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Intro E: Mini-FAQ on Spelling |
Subject: Intro E: Mini-FAQ on Spelling
Last Revised 2010-07-12 (12 Jul 2010)
* = recently revised
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Intro E: Mini-FAQ on Spelling
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are longer answers, with more examples, for most of these items in
the full AUE FAQ (see end). Many of these topics cause much argument,
and we earnestly request that you do some research before deciding to
post on these.
CONTENTS OF THIS MINI FAQ ON SPELLING:
- Isn't spelling reform a good idea?
* - Joke about step-by-step spelling reform
- Humorous poems about spelling
- What is "ghoti"?
- I before E except after C
- U.S. -v- Rest-Of-World spelling
----------------------------------------------- Isn't spelling reform a good idea? ----------------------------------------------- Only a tiny number of a.u.e participants favour spelling reform. One chief reason is that there are so many ways to pronounce common English words that any simplified standard spelling would still be irregular for many people. We do not appreciate long attempts at trying to convert us to spelling reform. You may find a better audience at alt.language.english.spelling.reform, and there is The Simplified Spelling Society at: http://www.spellingsociety.org/ A history of English spelling reform attempts since 1870: http://www.barnsdle.demon.co.uk/spell/histsp.html --------------------------------------------------------- *Joke about step-by-step spelling reform --------------------------------------------------------- Three versions of this joke, in which spelling reforms are proposed and then made in the course of the article itself, are in circulation. They can be found on the Web, so please don't post any to a.u.e. (1) A plan for the improvement of spelling, by M. J. Shields http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/spelling.html It begins, "For example, in Year 1 that useless letter "c"..." [M. J. Shields was a critic of G. B. Shaw's spelling reform ideas, according to the book "Another Almanac of Words at Play" (William Espy, 1980, p. 80). Many web sites attribute this piece to Mark Twain, but Twain scholars at the University of California could find no supporting evidence for that.] (2) MEIHEM IN CE KLASRUM by Dolton Edwards (in _Astounding SF_ 1946) http://members.aol.com/VoxVideus/meihem.html It begins: "Because we are still bearing some of the scars..." (3) "The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be..." http://www.verynicejoke.com/jokes/english/europe-english/JID304/ ----------------------------------------------- Humorous poems about spelling ----------------------------------------------- One well-known poem that is posted occasionally and can be found on the Web is sometimes called "English is Tough Stuff," but its original title was "The Chaos." It was written by Dutch writer and teacher G. Nolst Trenit�, and first appeared in his textbook, _Drop Your Foreign Accent_ (Haarlem, 1920). In later editions he added more verses. It begins: Dearest creature in creation, Studying English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. http://victorian.fortunecity.com/vangogh/555/Spell/chaos.html Another humorous poem is sometimes called "Ode to a Spelling Checker" or "Owed to a Spieling Chequer." This page shows the original two verses from 1991: THE SPELL-CHECKER POEM by Mark Eckman I have a spelling checker It came with my PC It highlights for my review Mistakes I cannot sea. I ran this poem thru it I'm sure your pleased to no Its letter perfect in it's weigh My checker told me sew. followed by a much expanded 1992 version by Dr. Jerrold H. Zar of Northern Illinois University, with the title "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise." http://grammar.about.com/od/spelling/a/spellcheck.htm ------------------------ What is "ghoti"? ------------------------ It's an alternative spelling of "chestnut". :-) O.K., it's "fish", re-spelled to demonstrate the inconsistency of English spelling: "gh" as in "cough", "o" as in "women", "ti" as in "nation". This idea is used as a humorous educational tool to make us think about the irregularity of English spelling, which lacks perfect one-to-one correspondence between sounds and symbols. In fact, one can say that "ghoti" shows that English spelling is kind, considerate, and easy. Why? Because fish isn't really spelled "ghoti"! Made-up examples like this may be fun, but they overstate the case for spelling reform and strike some of us as self-defeating. The first mention we've seen of "ghoti" as a linguistic amusement was in the Christian Science Monitor of Aug 27, 1938. It appears as word-play in _Finnegan's Wake_ (1939). A 1943 story in The Times (London) shows it was known to Daniel Jones, Professor of Phonetics (an inspiration for G.B. Shaw's Henry Higgins). It has often been suggested that "ghoti" was created by Shaw, or at least was used by or popularized by him; we found a story in the Los Angeles Times of 1946 in which linguist Mario Pei described Shaw as using this trick. But so far we have not found it in Shaw's own writing. See our FAQ for more references. -------------------------------------- I before E except after C -------------------------------------- This rule is presented in different ways in America and Britain. The British version specifies: "I" before "E" Except after "C", When the sound is "ee". [/i:/ in ASCII phonetic] This old rule is supposed to help students remember the spelling of vowels pronounced /i:/ (the long "e" sound of "feed"). It has no value for words where the vowel is pronounced in any other way, the key fact which people bemused by many "exceptions" to the rule usually do not realise. Apart from some personal names (Keith, Sheila), there are very few common exceptions to the British rule. The apparent change in pronunciation of words like "fancies" from the traditional "fanciz" to the modern "fanceez" may lead to a new common exception being added to the rule. A common U.S. version is: "I" before "E" Except after "C", or when pronounced "ay" [/eI/] as in "neighbor" and "weigh". It has been pointed out (by at least one American) that this version has far more exceptions because "ei" has many other pronunciations, e.g. in "height" and "heifer". There are more examples in the AUE FAQ Supplement. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ * U.S. -v- Rest-Of-World spelling ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Lists of words such as harbor/harbour and center/centre: Spelling differences between American and British English http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/differences.htm Wikipedia: American and British English differences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences Canada spells some words as the British do, and others as the Americans do. Australia and other Commonwealth countries tend to follow the UK. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This series of seven "Intro Documents" is intended to aid newcomers to the newsgroup. The articles are posted frequently in the newsgroup and are installed at this Web site for your convenience, along with a menu of links to the seven Intro documents. Parts of this document are taken from the big AUE FAQ, which was edited by Mark Israel. Remaining parts were written by Albert Marshall and others. Suggestions for improvements in clarity, fairness, accuracy, and brevity should be emailed to me -- Donna Richoux
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