Spelling

For other uses, see Spelling (disambiguation).

Spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted standard order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of language. Most spellings attempt to approximate a transcribing of the sounds of the language into alphabetic letters; however, these phonetic spellings are often exceptional, due to drifts in pronunciations over time and irregular spellings adopted due to common usage.

Spelling standards and conventions

Whereas uniformity in the spelling of words is one of the features of a standard language in modern times, and official languages usually prescribe standard spelling, minority languages and regional languages often lack this trait. Furthermore, it is a relatively recent development in various major languages in national contexts, linked to the compiling of dictionaries, the founding of national academies, and other institutions of language maintenance, including compulsory mass education.

In countries such as the US and UK without official spelling policies, many vestigial and foreign spelling conventions work simultaneously. In countries where there is a national language maintenance policy, such as France, the Netherlands and Germany, reforms were driven to make spelling a better index of pronunciation. Spelling often evolves for simple reasons of alphabetic thrift, as when British English "catalogue" becomes American English "catalog".

Methods used to teach and learn spelling

Learning proper spelling by rote is a traditional element of elementary education. In the US, the ubiquity of the phonics method of teaching reading, which emphasizes the importance of "sounding out" spelling in learning to read, also puts a premium on the prescriptive learning of spelling. For these reasons, divergence from standard spelling is often perceived as an index of stupidity, illiteracy, or lower class standing. The intelligence of Dan Quayle, for instance, was repeatedly disparaged for correcting a student's spelling of "potato" as "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey on June 15, 1992.[1]

The opposite view was held when spelling began to be standardized, and was voiced by President Andrew Jackson who stated "It's a dam pur mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."

Since traditional language teaching methods emphasize written language over spoken language, a second-language speaker may have a better spelling ability than a native speaker despite having a poorer command of the language.

Spelling tests are usually used to assess a student's mastery over the words in the spelling lessons he's received so far. They can also be an effective practice method. There are many free spelling tests on websites on the Internet.

Divergent spelling

Main article: Sensational spelling

Divergent spelling is a popular advertising technique, used to attract attention or to render a trademark "suggestive" rather than "merely descriptive." The pastry chains Dunkin' Donuts and Krispy Kreme, for example, employ non-standard spellings. The same technique is also popular among recording artists.

The word itself

Spelling is a notable word; it is sometimes humorously spelled as "speeling" when drawing attention to poor spelling. The past tense and past participle of spell (only in the word-related sense) have both a regular form in spelled and an irregular form in spelt. British English allows both irregular and regular forms; in American English, the irregular forms are rarely used.

Mispelings

Mispeling of Occasion (Occassion) and Confectionery (Confectionary) on a shop front.

Whil som words admit multipl spelings, som spelings ar klerli inkorekt and thus labald as mispelings. A mispeld word kan be a cerys of letrs that represnts no korectli speld word of the saim lanjuaj at al (such as "liek" for "like") or a korekt speling of anothr word (such as writing "here" wen won means "hear", or "now" wen won means "know"). Mispelings of the latr typ kan esili mak ther wai into printd materil becuz thei ar not kaut bi simpl komputrizd spel chekrs.

Mispelings mai be du to eithr tipos (e.g. tiping teh for the), or lak of nowleg of the korekt speling. Wethr or not a word is mispeled mai dypend on kontext, such as Amrikan / British English distinktons. Mispeling kan also be a matr of opinyon wen veriant spelings ar akseptd bi som and not bi othrs. For exampl "miniskul" (for "minuskul") is a mispeling to mani, and yet it is listd as a lejitimit veriant in a numbr of diktonaris.

Notable mispelings

A misspelling of purchased on a service station sign.

• The town of Bellingen, New South Wales and the Bellinger River upon which it lies, were originally spelled the same way, but poor handwriting changed the "n" into an "r".
• Cleveland, Ohio - The leader of the crew that surveyed the town's territory was Gen. Moses Cleaveland, and the region was named in his honor; reportedly the town's first newspaper could not fit the town's name in its masthead without removing the first "a" from the name.
• Cocoa - from cacao (misspelling also influenced by cocoa). Many foreign languages and foreigners speaking English still use "cacao".
• Google - accidental misspelling of googol. According to Google's vice president, as quoted on a BBC The Money Programme documentary, January 2006, the founders - noted for their poor spelling - registered Google as a trademark and web address before someone pointed out that it was not correct. However having a new non-word is actually an advantage for a trademark or brand name, like Kodak before it.
• Middlesbrough, a town in the north-east of England. It is apocryphally suggested that it is missing a second 'o' due to a clerk typing the town's registration form incorrectly (making the "correct" spelling "Middlesborough").
• Misspell - often misspelled as "mis-spell" or "mispell", along with the similar misspellings "mis-spelled", "mis-spelling", "mis-spellings", "mispelled", "mispelling", and "mispellings".
• Montezuma - erroneous spelling of the Aztec emperor's name, Moctezuma. The commonly used name is easier to pronounce in English.
• Nome, a town in western Alaska. A British cartographer wrote "Name ?" in a map, as a request to clarify the region's name. The maps' transcribers mistook the side note as the name of the cape adjacent to the region and misinterpreted "name" as "Nome".
• Ovaltine, a popular bedtime drink in the UK, came about because someone misspelled the original name Ovomaltine on the trademark documentation.
• Pago Pago, American Samoa - The region's traditional name is "Pango Pango". The first letters United States Navy officers wrote from the island territory to Washington were written in a typewriter whose "N" key was defective.
• Referer - common misspelling of the word referrer. It is so common, in fact, that it made it into the official specification of HTTP – the communication protocol of the World Wide Web – and has therefore become the standard industry spelling when discussing HTTP referers.
• Quartzsite, a mining town in Arizona, had its name spelled incorrectly. It should be Quartzite, after the mineral quartzite.
• United States Declaration of Independence - An extra "t" in the original document forms the line "Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren"
• Zenith - Arabic zamt was misread; in Latin letters, at the time, the letter i was never dotted, so "m" looked like "ni".

See also

• Eye dialect
• Grapheme
• Orthography
• Phonemic orthography
• Phonetic spelling
• Pronunciation spelling

• Official script
• Spelling Bee
• Spell checker
• Spelling pronunciation
• Spelling reform

English spelling

• American and British English spelling differences
• English orthography
• English words with diacritics
• Pronunciation respelling for English

• English spelling reform
• Frequently misused words
• Commonly confused homonyms

Other languages

• French orthography
• Hangul orthography
• German orthography

• Greek orthography
• Latin spelling and pronunciation
• Spanish orthography
• Russian orthography

External links

Spell checkers

• Spellcheck.net, an online spell checker
• Spellometer, measures frequency of common errors on websites

Spelling tests

• Espindle, a website with free quizzes.
• A multiple choice test of 50 commonly misspelled words

Misspellings

• Miss Spelling's Spelling Center - Most often misspelled words.
• Correcting Misspellings - How to help students correct misspellings
• Misspellilizer - Takes a sentence and misspells all the words, but the sentence should still be readable.
• Dumbtionary.com - Dictionary of misspelled words.