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Words, their meaning as well as their spelling, seems to be featuring in the news recently.
Take for example a study of 3,500 Britons by market research company OnePoll.com. They found that ‘separate’ was the most commonly misspelt word in the English language and that this was followed by nineteen others that folk struggle to spell: definitely, manoeuvre, embarrass, occurrence, consensus, unnecessary, acceptable, broccoli, referred, bureaucracy, supersede, questionnaire, connoisseur, a lot, entrepreneur, particularly, liquify, conscience and parallel.
The reasons for this were said to include the widespread use of spell-checks on our computers and the current fad for predictive text messaging on our mobile phones. I might add that poor education must also feature largely in the equation, especially as the recently published SATs results showed that more than a third of pupils left primary school during the thirteen years of Labour government without a proper grasp of the three ‘R’s’.
Computer spell-checks are all very well but if a word is very badly typed, the software may not be able to find the correct alternative spelling and insert something else. The operator must also remember to switch the spell-checker from an American dictionary to an English one. I expect it is for this reason that I see more and more American spellings creeping into some of the things I read.
As for mobile phones, most of them now have predictive text. Type in one letter and the gizmo tries to guess what the next letter will be - sometimes incorrectly if the person isn’t watching what its doing. There is also a form of shorthand used by texters which seems to be understood by others though, as it happens, I can’t be bothered to text for I just use my mobile as a phone. So if I got a text which included the letters CM (call me), OMG (Oh my God), SLAP (sounds like a plan) or CMB (call me back), I’d have to find a texting dictionary to understand what is being meant.
Words are sometimes seen at first glance to be gobbledegook while a closer look quickly shows their meaning. As for instance in the following example which has been widely circulated on the internet:
‘Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.’
Curiously, it appears that no such study has been carried out by Cambridge University but, on the other hand, it does go to show how our brains scan words and tries to makes sense of them.
Similarly the spoken word, even if pronounced incorrectly, can be understood, as witness the mangled language of comedian and comic writer Stanley ‘Deep Joy’ Unwin. Which of us of my generation can, for example, forget his parody of the introduction to radio’s ‘Children’s Hour’ - ‘Are you all sitting comftibold, two-square on your botty?’
Of course, there are other examples of comic language, but what they usually have in common is their comprehension. The spoken word is one thing but, insofar as the written word is concerned, it is correct and uniform spelling, and thence comprehension, which is necessary.
The Oxford English Dictionary is the arbiter of how things are spelt in Britain. It contains over 300,000 main entries and hundreds of thousands of combinations, phrases, etymologies, cross-references and quotations. You can get it on disk or, alternatively if you like handling paper, then you will need room in your bookcase for its twenty volumes.
Interestingly, a researcher for a project undertaken by Kingston University in London has uncovered what is described as a ‘secret vault’ of millions of words rejected for inclusion in the OED but which are occasionally kept under review. These include:
* Dringle – the watermark left on wood caused by a glass of liquid.
* Earworm – a catchy tune that frequently gets stuck in your head.
* Espacular – something especially spectacular.
* Furgle – to feel in a pocket or bag for a small object such as a coin or key.
* Peppier – a waiter whose sole job is to offer diners ground pepper from a large pepper-mill.
* Polkadodge – the dance that occurs when two people attempt to pass each other but move in the same direction.
* Quackmire – the muddy edges of a duck pond.
* Whinese – a term for the language spoken by children on lengthy trips.
Now that’s the sort of research I like!
As I type this I’m furgling for a hankie to wipe off the dringle on my desk while trying to get rid of the earworm I have after listening to the espacular Hymn to Red October!
Deep joy!
.
Words, their meaning as well as their spelling, seems to be featuring in the news recently.
Take for example a study of 3,500 Britons by market research company OnePoll.com. They found that ‘separate’ was the most commonly misspelt word in the English language and that this was followed by nineteen others that folk struggle to spell: definitely, manoeuvre, embarrass, occurrence, consensus, unnecessary, acceptable, broccoli, referred, bureaucracy, supersede, questionnaire, connoisseur, a lot, entrepreneur, particularly, liquify, conscience and parallel.
The reasons for this were said to include the widespread use of spell-checks on our computers and the current fad for predictive text messaging on our mobile phones. I might add that poor education must also feature largely in the equation, especially as the recently published SATs results showed that more than a third of pupils left primary school during the thirteen years of Labour government without a proper grasp of the three ‘R’s’.
Computer spell-checks are all very well but if a word is very badly typed, the software may not be able to find the correct alternative spelling and insert something else. The operator must also remember to switch the spell-checker from an American dictionary to an English one. I expect it is for this reason that I see more and more American spellings creeping into some of the things I read.
As for mobile phones, most of them now have predictive text. Type in one letter and the gizmo tries to guess what the next letter will be - sometimes incorrectly if the person isn’t watching what its doing. There is also a form of shorthand used by texters which seems to be understood by others though, as it happens, I can’t be bothered to text for I just use my mobile as a phone. So if I got a text which included the letters CM (call me), OMG (Oh my God), SLAP (sounds like a plan) or CMB (call me back), I’d have to find a texting dictionary to understand what is being meant.
Words are sometimes seen at first glance to be gobbledegook while a closer look quickly shows their meaning. As for instance in the following example which has been widely circulated on the internet:
‘Arocdnicg to rsceearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer are in the rghit pcale. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit pobelrm. Tihs is buseace the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.’
Curiously, it appears that no such study has been carried out by Cambridge University but, on the other hand, it does go to show how our brains scan words and tries to makes sense of them.
Similarly the spoken word, even if pronounced incorrectly, can be understood, as witness the mangled language of comedian and comic writer Stanley ‘Deep Joy’ Unwin. Which of us of my generation can, for example, forget his parody of the introduction to radio’s ‘Children’s Hour’ - ‘Are you all sitting comftibold, two-square on your botty?’
Of course, there are other examples of comic language, but what they usually have in common is their comprehension. The spoken word is one thing but, insofar as the written word is concerned, it is correct and uniform spelling, and thence comprehension, which is necessary.
The Oxford English Dictionary is the arbiter of how things are spelt in Britain. It contains over 300,000 main entries and hundreds of thousands of combinations, phrases, etymologies, cross-references and quotations. You can get it on disk or, alternatively if you like handling paper, then you will need room in your bookcase for its twenty volumes.
Interestingly, a researcher for a project undertaken by Kingston University in London has uncovered what is described as a ‘secret vault’ of millions of words rejected for inclusion in the OED but which are occasionally kept under review. These include:
* Dringle – the watermark left on wood caused by a glass of liquid.
* Earworm – a catchy tune that frequently gets stuck in your head.
* Espacular – something especially spectacular.
* Furgle – to feel in a pocket or bag for a small object such as a coin or key.
* Peppier – a waiter whose sole job is to offer diners ground pepper from a large pepper-mill.
* Polkadodge – the dance that occurs when two people attempt to pass each other but move in the same direction.
* Quackmire – the muddy edges of a duck pond.
* Whinese – a term for the language spoken by children on lengthy trips.
Now that’s the sort of research I like!
As I type this I’m furgling for a hankie to wipe off the dringle on my desk while trying to get rid of the earworm I have after listening to the espacular Hymn to Red October!
Deep joy!
.
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