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Saturday, June 30, 2012: "ricky" for "rickey"
A hot summer's day is a good time to deal with this word for an iced drink. EY is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced as long-E ("key", "abbey", "barley") but other times being pronounced as long-A ("hey", "they", "convey"). Here, the sound is long-E (or, in "clipped" British accents, short-I). That sound is much more clearly written just-Y, not EY: "ricky".
Friday, June 29, 2012: "peech" for "peach"
Today's Food Friday word needs an unambiguous spelling for a long-E sound. EA could be pronounced long-E ("each"), long-A ("steak"), long-E plus schwa ("area"), even AU ("Sean"). EE would be much better: "peech".
Thursday, June 28, 2012: "orekietty" and "orekietta" for "orecchiette", "orecchietti" (plural) and "orecchietta" (singular)
I would ordinarily reserve a food word for Food Friday, but we are out of O's, so let's deal with this term for ear-shaped pasta today. There are two common spellings for the plural, the one with the -E being correct in Italian but the -I also being seen. Since the English pronunciation with a long-E sound at the end is probably more common (and the only way an -I could have gotten into the spelling), let's establish that thru a new spelling that uses -Y.The CCH is unexpected in English, even for people who know that in Italian, CH represents a K-sound. We don't need three letters to show a K-sound. One will do, K.
One issue remains, the unfortunate use of an -I- to represent a long-E sound in the middle of the word. What else could we write? "Orekyetty"? That might be more like the actual Italian, but speakers of English who expect a full long-E there rather than a consonantal-Y will be unclear as to what to say. "Orekeyetty"? Some people will see EY as in "hey", "they", and "survey". That's the wrong sound. So let's leave that -I-, but replace the final-I with -Y: "orekietty" (plural) and "orekietta" (singular).
Wensday, June 27, 2012: "nashonal" for "national"
This is a little dic(e)y. The TION letter sequence is completely irrational in its crazy antiphoneticity, but it is very frequently encountered and learned early, so I have hesitated to attack it. Still, the reader who suggested this change has a point. ATION is ordinarily pronounced with a long-A ("nation", "station", "vocational"), tho certainly not always (note "irrational" in the prior sentence in this paragraph). Thus, even if we leave TION in ATION words where the A is long, maybe we should mark those (few) words that have a short-A by writing them differently, and more rationally: "nashonal".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Naturally, all derivatives of today's word that have the same sound (short-A) should as well be changed: "internashonal", "transnashonal", "multinashonal", etc.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012: "minnotaur" for "minotaur"
I followed by a single consonant is unclear. Is it long ("mina", "minor", "minus")? Or is it short ("minaret", "minimum", "mineral")? It's short, and the way we ordinarily show that is by placing a double consonant after it, in this case, the N. Let's do that.AUR is an unusual way of spelling the sound more commonly written OR. But it is perfectly phonetic, and the TAUR in the word is a reference to Greek taúros, "bull" (known better to people in the English-speaking world from the astrological sign, in Latin, "Taurus"). So we can leave that: "minnotaur".
Munday, June 25, 2012: "liggament" for "ligament"
I actually heard "Chuy", the Hispanic sidekick to Chelsea Handler on the late-nite cable talk show Chelsea Lately, say líe.ga.mant (in a comedy bit about Chelsea's ACL surgery). Apparently Chuy thought that the single-G indicates a long-I before it. No, Chuy, the I is short. The way to show that, for everybody, is to double the G: "liggament".
Sunday, June 24, 2012: "kerratoconus" for "keratoconus"
In today's medical word, the problem is not so much the letters that are there as in the lack of guidance as to where, in this five-syllable word, the primary and secondary stresses lie. Most readers would probably think the primary stress falls on the fourth syllable, as it does. But many might think the secondary stress falls on the second syllable (ker.àat.a.kóe.nas), whereas it actually falls on the first (kér.a.toe.kóe.nas). Doubling the R will cue that pronunciation: "kerratoconus".
Saturday, June 23, 2012: "hunn" for "hon"
Today's word is an affectionate short form of "honey", in the sense of "sweetheart". But we can't just change the misleading O for the (short-)U that is the actual sound, because "Hun" is a long pre-existing word, for a barbarous nomad. We can, however, write "hunn", with two N's. A great many English words end in a double consonant ("ebb", "huff", "egg", "lull", "inn", all the way to "jazz"), and we would ordinarily advocate dropping a (needless) second consonant. But here, the doubled consonant actually serves a useful purpose, so isn't really superfluous: "hunn".
