Spelling is ruining the English language

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by Kingswood

It would make the most sense for those words where a particular misspelling of a word is already in widespread usage, with some of these particular misspellings being almost as common as the standard spelling itself. Minuscule is the standard spelling, but miniscule is seen so commonly that it is often found in edited text and a few dictionaries even include it as a variant. If a reform was introduced that gave the miniscule spelling the status of an acceptable variant spelling, it would find ready acceptance because many people already use this spelling.

I kind of agree with this. Except, I don't see it as a matter of spelling reform per se...more that certain spellings shift across time and eventually the mispell becomes the standard. This does happen anyway. It happens all the time. Words fall in and out of use, spellings become outdated. The use of hyphens for example in many words have fallen out of favour and are no longer included in the dictionary listings of those words. I'm quietly confident in the people who compose and monitor the dictionaries. I think they do a fairly good job of maintaining relevance to the living language.

[eta] this process seems to be speeding up in the age of the internet with its online dictionaries.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Originally Posted by DanaC

. . . I don't see it as a matter of spelling reform per se...more that certain spellings shift across time and eventually the mispell becomes the standard.

Let us hope this one doesn't, even if it is one of the ones that can sneak up and snap you on the ass with a rubber band. Mis + Spell...

This does happen anyway. It happens all the time. Words fall in and out of use, spellings become outdated. The use of hyphens for example in many words have fallen out of favour and are no longer included in the dictionary listings of those words. I'm quietly confident in the people who compose and monitor the dictionaries. I think they do a fairly good job of maintaining relevance to the living language.

Brings up the question of whether hyphens should be considered part of spelling. I've always thought of them as purely punctuation, even in assembling words at the right edge of a page, back in '63 when dinosaurs ruled before word-wrap evolved. And may be evolving into wordwrap as we speak.

Something you can particularly tell us, Dana: is not "favour" is said rather like "fave-oor" in some parts of the UK? The American is distinctly short-o "fave-or," or indistinctly a schwa -- "fav'r."

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Hee hee hoo hoo ho -- this is entertaining. Seems James D. Nicoll is quite the raconteur.

I can hardly wait for the story of James D. And The Giant Peach. Should be lots of .