Y Eye Cant Spel
I watched the national spelling bee
championships on television this year again. Once again I could not spell or
define any of the words in the event. I admired the young spellers who could. I
enjoyed their sense of camaraderie. (I used spell check for the previous word.)
They congratulated each other when one of them met the challenge. They consoled
each other when one of them failed. No one blamed the judges for choosing
unfair words or threw chairs at them. It felt more like a cooperative venture
than a competition.
I really enjoy watching people
practice skills I don’t possess. I can’t spell.
As Pegasus Publishing tells us in a
copyrighted paraphrase of a quotation made by James Nicoll, “English does not borrow
from other languages. English follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks
them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”
Yep, that there is a paraphrase of
a quotation. It is.
The same is true for spelling.
Every Latinate to Greek to Croatian word drags its sordid past into its
spelling. Every “rule” of spelling
has exceptions and darn it my high school didn’t offer a class in Latin.
Phonetic helps sometimes but at
other times…
“Ghoti” sounds like fish: enouGH
wOmen NaTIon
“What” has no sound at all: snoW
gHost kneAd casTle
I am notorious for writing letters
and spelling the same word three different ways within one letter. In my
defense, each time the word I intended was clear to my readers. I flunked the entrance exam in English
at the University of Illinois and was assigned to the class fondly known as
“Bonehead English” based entirely on a test with a spelling section that
offered a choice between various spellings which all sounded alike to me when I
read them mentally . Did I mention that I am an auditory learner? I really did
enjoy the class as well as the confusion of the teacher about why I was one of
her students after she read my assigned essay.
I admit I am stubborn, but English
is even more unyielding than I am. It refuses to accept my way of spelling.
Can you spell? If so…How?
No, I can't either, Warren. Not only am I an auditory learner, but I was also taught to "sound it out," which I do anyway because I'm an auditory learner and that does no good what so ever. I think that there should be a law that says in English we pronounce it the way it is spelled.
ReplyDeleteTake the word dearth--please! (Sorry) I understand that etymology plays a big role in the spelling of this word, but why can't we pronounce it the way it sounds. I never could find it in the dictionary to learn how to spell it (if you think about it, that makes no sense at all--if you can't spell it, how....) So I begged a friend of mine to find out how to spell it. Took her two days, but I've never forgotten how to spell it. My time to look it up again was too dear!
I have never been a good speller. Unlike you and EB, I am more a visual learner and so I have it worse than you two: I can "see" that the word is wrong, but have no idea how to fix it.
ReplyDeleteAnd Warren, I had the reverse problem to you. Because the entrance exam spelling section was multiple guess, I scored well enough to place out of freshman English class and had to take a year of English with the sophomore English majors -- I was a math guy.
Spellcheck has improved my spelling because I get immediate feedback about my misspelled words and get to "see" the correction.
But sometimes I can't get close enough for either spellcheck or a dictionary to help. Thank goodness for a thesaurus.
~ Jim
EB, Dictionaries are often useless. I have to start with the first letter of the word and read every page. Even then the particular word I'm looking for might not be included.
ReplyDeleteJIm, A thesaurus (I copied the spell of that word from your note) is great but sometimes as an author I want a specific word.
ReplyDeleteI'm a good speller, Warren. I was one of those kids winning spelling bees back in the day and so was my son (who took the entire Jackson County spelling bee in 4th grade, up against 7th & 8th graders), so there may be something genetic about it. I have always thought it was because Joseph and I are fanatic readers of every kind of book (both since we were still technically toddlers) and because we're both good at and love to learn foreign languages.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I've never understood people who couldn't spell, because it comes so easily to me. But I've taught enough of them to know that it's a very real problem for often quite intelligent people and to try to come up with ways to accommodate their needs. There are a number of different ways of learning, and our schools, unfortunately, embrace only one.
I hate spellcheck because it's sometimes quite wrong. (Not as often as grammar checking software is wrong, though!) However, I realize spellcheck is a lifesaver a lot of the time for people who have difficulty with spelling. The thing to remember is that English is the most difficult language to learn, even for people who are quite gifted at learning foreign languages. That's what makes it such a treasure for writers.
I've always been able to spell really well, though I've never entered a spelling bee. Phonetics does help me with it quite a bit, but it's also just something that my brain seems to pick up. My mom played Scrabble with me when I was a kid, & I LOVE to do word jumble puzzles.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, there's a board game we have called Hugger Mugger that's all about words, spelling, definitions, etc. One category is word jumbles & you have to unscramble 6 letters to form the correct word. I can actually see the letters in my head & usually say the correct word before anyone has time to turn over the timer.
I will say, however, that every now & then, I'll spell a word & look at it several times, thinking that I'm spelling it wrong. Not sure why that is, but it does bug me from time to time.
Linda, Spellcheck is some help but it is not enough to thoroughly edit writing. And it certainly does not know much grammar,
ReplyDeleteAlyx, I enjoy cross words and scrabble despite my problem.
ReplyDeleteHi, Warren -- My daughter couldn't spell and had a hard time learning the alphabet. After much testing the school system diagnosed her with visual memory problems. She could look at a word dozens of times and not remember how to spell it. This may account for why many people can't spell well.
ReplyDeleteGrace, You could be right.
ReplyDeleteUntil I was forty, I was a spelling whiz. Now I have to run words by my husband and/or an online dictionary. I blame the disability on reading too many high school English papers, developing a late-blooming case of dyslexia, and thinking all people could spell if they just put their minds to it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Kathy. I have not heard before of someone losing the ability to spell. Of course as I get older I feel like lots of things get harder to do.
ReplyDelete