Friday, June 22, 2012: "glucosameen" for "glucosamine"
This Food Friday, let's fix the spelling of a popular dietary supplement intended to improve the health of cartilage in bone joints. MINE is a word to itself, pronounced with a long-I. That is not the sound here. Altho some online dictionaries may show a secondary pronunciation with a short-I, the preferred pronunciation (and sole pronunciation in other online dictionaries) has a long-E in the last syllable. Let's guide people, in the spelling, to the correct pronunciation: "glucosameen".
Thursday, June 21, 2012: "frutarean" for "fruitarian"
There are two I's in today's word,* where there should be none. UI looks as tho it should be two syllables ("acuity", "altruism", "intuition), but here, it represents only a single vowel sound in one syllable, long-U. IA is ambiguous, and ideally should represent an I-sound ("iambic", "diameter", "appliance"), not an E-sound, as it does here. So let's drop the first-I and change the second to an E: "frutarean".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a person whose diet consists chiefly of fruit."
Wensday, June 20, 2012: "ontrapo" for "entrepôt" and "entrepot"
Today's word has been in English for almost 300 years, but still has a ridiculous French spelling that looks like it should be pronounced something like én.tree.pòt. That is not remotely the pronunciation, which is ón.tra.pòe. Let's make that pronunciation clear: "ontrapo".
Tuesday, June 19, 2012: "debockle" for "debacle"
ACLE is ambiguous ("tabernacle", "receptacle", and "debacle" are pronounced táab.er.nàa.kool, ree.sép.ta.kool, and da.bók.ool or dae.~, or ~.báak.ool (an alternate, spelling pronunciation). Here, the preferred pronunciation has a "broad"-A, or short-O (the same sound), and that is not clear from the spelling. The first syllable has different pronunciations, but we don't need to change that part of the word. We can just leave the DE-, as-is. We can, however, make the preferred pronunciation of the rest of the word clear, by using an O, rather than A, and CKLE: "debockle".
Munday, June 18, 2012: "sherooht" for "cheroot" and "sheroot"
There are two spellings for today's word. Naturally, the worse spelling, with a CH for an SH-sound, is the preferred spelling, while the more-sensible spelling, with an SH, is the alternate! Plainly we should get rid of the spelling with CH. Is the spelling with SH good enuf? No. As the word "good" in the last sentence indicates, the sound OO is ambiguous, having two pronunciations, long and short. "Cheroot"/"sheroot" contains a long-OO, but there is no way a reader can know that, esp. in that there are many people who say "root" with a short-OO (tho long is preferred).To show that we are dealing with long-OO here, we need to add an H, as in "ooh" and "pooh-pooh": "sherooht".
Sunday, June 17, 2012: "bor" for "bore"
OR is clear as to sound. The E is superfuous, which means it can be dropped, which means it should be dropped, first, to save a letter, and second, because a listener learning English — and there are a billion people around the world trying to learn English at any given time — cannot know to add it in trying to guess how the word is spelled: "bor".
Saturday, June 16, 2012: "annafilaxis" for "anaphylaxis"
(1) A single-N renders unclear whether the preceding-A is long or short. It's short, and the simplest way to show that is to double the N.(2) PH is a preposterous way to write a simple F-sound, so let's exchange it for F.
(3) Y is a dopy way to write a short-I sound midword. If the sound is short-I, let's just write an I.
Putting this all together, we get: "annafilaxis".
Friday, June 15, 2012: "zoakemmistry" for "zoochemistry"
ZOO is a familiar word, pronounced zue. That is not the pronunciation of the first two syllables of today's word, which is actually zoe.wa. So let's replace the ZOO with ZOA.There are two other problem areas in today's long, scientific word. There's a CH, but it does not represent the CH-sound, as in "church". Rather, the sound is an ordinary K-sound, so we should write K.
The third problem is that the E is short, but it is followed by a single-M, so could be read as long.
The full word is pronounced zòe.wa.kém.is.trêe, and the way to write that in traditional spelling conventions is: "zoakemmistry".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, June 14, 2012: "vaccuus" for "vacuous"
There are two problems with this word. First, the A is followed by a single consonant, so might be either long or short. In that it's short, we should double the C to show that plainly. Second, there is an OU in the third syllable, but no OU-sound. There's no need for an O in that syllable: "vaccuus".
Wensday, June 13, 2012: "tsunommy" for "tsunami"
This Japanese word is spelled in Continental European conventions. There's no reason for that. Japanese is not written in the Roman alphabet, and there is absolutely no reason to accept a dopy transliteration into a European spelling. This word has been in English for over 100 years. It's time it took an English form: "tsunommy".
Tuesday, June 12, 2012: "sleev" for "sleeve"
Do we really need three E's to show a long-E? I don't think so: "sleev".
