[Novalug] [OT] Spelling and English was Women and Linux

Bonnie Dalzell bdalzell@qis.net
Sat Jun 28 11:46:41 EDT 2008


On Fri, 27 Jun 2008, Nino Pereira wrote:

NP >
NP >It's a long-standing pet peeve of mine: by and large, spelling in the US
NP >is awful. I don't know why this is so: it's not the same in England,
NP >and on the Continent (where I'm from) the people who learned English
NP >as a foreign language can usually spell too. I, and everyone else on the
NP >planet who knows English agrees with you: English spelling is illogical,
NP >irrational, counter-intuitive, and all this (viz., GBS's (?) famous
NP >'ghoti' for 'fish').

I think that spelling is generally poorer in the US because of our complex 
set of regional accents combined with a tendency towards verbal 
learning rather than written learning. Also people often get offended when 
you correct their spelling. There are also accepted alternative spellings 
in the US to some words compared to England. There are also some 
differences between British and American spelling - colour vs color for 
example.



NP >
NP >Reading, newspapers, books, whatever provided that it's correctly
NP >spelled helps a lot. Unfortunately, when you have an eye for it there
NP >are lots of mistakes there too.
NP >
NP >What do you think: should one correct spelling mistakes in
NP >posted emails?
NP >

E-mails are often typed rapidly so typos are not uncommon and of 
course spell checkers will not pick up the situations where homonyms are 
substituted. The queen had a long rein (was she driving her carriage and 
controlling her horses?).

I never mind if people correct my spelling since I really am a 
terrible speller. When I write articles for publication I ask my husband 
to read them over - he is an excellent speller.

However it annoys some people.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                       Bonnie Dalzell, MA
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