELLING OF A GIVEN PHONEME IN INITIAL, MEDIAL, AND FINAL POSITION IN MONOSYLLABIC WORDS. SPELLINGS OF EACH PHONEME WERE RANK-ORDERED TO DETERMINE THE ODDS THAT A GIVEN PHONEME WOULD BE REPRESENTED BY A PARTICULAR GRAPHIC SYMBOL AT LEAST 80 PERCENT OF THE TIME IN THE WORDS STUDIED. THE PHONEMES LARGELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ORTHOGRAPHY'S FAILURE TO APPROXIMATE THE ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE IN MONOSYLLABIC WORDS ARE THE LONG VOWEL PHONEMES AND CERTAIN DIPHTHONGS. KNOWLEDGE OF CONSONANT AND SHORT VOWEL PHONEMES CAN HELP CHILDREN UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF ORTHOGRAPHY AND APPLY THIS KNOWLEDGE TO SPELLING. ALTHOUGH EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS ARE SUGGESTED, THE STUDY IS FUNDAMENTALLY A DESCRIPTION OF THE ALPHABETIC NATURE OF THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN-ENGLISH WORDS. THIS PAPER WAS PRESENTED AT THE INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE (SEATTLE, MAY 1961). (RH)