Munday, June 11, 2012: "rivvit" for "rivet"
IVE should be pronounced with a long-I sound ("five", "jive", "alive"), but here, the sound is short-I. To show that, we need merely double the V. Moreover, the vowel sound in the second syllable is a schwa closer to a full short-I than a short-E, so let's substitute I: "rivvit".
Sunday, June 10, 2012: "parrish" for "parish"
AR is ambiguous, and is very commonly used to represent a "broad"-A (or short-O, the same sound): "bar", "car", "star". That is not the sound here, which is short-A. Short-A before an R-sound is commonly written with two R's: "arrow", "barren", "barrel". That's better: "parrish".
Saturday, June 9, 2012: "noohdle" for "noodle"
Today's word, like yesterday's words, has a long-OO sound (as in "food", "shoot", and "hoot"). That is a long-U sound, but without an initial Y-glide ("rude", "crew", "blue"). The short-OO sound ("good", "book", "pudding") has no unambiguous spelling other than OO (since "pull" and "push" could be pronounced with a short-U as in "up"), so we can't change that spelling and leave the long-OO spelled as OO without more.Nor could we use U here, since "nudle" could be pronounced with a short-U. "Nuedool" might be seen as having an initial Y-glide, as in "pure" or, in Britain, "sue". To show the long-OO sound unambiguously, then, we need to add an H ("pooh-pooh") to the OO. Let's do that: "noohdle".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Friday, June 8, 2012: "moohss" and "moohsleen" for "mousse" and "mousseline"
This Food Friday, let's fix two words that are spelled in French fashion, not English. In English, OU should be reserved for the OU-sound. Here, the sound is long-U without an initial Y-glide, or long-OO. Let's write OO.We can't use "moose", because that is already taken. But we can write either "moosse" (given that the present spelling uses SSE) or "mooss". Why write a silent-E if the SS by itself plainly represents an S-sound?
In medial position (in today's longer word), we don't need two S's to show an S sound. In the letter sequence SL, the S will be seen as taking its own sound, not Z's.
In the longer word, "mousseline", the LINE is pronounced not like the ordinary English word "line", with a long-I sound, but with a long-E. Why would we write a long-E with an I?
OO is itself ambiguous, having a long sound ("food", "coot") and a short sound ("good", "soot"). To show that the sound here is long, we should write OOH (as in "pooh-pooh" and "ooh" itself): "moohss" and "moohsleen".
Thursday, June 7, 2012: "leen" for "lean"
EA is hugely ambiguous ("sea", "creative", "area", "Sean", "pear", etc.). To show the reader that the sound here is a simple long-E, we should write the simplest rendering of that sound: "leen".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Wensday, June 6, 2012: "innoccuus" for "innocuous"
The I that starts this word is marked short by a following double-N. But the short-O is not marked by a following double-C. It should be.Further, the OU in the word does not represent the OU-sound, so we should drop that O: "innoccuus".
Tuesday, June 5, 2012: "heppatitis" for "hepatitis"
A single-P renders unclear the sound of the E before it. It might be long, but it's actually short. To show that, we need to double the P: "heppatitis".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Munday, June 4, 2012: "glyfossate" for "glyphosate"
This chemical term, for a widely used weed killer, was in the news this past week in connection with dangerous chemicals that are making their way into our food supply, drinking water, etc., and arousing concerns about their health effects. Our concern is just with the spelling. PH is a preposterous and ambiguous spelling that should be banned everywhere but places it actually does represent the two sounds P and H, in sequence, as in "uphill" and "uphold". A single-S renders unclear whether the preceding-O is long or short. It's short, so we should double the S to show that. The rest of the word is fine: "glyfossate".
Sunday, June 3, 2012: "feest" for "feast"
EA is sometimes pronounced in two syllables ("rhea", "creation", "ad nauseam"). It is also sometimes pronounced as short-E ("head", "breath", "abreast") or long-A ("break", "steak") or flat-A ("pear", "tear"). Here, the sound is a simple long-E, and EE is a much better spelling for that sound: "feest".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Saturday, June 2, 2012: "exell" and "exelant" for "excel" and "excellent"
One might argue that XC is a useful letter combination, to indicate that the particular X-sound here entails an S-sound rather than a Z- or ZH-sound. But we don't use an extra letter or two with X generally to clarify which X-sound is meant (that is, we don't write "excecrable", "exzist", "luxshury", or "luxzhurious". So people cannot expect a C in "excel" or "excellent". Rather, they have to memorize this arbitrary spelling, and having to memorize a list of thousands of words with unex(s)pected spellings is precisely the problem with English spelling today.So let's drop the C from both of today's words.
