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The EnglishSpelling System

by Don L. F. Nilsen

and Alleen Pace Nilsen

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The Spell Checker has changed the types of errors that students make

Eye have a spelling chequer

It came with my pea sea

It plainly marques four my revue

Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.

Eye strike a key and type a word

And weight four it two say

Weather eye am wrong oar write

It shows me strait a weigh

As soon as a mist ache is maid

It nose bee fore two long

And eye can put the error rite

Its rare lea ever wrong.

Eye have run this poem threw it

I am shore your pleased two no

Its letter perfect awl the weigh

My chequer tolled me sew.

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Smith & Wilhelm’s Top Ten Spelling Errors

1. advice-advise2. affect-effect3. accept-except4. principal-principle5. than-then6. their-there-they’re7. to-too-two8. wear-we’re-were-where9. who’s-whose10. your-you’re (yore)

(Smith & Wilhelm 70)

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Homonyms

Aloud-allowed

Altar-alter

Are-or-our

Capital-capitol

Censer-censor

Cite-site-sightCompliment-complement

Disburse-disperse

Feat-feet

Flair-flare

Foreword-forward

It’s-its

miner-minor

Morning-mourning (regional)

Pair-pear-pare

Peace-piece

Pedals-petals

Picture-pitcher

Principal-principle

Role-roll

Scents-sense

Sole-soul

Stationary-stationery

Their-there-they’re

Threw-through

To-too-two

Vial-vile

Who’s-whose

(Smith & Wilhelm 150-169)

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Homonoids

A-an

Accept-except

Advice-advise

Affect-effect

Allusion-illusion

Anecdote-antidote

Bath-bathe

Beauty (fr French

beau)

Beside-besides

Breath-breathe

Censer-censure

Cloth-clothe

Decent-descent

Desert-dessert

Device-devise

Eminent-imminent

Farther-further

Feet-fete

Flaunt-flout

Hoping-hopping

Lath-lathe

Loath-loathe

Loose-lose

Precede-proceed

Scared-scarred

Sense-since (regional)

Sparing-sparring

Staring-starring

Striped-stripped

Teeth-teethe

Than-then (regional)uninhabited-uninhibited

Wander-wonderWear-we’re-were-where

(regional)

Weather-whether

(regional)

Which-witch (regional)

(Smith & Wilhelm 150-169)

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OUR ENGLISH ALPHABET HAS ONLY 26 LETTERS TO REPRESENT 45 DIFFERENT SOUNDS

AND SOME OF OUR LETTERS (LIKE C, Q, H, AND X) AREN’T VERY USEFUL

ENGLISH HAS 5 VOWEL LETTERS TO REPRESENT 13 VOWEL SOUNDS

AND WE USE THEM ALL UP FOR OUR SHORT VOWELS, AS IN: pat, pet, pit, pot, and put

SO WE DON’T HAVE ANY LETTERS LEFT FOR OUR LONG VOWELS, AND THE RESULT IS CHAOS

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• SO THIS IS HOW WE SPELL OUR LONG VOWELS• A, E, I, O, and U:

• A: He ate the freight. It was his fate. How do you spell 8/eight?

• E: The silly amoeba stole the key to the machine. or • Did he believe that Caesar could see the people?

• I: I write eye-rhyme, like “She cited the sight of the site.”

• O: Our chauffeur, although he stubbed his toe, yeomanly towed four more boards through the open door of the depot.

• U: blue, blew, gnu, Hugh, new, Pooh, Sioux, through, two

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VIOLATIONS OF THE PHONEMIC PRINCIPLE

• SAME PRONUNCIATION BUT DIFFERENT SPELLINGS (DIFFERENT WORD FAMILIES): cite-sight-site, marry-Mary-merry, pair-pare-pear, there-their-they're

• SAME SPELLINGS BUT DIFFERENT PRONUNCIATIONS (SAME WORD FAMILIES): nation-national, obscene-obscenity, sign-signature, go-gone, ct. soup-supper

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CONSONANT GRADES:FULL, H-MARKED, REDUCED, ZERO

• REDUCED GRADE: act-action-actual, critic-criticize, medicine-medication, part-partial, rite-ritual, seize-seizure

• MARKED GRADE: chip, cough, hiccough, enough, phone, ship, this, thought (NOTE: The <h> of ch, gh, ph, sh, and th indicates that these are strange kinds of c, g, p, s, and t respectively.

• ZERO GRADE: acknowledge-knowledge; amnesia-mnemonic; though, thought, through, thumb-thimble-Thumbelina

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MORE CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONS

• MODAL PLUS "HAVE" ASSIMILATION: coulda, mighta, shoulda, woulda

• MODAL PLUS "TO" ASSIMILATION: gonna, hafta, hasta, supposta, useta

• CONTRACTIONS: *ain’t, can’t, couldn’t, won’t, wouldn’t, shan’t, shouldn’t, *mayn’t, (mightn’t, mustn’t)

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CONSONANT ASSIMILATIONFOR EASE AND SPEED

• VERB 3rd sing pres ind: sings, hits

• VERB past: buzzed, jumped

• VERB past part: popped, killed • NOUN plurals: cats, dogs

• NOUN possessives: Mike's, Fred's • ADJ substantive: its, ours

• PREFIX: (NOTE: in- assimilates as follows): illegal, immature, impotent, indelicate, irreligious

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ASSIMILATION: PALATALIZATION

• When a word that ends with a /t/ is followed by a –ual, -ial, or -ion ending, the palatal vowel <y-> changes the /t/ sound into a /č/ sound.

