Spelling

I’m kind of embarrassed to admit this really happened.

Seriously, you’d think I’d have this down by now. I personally blame spelling for being stupidly illogical.

Words I Will Never Know How to Spell

It’s the last Thursday of the year, and as always I’m looking at words in a slightly different fashion. This year: words that I will never know how to spell. Come on, it’s in the post title.

Connoisseur

Heads up: having French genes does not make you able to spell French words (I guess linguistics can’t be passed down that way). Also, why the hell is this word so freaking hard to get right?! Seriously, what is with French and letters? “Let’s throw an O in there!” “Shall we pronounce it?” “No, what are you, crazy?”

Miscellaneous

I think it’s the S and the C in this one that really screw me up. This is why I hate the letter C. It’s so pointless. It’s designed to make you not know how to use it. Is it pronounced? Silent? A K sound? An S? A ch?

Twelfth

I suppose that this might be embarrassing to admit, but I always forget either the L or the F. It’s all those consonants in a row! Sometimes it seems like the F isn’t even vocalized, and I know there’s a linguistic word for that although I can’t think of it off the top of my head and don’t feel like looking it up.

Cemetery

I am just always convinced there’s an A in there somewhere. Secretary uses the same vowel pronunciations but has an A in the end. Why not cemetary? I mean cemetery. I just did it again. Not making this up. I totally spelled it wrong in my post about spelling it wrong as I’m looking at the correct spelling of the word.

Millennium

I never remember that there are two N’s. Or sometimes I spell it with the two N’s, but only one L. I will never, ever get it right on the first try unless I look it up.

So that’s all I can think of, but what about you? What words do you never get right?

It’s Webster’s Fault

I always thought it was weird that British and American English can be so different, yet from the same root. I know that languages evolve over time—I’ve only said it every week for the past nine months—but it has always surprised me how different some things can be. There’s realize and realise, color and colour, paralyze and paralyse, traveled and travelled!

What brought about these differences? Short answer: Noah Webster. Apparently, he wanted the two countries to have their own styles, so he ran through the dictionary cutting out letters he felt weren’t needed or were confusing. The double l and u above reflect the former example, while the switch from s to z shows an example of the latter.

Changing all this stuff might seem silly, but I’m sure the fact that the American Revolution just ended and he was looking to distinguish his country from England had nothing to do with his decision to write the American Dictionary of the English Language.

Or, you know. Everything.

Regardless of his motives, he did work hard on thedictionary, for which he learned 26 languages, traveled Europe, and wrote 70,000 entries.

All that because he wanted everything to be accurate! And that attention to detail is also why the dictionary is still used—who do you think is the Webster in Merriam-Webster?—and why the spellings prevailed here in the United States.

I guess that mystery is solved.

Thanks to:

Daily Writing Tips’ page by Mark Nichol: “How Spelling Diverges Between American and British English.”

Netstate’s page on Noah Webster.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

The online version of Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language.

The Language of Confusion: Why isn’t it “Firey”?

Seriously, why isn’t it? Why switch the e and the r for that one word? And if "firey" is no good, then why don't we just replace the e with a y, like in wiry? Is there a reason?

Fire didn’t always used to be spelled fire. It comes from the Old English fyr (I think it would rhyme with Tyr) and when Old became Middle, they changed a lot of vowels around and the y became ie. For a few centuries, anyway.

Before about 1200 CE, the word was spelled fier (okay, it’s starting to make more sense now) Then, Old English gave way to Middle English. For about four hundred years, there was a war between the spellings, because really, in the sixteenth century people just spelled things the way they felt like it. Eventually, people started collaborating on universal spelling for English and "Fire" emerged as the preferred choice, which lasted into our Modern English language. But fier remained alive in the adjective form of the word. Which for some reason, they did not change.

Dang. I hate it when there’s a logical explanation. Well, mostly logical. Language evolution is weird.

Thanks to the Online Etymology Dictionary and the great Creighton University article on Middle English.

I Still Suck At Spelling

I’ve mentioned this before.

Yesterday, someone commented (anonymously—come on!) that I spelled June Cleaver’s name wrong. Yeah, I did. Because I suck at spelling.

Fellow nitpickers, I’m sorry for letting you down in this, but I can’t be a spelling critic. Stories, continuity, appropriateness, yes. But I’m a bad speller. I admit it. My blog is part of who I am, so I left the misspelling up. 

Spell check, although a wondrous help for me, can’t point out the names I’ve spelled incorrectly but not “wrong,” and it doesn’t always catch when I use “do” instead of “due.” This is where proofreading is invaluable, but as repeated readings of my WIP have shown, I still miss a lot of them—usually the same ones, too.

There are going to be more, I’m sure. I'm embarrassed when people point them out, but don't let that stop you (really, my feelings are my problems; I'm not pushing responsibility for them onto anyone else). I wouldn't be a good writer (or honest nitpicker) if I didn't allow for my own work to be criticized. So go ahead and tell me when I'm wrong! But I would appreciate it if it wasn't done anonymously. I'm not going to get into a big fight with you and insist you're looking at the wrong edition of my work.

Good night and good luck.

I am a horribile spieller

Really, I am. From grades one through eight, I was in horror during spelling quizzes. That whole “i before e except after c” thing just goes right over my head. I always spell according with two r’s and one c.

I can remember when to use their, when to use there, and when to use they’re. I know how to use whom. I know what ambiguous means, what florid means, what antidisestablishmentarianism means. But don’t ask me to spell them.

If I had to handwrite essays in English class, I’d fail every one. Thankfully, I have spell check. It doesn’t absorb the suck from my writing, but at least you know what it means! 

Sorry I don't have anything more interesting to talk about today ; ). I'll see if I can drum up something more interesting for tomorrow. Maybe about how I have seven hundred uses of could, would and should in my current MS. That I have to edit. Right now. 

Can you hear my sigh through the internet?