As regards a single- or double-L, "excel" should have a double-L, to show that the second syllable is stressed, but does not. By contrast, we don't need a double-L in "excellent", since that suggests that the second syllable is stressed, as it is in "excel". Rather, the first syllable is stressed. If we add an L to "excel" and drop the second-L from "excellent", we would stop misleading the reader as to syllabic stress. But if we do drop the second-L from "excellent", we would be well advised to change the following-E to A, lest the ELE letter combination be misread as showing a long-E sound before the L-sound.
Putting this all together, we get: "exell" and "exelant".
____________________My thanks to "fishstick..." for "exelant".
Friday, June 1, 2012: "dislexea" for "dyslexia"
Y, midword, should be reserved for the long-I sound, as in "hybrid", "dynamic", and "pyromaniac". Here, the sound is short-I, which is much better shown by I. The other problem area in today's word is the I near the end, which, bizarrely, represents a long-E sound! And people in the spelling Establishment wonder why so many people can't spell. If the sound is long-E, why would we write an I?: "dislexea".
Thursday, May 31, 2012: "centrifuje" for "centrifuge"
GE is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced with G's own, unique sound ("get", "gecko", "gear"), sometimes with J's sound ("gesture", "college", "gem"), and sometimes with the ZH sound, mainly in words from French ("genre", "collage", "montage"). I suspect that "fuselage" is the source of a confusion some people make with "centrifuge", in mispronouncing the GE as ZH. Whatever the cause, the cure is to replace the G with J, to show planly that the sound is J: "centrifuje".
Wensday, May 30, 2012: "bufont" and "bufoncy" for "bouffant" and "bouffancy"
The traditional spellings of today's two words make perfect sense in French, but not in English. Since these words have been in English for over 130 years, it's long since time to anglicize them: "bufont" and "bufoncy".
Tuesday, May 29, 2012: "annalog" for "analogue" and "analog", and "analogus" for "analogous"
The traditional spellings of today's words start with ANAL, which is a word to itself, pronounced áe.nal. That is not the sound here. Rather, the first-A of "analog/ue" is short, and the way we would ordinarily show that is by doubling the consonant after it (here, the N). We should do that.The other problem with today's base word is the preposterous silent-UE at the end, which has already been dropped from a common alternative spelling. Let's formalize the deletion of the superfluous and misleading UE, which people outside the English-speaking world might well assume to be spoken, as long-U.
In the derived adjective, "analogous", there is an OU but no OU-sound. Rather, the sound is a schwa, which can be shown by US, rather than OUS (compare "bonus", "abacus", and "stimulus").
Alas, we cannot clarify that the initial
ANAL- in "analogous" is not to be pronounced like the word "anal". There's only so much you can do to clarify things within the confines of intrinsically ambiguous traditional spelling conventions.So today's suggested respellings are: "annalog" and "analogus".
Munday, May 28, 2012: "zoaplasty" and "zoagrafting" for "zooplasty" and "zoografting"
ZOO is a familiar word, pronounced zue. That is not the sound here. Rather, the OO represents two syllables, the first containing long-O, the second containing a schwa. The way to show that is with OA: "zoaplasty" and "zoagrafting".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for "zoaplasty".
* Dictionary.com: both words mean "the transplantation of living tissue to the human body from an animal of another species".
Sunday, May 27, 2012: "voohdoo" for "voodoo"
OO has two sounds, long-OO (as in "food") and short-OO (as in "good"). The OO at the end of today's word would always be read as long, since it is not "closed" by a consonant after it. But the first-OO could be short, since it is closed by the consonant D, as are both "food" and "good". To show that the sound is long, we need to add an H, as in "ooh", "Pooh-Bah", and "pooh-pooh": "voohdoo".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for suggesting reform of today's word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Saturday, May 26, 2012: "trouwel" for "trowel"
OW is ambiguous, having two common pronunciations, as in "grow" and "now" (groe, nou), and one uncommon pronunciation, as in "acknowledge" (aak.nól.aj). We need to clarify which sound we mean. The pronunciation here is the OU-sound, so let's use OU. Since if we merely substitute a U for the W we will get the very ambiguous spelling "trouel", we need not to replace the W but insert a U before it: "trouwel".
Friday, May 25, 2012: "saytan" for "seitan"
This Food Friday word* has a misleading EI for a long-A sound. EI is commonly pronounced long-E or long-I, as in the two pronunciations of "either" and "neither" (ée.ther, íe.ther; née.ther, níe.ther). If the sound is long-A, we should write something else. "Satan" is taken. But "saitan" and "saytan" are both available. AY is clearer for long-A, so let's use that: "saytan".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a chewy, neutral-flavored, protein-rich food made of wheat gluten, used as a meat substitute in vegetarian dishes".
