another O/T - spelling

[AdamM]

with the handwriting, it was 4 1/2 years after that teacher has berated me that a guy I was sat next to in a class said, "you know your tall letters aren't the same height. Maybe if you concentrated on that it'd be an improvement." which of course it was. I a teacher over that 5 years had cared enough to think about it, who knows. being an elitest grammar school covert streaming went on pretty much from day one.

[ifm]

just to say the american version of aluminium is actually correct
though i'd never admit it
BTW a great topic and i hope noone got upset over it in any way, just love a debate.

[ifm]

lol, love the new member!!

[ifm]

Tikay could ask the forum fixer to add a spellchecker to the forum if it was wanted, i would assume it was free.

[domgoran]

 This is an interesting thread, but i am sure most of us have a view on it one way or another. I was a bad lad at school, in the sense that i didnt go. We as a family< in my school days> moved home from 1 town to another to another to another to another, infact 17 schools i have been to, because my old man had an aerospace contract or somthing like that, and we went all over the place. Now my point is, i consider myself to be pretty well educated to the point that i can hold a conversation about most things i know a little bit about, i am confident for things like interviews, i spell better than most, i have a good understanding of long and unusual words and my grammer is not too bad. Now my point is.we have various spellings of words that sound phoenetically the same for a variaty or reasons, and its not the most thought of reason people think of, which is accent, it is infact because we speak a language consisting of many language adaption, mostly latin. I dont know too much latin, but if you study a common word, trace it to the root, you will see the translation is more often than not, latin based. Therefor we muct spell our words differently so not to confuse 2 similer sounding words with the same meaning. I hope this makes sense.

[snoopy1239]

peoples urge to correct others spelling. pet hate of mine. I just don't think it matters. also people who are fasists about where apostrophies should go. I know what the rules are, I just think it's unnecessary.

Peoples urge to correct others spelling are a pet hate of mine. I just don't think it matters. Also people who are facists about where apostrophies should go. I know what the rules are, I just think it's unnecessary.


I agree 

Please could you add an apostrophe to Peoples. 

[Ironside]

if i wanted to write proper i would but i aint getting marked for my english exam on here

[Nem]

if i wanted to write proper i would but i aint getting marked for my english exam on here

You need to set an example Ironside! 

[Nem]

Tikay could ask the forum fixer to add a spellchecker to the forum if it was wanted, i would assume it was free.

An excellent idea ifm!

[Rachman]

For a start, nice thread, reminds of my university days sitting in lectures listening to stuff about Foucault, Barthes and semiotics.

Personally i sit on the spelling is important side of the fence for a couple of reasons. A dynamic approach to spelling would allow levels of creativity which are almost impossible to understand, spelling fish as ghyti and the like (enough, myth, station). Giving intellectual bastards even more ammo to piss you off with. If you go down the phonetic spelling route, then regional accents become the problem (around the world "bit" is pronounced as bet, but, bat etc). So unless everyone writes as per the phonetic pronunciation of the Queen's English it's unworkable. Having  spelling set in stone removes regional differences (to a degree, damned americans).

With regards to evolution, changes in spelling require concensus and with the sheer numbers of people speaking english it's practically impossible. The only way is to slowly introduce new words and phase out old ones.

True, it doesn't matter how you spell a word so long as people understand what you mean, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. Meaning is derived from convention, a tree means a tall woody plant thing because of the conventional spelling, spell it unconventionally and the meaning becomes blurred or lost.

The whole ph instead of f stuff, personally i think this is just part of what makes the langauge interesting, the diversity and all.

Poor spellers don't annoy me at all, just lazy spellers, but I hate textspeak with a passion. using the number 8 in words is criminal, and if someone can tell me if "boi" means something more then "boy" i'd appreciate it, because i really don't see the point in the change.

I don't claim to be great at spelling, but i can hold my own in a game of scrabble. My grammar isn't exceptional but it will do. I only get pedantic with spelling and make people look stupid when someone is slagging me off about my creative plays...

[AdamM]

if I had my way the first thing you mention wouldn't be a factor because gh would no longer have an f sound and ti wouldn't sound as sh. The regional accent thing had occured to me aftere starting the thread and is a good point. that neednt stop us dropping the silent letters and the ph stuff.

the difference between boy and boi is the latter has a slight 'e' sound on the end of it.