• addict addiction• act actual or action• part partial • predict prediction

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ASSIMILATION: STOPS BECOME CONTINUANTS

• Because /k/ is a stop, and vowels are continuants, an affix beginning with a vowel often changes /k/ to /s/.

• critic criticize or criticism• fanatic fanaticism• romantic romanticism

• This ability of the <c> to have two different pronunciations allows us to spell these words the same way even though they are pronounced differently. The benefit of this is that it helps us to see that these words are in the same word-family even though the <c> part is pronounced differently.

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CONSONANT DISSIMILATION: FOR CLARITY

• VERB 3rd person singular present indicative: buzzes

• VERB past tense: heated

• VERB past participle: spotted

• NOUN plural: horses

• NOUN possessive: Max’s

• NOUN: belfry

• ADJ: ignoble

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DISSIMILATION AGAIN

• “-al” is a suffix that changes a Noun into an Adjective, but when the Noun ends in /l/, dissimilation occurs:

• “anecdotal” but “angular”• “penal” but “perpendicular”• “spiritual” but “similar”• “venal” but “velar”

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VOWEL GRADES: LONG, SHORT, SCHWA, R, AND ZERO

• VOWEL REDUCTION (SCHWA GRADE): natural-naturalize-naturalization, photo-photograph-photographic-photography, s'pose-suppose-supposition, telegraph- telegraphic-telegraphy

• VOWEL REDUCTION (-R or –N GRADE): pin-pen; absurd, bird,

heard, herd, word

• VOWEL REDUCTION (ZERO GRADE): dexterity-ambidextrous, busy-business

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VOWEL REDUCTION AND ASSIMILATION

• BRITISH VOWEL REDUCTION: aluminum, laboratory, secretary

• LONG AND SHORT GRADES: do-done, go-gone, nation-national, obscene-obscenity, punitive-punish, sign-signature, soup-supper

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vowel reduction and word stress

• When a suffix changes a word from one Part of Speech to another, this suffix affects which syllables are stressed, and which are unstressed and can change to different vowel grades like schwa or short grade:

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analysis-analytic

compete-competition

maintain-maintenance

medicine-medicinal

phone-phonetic

solid-solidity

Talmud-Talmudic

telegraph-telegraphy

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!HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS

• TRACES: ic-ich-I, knight, hostel-hôtel-hotel, scribere-écrire-scribe

• DOUBLETS: chief-chef, dish-discus, hotel-hostel, ship-skiff, shirt-skirt

• GRIMM'S LAW: courage-hearty, corn-horn, decade-ten, dozen-twelve, dent-tooth, pedestal-footnote, padre-father, plate-flat, pyre-fire

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!MORE HISTORIC CONSIDERATIONS

• GERMANIC UMLAUT: child, goose, man, mouse, woman (cf. book-beech)

• GREEK RHOTOCISM: genus-generic; opus-opera

• ENGLISH: schwa and silent e

• ACRONYMS AS WORDS: AID, AIDS, BIRP, CREEP, GASP, MANURE, MASH, NOW, NUT, SAG, VISTA, ZIP

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!!FOREIGN-LANGUAGE INFLUENCES

• BORROWINGS: chaise longue, cole slaw, frankfurter, hamburger, lingerie, rouge, schnitzel, wiener

• BILINGUAL COGNATES: actual, embarazada, grocería, libraria, molestar, principio, (cf. blanket [white], porpoise [pig fish], puny [puis né], walrus [whale horse])

• INDO-EUROPEAN ABLAUT: sing-sang-sung-song

• MODAL PAST-SUBJUNCTIVE: can-could, may-might, shall-should, will-would

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!!!FINAL THOUGHTS FROM OGDEN NASH

The one-l lama,He’s a priest.The two-l llama, He’s a beast.And I will bet A silk pajamaThere isn’t any Three-l lllama.

In response to this poem one wit remarked, “A three-alarmer (three-l lllama) is a really big fire.”

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References:

Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, ed. Clark, Virginia P., Paul A. Eschholz, and Alfred F. Rosa, ed. Language: Language: Readings in Language and Culture, Sixth EditionReadings in Language and Culture, Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: . Boston, MA: Bedford, St. Martins, 1998.Bedford, St. Martins, 1998.

Fromkin, Victoria, Robert Rodman, and Nina Hyams. An Introduction to Language, 8th Edition. Boston, MA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007, 255-312.

Nilsen, Alleen Pace, and Don L. F. Nilsen. Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2000.

Nilsen, Don L. F., and Alleen Pace Nilsen. Pronunciation Contrasts in English. New York, NY: Regents Publishing Co., 1973; reissued by Waveland Press in 2002.

Smith, Michael W., and Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Getting It Right: Fresh Approaches to Teaching Grammar, Usage and Correctness. New York, NY: Scholastic, 2007.