Thursday, May 24, 2012: "ribbald/ry" for "ribald/ry"
The single-B in today's words has given rise to spelling pronunciations with a long-I in the first syllable, which is wrong. To get rid of it, and guide people to the correct pronunciation, with short-I, we need merely double the B: "ribbald" and "ribbaldry".
Wensday, May 23, 2012: "foton" for "photon"
As with yesterday's words, today's word employs PH for the F-sound, which is a dopy, cumbersome, and ambiguous spelling ("uphold", "uphill", "diphthong"): "foton".
Tuesday, May 22, 2012: "ofiddeofobea" and "ofeofobea" for "ophideophobia" and "ophiophobia"
These two words for a fear of snakes are preposterously spelled, with TWO instances of PH for a simple F-sound, a dopy, cumbersome, and ambiguous spelling ("uphold", "uphill", "diphthong"); and two occurrences of the letter I for the long-E sound. If the sounds are F and long-E, we should write F and E. And after a short-I, we need a double consonant: "ofiddeofobea" and "ofeofobea".
Munday, May 21, 2012: "nuetrishus" for "nutritious"
The two-letter consonant cluster TR could be seen as marking the vowel before it short ("atrophy", "metric", "citric"), whereas in today's word the U is actually long. We need to indicate that in the spelling of the vowel sound itself. Adding an E to the U should do it.The second problem is the odd, unphonetic, and cumbersome spelling TIOUS for something that is pronounced shus. If that's the way it's said, that's the way it should be spelled.
Putting these two little fixes together, we get: "nuetrishus".
Sunday, May 20, 2012: "minneral" for "mineral"
I actually heard a reporter on a Chinese television station out of California pronounce today's word with a long-I, as is perfectly reasonable to assume it should be said. Unfortunately, reason has nothing to do with the traditional spelling of English, and the I is actually short. To show that, we need to double the N: "minneral".
Saturday, May 19, 2012: "looht" for "loot"
OO has two sounds, long as in today's word, "coot", "boot", and "hoot", and short, as in "foot", "soot", and "toots". As you can see, there is absolutely no way a reader can know which sound to use, just from the spelling. There is no clear alternative spelling for the short-OO sound, but we can use OOH for the long-OO (as in "ooh", "Pooh-bah", and "pooh-pooh"): "looht".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Friday, May 18, 2012: "invaizhun" for "invasion"
ION is a word to itself, pronounced íe.yon or íe.yan; and SION is a name or figurative term in religious literature, pronounced síe.yan and more commonly written "Zion" (and pronounced zíe.yan). Neither of those sounds occurs in "invasion". Rather, the sound is-zhan (phonetic spelling), which would be more readily understood if spelled-ZHUN. Let's write that.The A in the traditional spelling "invasion" is long, which is fine before SI, because a single following consonant permits the reader to see the A as long. If we substitute a phonetic ZH, however, that two-letter consonant cluster would suggest that the A is short. To show that it's long, we have to write the long-A unambiguously, in itself, not rely on what follows to show the sound.
Midword, there are several ways to do that, AE, AI, AY, EI, and EY. Tho AY can be used midword ("waylay", "payday", "layman"), it is more common at the end of a word. AE is rarely used for long-A, but is found in a very few words for that sound ("Gaelic", "maelstrom"). Also in a few words, EI or EY represents a long-A sound ("freight", "weigh", "inveigh"; "abeyance", "survey", "conveyance), but most people would not see EI as long-A. So AI ("paid", "stain", "raiment") would seem the best choice: "invaizhun".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, May 17, 2012: "herpeez" for "herpes"
"Herpes" is a family of viruses that produce things like cold sores, chicken pox, shingles, etc. Its spelling produces problems for people who see an E followed by an S, and perceive the word as a plural, whose singular form has a silent-E at the end, so would be pronounced herps. If they see it as a two-syllable word, they might think that a closed-E should be short, as in "estimate", "especially", and "pest". Few people, esp. in non-English-speaking countries, would expect-ES to be pronounced with a long-E.The word is not a plural. There is no single form "herpe". And the S is not pronounced as an S but as a Z. So we should write Z.
The E in the second syllable is not short but long. That should be shown clearly, and the clearest rendering of long-E is EE. So let's use that: "herpeez".
