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Possible Duplicate:
Why do written English vowels differ from other Latin-based orthographies?

I noticed that in English some words that have the same letters (except for the first), have a different pronunciation, like:

bat (short a)

bet (same sound but shorter)

let (same sound)

or

me thee fee

or

dog (long o) hot (short o)

Is there a (historical?) reason for it?

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Michel Keijzers
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    The words bat and bet do not have the same vowel. The first is [æ] while the second is [ɛ]. – JSBձոգչ Mar 01 '12 at 02:05
  • @FumbleFingers actually it's not a duplicate, mine is ambiguous, the other question seems not to be. – Michel Keijzers Mar 01 '12 at 02:07
  • @JSBangs Yes you are right in that ... – Michel Keijzers Mar 01 '12 at 02:08
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    @Michel Keijzers: If the specific thing you want to know isn't covered by nohat's answer to the earlier question, you should prompt him with a comment there. I really don't think there's any special "historical" reason relevant to your question that both isn't, and shouldn't be covered there. – FumbleFingers Mar 01 '12 at 02:13
  • What the heck is a long o or short o in dog /dɔg/ and hot /hɒt/? I guess southerners might lengthen the dog vowel into /dɔːg/ as in caught, but that’s still not a version of /ɒ/. This shows why it’s futile to talk about these things without ɪᴘᴀ. For a really swell time, try these. – tchrist Mar 01 '12 at 02:51
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    @tchrist, I believe he means a "long short o", and a "short short o" – Bidella Mar 01 '12 at 02:53
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    This is silly. English letters have almost nothing to do with English pronunciation, and attempting to explain that they do is a waste of time and effort. Better go look at the GVS, as FF suggests. – John Lawler Mar 01 '12 at 03:41
  • @tchrist: A swell time indeed! but they didn't have "tsk". – Jim Mar 01 '12 at 06:09
  • I think I have to read more about all this (all vowels and the 18 sounds mentioned above). – Michel Keijzers Mar 01 '12 at 12:26

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