Wensday, May 16, 2012: "gyd" and "gydence" for "guide" and "guidance"
GU is a preposterous spelling for a simple G-sound ("hard"-G). The suggestion that GI might, without the U, be perceived as having a "soft"-G, or, actually, J-sound, is unreasonable, inasmuch as we have words like "give", "gibbon", and "giddy" in which the G of a GI-letter sequence does not take a J-sound. We do not write "guiv(e)", "guibbon", and "guiddy", so we do not need a U in either "guide" or "guidance".Midword, GY is clearer than GI for the vowel sound long-I ("hybrid", "dynamic", "tyrant"). So let's use that.
In the derivative "guidance", why would we use DANCE, which looks as tho it should be pronounced like the ordinary word that means to move to music? We can use DENCE, which does not produce that confusion: "gyd" and "gydence".
____________________My thanks to "Wilddog..." for suggesting reform of today's base word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012: "fleksher" for "flexure"
X is ambiguous ("flex", "exist", "luxury", "luxurious", and "xylophone" being pronounced fleks, eg.zíst, lúks.sha.re, lag.zhúe.ree.as, and zíe.la.fòen). Given that the sound of the X in "flex" and that in "flexure" are different, we should change the X in "flexure" to reflect its actual pronunciation, KSH.The second problem area is the URE, which should be pronounced with a long-U ("abjure", "brochure", "embouchure"), but is actually pronounced as the sound most commonly written ER. Let's write ER: "fleksher".
Munday, May 14, 2012: "extinggwish" for "extinguish"
NG is ambiguous, sometimes having an additional hard-G sound (as in today's word, "finger", and "anger") but sometimes not ("singer", "hanger"), and sometimes taking other sounds as well ("ingest", "ingrain"). Before U, the sound seems unclear to many readers, who say, for instance, "language" without a hard-G, even tho it is supposed to be there. So we need to write a second-G to cue the fact that there should be a hard-G sound in today's word.The second issue is the sound of the U, which is not either of U's ordinary sounds (short as in "up", long as in "rubric"). Rather, it represents a W-sound. If the sound is W, we should write W: "extinggwish".
____________________My thanks to "Bookk..." for this suggestion.
Sunday, May 13, 2012: "dremt" for "dreamt"
This irregular form of the verb "dream" is comparable to "felt", a form of the verb "feel". We don't write "feelt" but pronounce it with a short-E. We write "felt" because it has a short-E. Similarly, we shouldn't keep the misleading EA if the sound is a simple short-E, but drop the A: "dremt".
____________________My thanks to "Clap..." for this suggestion.
Saturday, May 12, 2012: "cappibara" for "capybara" and "capibara"
I discovered recently that there are two spellings for this name of the world's largest rodent, when I checked the spelling to mention having seen a 14-day-old baby capybara/capibara at a petting zoo during an art show opening reception here in Newark. Alas, neither spelling is quite right. "Capibara" is better than "capybara", in that the sound is short-I, not long-E, as the Y might be interpreted — so of course the version with an I is the alternate spelling, whereas the less-sensible spelling, with Y, is the standard spelling.The sound of the first-A is unclear in both spellings because there's only one P. Is the A long as in "ate", short as in "at", or "broad" as in "father", which will seem likely to some readers, who detect the word as being of foreign origin (which it is, from Brazilian Portuguese). The sound is actually a regular short-A. To show that clearly, we can simply double the P: "cappibara".
Friday, May 11, 2012: "boleet" and "boleetus" for "bolete" and "boletus"
Food Friday is here again, so let's make clearer the spelling of the names of an unfamiliar class of mushooms that has pores rather than gills on the underside of the cap. Neither present spelling is really bad, but both permit mistaken guesses at how the words are said. "Bolete" might be seen as having three syllables, as tho Spanish or Italian, whereas it actually has only two: boe.léet. And "boletus" might be seen as having a long-A sound in the middle syllable, whereas it's actually a long-E (boe.lée.tas).In the plural, "boletes" lends itself to a mistaken assumption that there is a long-E in the last syllable, as in "bases", the plural of "basis", and "diabetes". "Boletuses" entails the risk that "bole" will be read as one syllable, like the word "bole" for the trunk of a tree.
If we move the second-E of "bolete" from after the T, to before it, the ambiguity about the number of syllables is eliminated. And if we double the E in "boletus", we likewise eliminate ambiguities there: "boleet" and "boleetus".
Thursday, May 10, 2012: "alunj" for "allonge"
This entire traditional spelling, of a word* that has been in English for over 110 years, is ambiguous. ALL is usually pronounced with an AU-sound ("all", "ball", "call"), but not here, where the vowel of the first syllable is a schwa, and the L-sound goes with the second syllable.ON does not have its expected sound, short-O ("on", "upon", "pond"), nor even an AU-sound if one sees ONG as controlling ("long", "wrong", "strong").
The NG does not take the NG-sound of "gong", "song", or "thong"). Rather, the N does not combine with the G.
The G does not represent G's own, unique sound ("get", "gear", "geese").
GE is ambiguous, especially for a word from French, as "allonge" is, where we might expect a ZH-sound ("garage", "collage", "montage"). Here, the sound is that of J, and we sure don't need two letters to represent a J-sound, in that one letter, J, will do.
In short, there is pretty much nothing in the present spelling that makes any sense.
The actual pronunciation is a.lúnj. There may be no absolutely unambiguous way to write this, given that people might mentally connect the A with the following two L's, despite familiar words like "allay", "allegiance", and "alleviate". With a single-L, an initial-A might be seen to take A's short sound (as in "Al", "pal", and "gal"), despite words like "alone", "alarm", and "along". Even if we can't make this word's pronunciation unmistakably clear, we can make it more like clear: "alunj".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a paper annexed to a negotiable instrument, for endorsements too numerous or lengthy to be contained in the original."
Wensday, May 9, 2012: "zoafite" and "zoafittic" for "zoophyte" and "zoophytic"
ZOO is a familiar word, pronounced zue. Altho that three-letter sequence appears at the beginning of today's scientific words,* it is not pronounced like the animal park, but in two syllables, zóe.wa. To show the actual sound, we need merely change the second-O to A.There's a second problem with these words, the ridiculous, inefficient, and ambiguous ("uphill", "naphtha", "diphthong") two-letter sequence PH for a simple F-sound. Fortunately, that has an equally simple fix. Just write F.
There's even a third small matter with today's words, a Y where a listener would not expect one to appear. The sound is long-I in "zoophyte" but short-I in "zoophytic". One might defend a Y in "zoophyte", but not in "zoophytic", because a Y there suggests that the sound is long-I ("hybrid", "dynastic", "tycoon"), when it's short. So we should substitute an I in both words. But we need to double the T in respelled "zoophytic" to show that the I is short:
Putting this all together, we get: "zoafite" and "zoafittic".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for "zoafite".
* Dictionary.com: "any of various invertebrate animals resembling a plant, as a coral or a sea anemone."
Tuesday, May 8, 2012: "vaudevill" for "vaudeville"
There are two pronunciations for this word, one of two syllables, the other of three syllables. So we can't get rid of the E in the middle. But we can certainly drop the misleading final-E, which makes the word look as tho its stress should fall at the end of the word, whereas it actually falls at the beginning.Could we also drop the second-L? I don't think so, because without it, the word would appear to end in "devil", a word to itself pronounced differently. So let's drop only the final-E: "vaudevill".
Munday, May 7, 2012: "upwerd" for "upward"
WARD is a word to itself, pronounced with a "broad"-A or short-O (the same sound), which is not the case here. Rather, the sound is the one most commonly written ER. Let's write that here: "upwerd".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Sunday, May 6, 2012: "trist" for "tryst"
Y, midword, should be reserved for its long-I sound ("hybrid", "hygrometer", "dynamo"). Here, the sound is short-I,* so should be written with an I: "trist".
____________________* Altho some dictionaries show a secondary, spelling-pronunciation of triest, all the recorded pronunciations at Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster Online, and the Cambridge Dictionaries Online say only trist, and the printed pronunciation keys on both the U.S. English and 'World' English versions of the Oxford Dictionaries Online show only the version with a short-I. So we need not accommodate what is plainly a pronunciation derived from a misreading of the traditional spelling, which affirms the need to fix that spelling.
Saturday, May 5, 2012: "perrijee" for "perigee"
This evening's full moon is expected to be spectacular because it occurs at the moon's "perigee" ("the point in the orbit of a heavenly body, especially the moon, or of an artificial satellite at which it is nearest to the earth").There are two problems with the spelling of "perigee". First, a single-R does not cue the reader as to whether the initial-E is long or short. It's short, so we should double the R.
The second problem is that the G does not represent G's own, unique sound ("geek", "geese", "geezer"), but J's sound. If the sound is J, we should simply write J: "perrijee".
____________________Note: I usually follow alphabetical order, day to day, but tonite's "supermoon" was too good an opportunity to address "perigee". We'll resume alpha order, with a word that starts with T, tomorrow.
Friday, May 4, 2012: "sessamy" for "sesame"
This Food Friday word is one of over 100 common words in English that end in an E that not only is not silent but also has a long-E sound. The far more common and more easily understood-Y would be far better.In the middle of the word is a single-S, which renders unclear the sound of the first-E, which is short. To show that clearly, we should double the S.
Putting these two little fixes together, we get: "sessamy".
____________________My thanks to "Check..." for today's suggestion.
May 3, 2012: "reccolect" and "reccolection" for "recollect" and "recollection"
RE- is a frequently encountered prefix, meaning "again" or "backward". It is ordinarily pronounced with a long-E. The sense of theRE- in today's words is the same, to think back and remember, but the sound is short-E. Thus the C after theRE- should be doubled to show that the first-E in the word is short. Oddly, that wasn't done.Instead, the L is doubled, but there's no reason for it to be, because it doesn't mark the O short (it is actually pronounced as a schwa), and the L-sound goes with the following syllable, so doesn't need to be doubled at all.
Let's double the C, drop one of the L's, and end up with spellings that are much clearer: "reccolect" and "reccolection".
Wensday, May 2, 2012: "fony" for "phony" and "phoney"
PH is a preposterous, cumbersome, and ambiguous ("uphold", "upholstery", "hophead") way to write an ordinary F-sound, so let's write F.The alternate spelling "phoney" has a needless E before the final-Y. Let's drop it.
Putting those two little changes together, we get: "fony".
Tuesday, May 1, 2012: "ouwel" for "owl"
OW is ambiguous ("scowl", "bowl", and "knowledge" are pronounced skóuwal, boel, and nól.aj). In today's word, the sound of the OW is OU (as in "out", "counsel", and "sound"). That sound cannot, however, merge into a following L-sound in the same syllable, but must have a vowel sound between the two. That vowel is a schwa, which can be represented by any vowel letter but for today's combo is commonly shown by E. OUEL would, alas, be very unclear, so we need a W-glide between the OU and EL. Then everything becomes clear: "vouwel".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
Munday, April 30, 2012: "navvigate" and "navvigation" for "navigate" and "navigation"
A single-V makes the sound of the preceding-A unclear. It could be long, as a combining form for "navy" (and both "navigate" and "navy" derive from the same Latin word for "ship"). But the A is actually short. To show that, we need merely double the V: "navvigate" and "navvigation".
Sunday, April 29, 2012: "mellatonin" for "melatonin"
A single-L makes the sound of the preceding-E unclear. Is it long, as you might expect, or short? It's short, and the way to show that is to double the L: "mellatonin".
Saturday, April 28, 2012: "loohp" for "loop"
OO is ambiguous, having a long sound ("boot", "spook", and "brood") and a short sound ("foot", "took", and "neighborhood"), There are also a few scientific words in which OO represents two vowels in sequence ("protozoon", "spermatozoon", "zooplankton"), and yet others in which OO represents a short-U ("blood", "flood", and those two words' compounds and derivatives). There is no way the reader can know from the traditional spelling how to pronounce OO.There is no other spelling for the short-OO, but there is for the long-OO: ooh, as in "ooh", "Pooh bear", and "Pooh-Bah". Let's use OOH for all long-OO's, including today's: "loohp".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Friday, April 27, 2012: "jaz" for "jazz"
A double consonant is generally not necessary at the end of a word (we don't write "bidd", "iff", or "topazz"), so eliminating the superfluous second letter is an easy way to shorten the spelling of a lot of words, including today's: "jaz".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, April 26, 2012: "in/tollerable", "in/tollerant", "in/tollerance", and "tollerate" for "in/tolerable", "in/tolerant", "in/tolerance", and "tolerate"
OLE should be read with a long-O ("stole", "hole", "console"), but in today's words is actually pronounced with a short-O. To show that, we should double the L. That's not foolproof, given that words like "boll", "roll", and "toll" have a long-O anyway, but a double-L does work in other words ("follow", "holler", and "college"): "in/tollerable", "in/tollerant", "in/tollerance", and "tollerate".
Wensday, April 25, 2012: "hed" for "head" in compound words
Today, let's do a blanket, "global replace" of"-head-" with"-hed-" . EA is ambiguous ("pea", "pear", "rhea", "bread" and "Sean" are said pee, pair, rée.ya, bred, and shaun). "Hed", by contrast, is clearly to be said with a short-E, so should be substituted for "head" everywhere, at the beginning, middle, or end of all compound words. Here is a list of some such words: "hedbord", "hedline", "hedlite/s", "hedband", "heddress", "hedmaster", "hedmistress", "hedstart", "hedwaiter", "hedway", "hedwind"; "airhed", "arrowhed", "blackhed", "whitehed", "blokhed", "brijhed", "bulkhed", "bullhed", "copperhed", "dedhed", "deth's-hed", "dunderhed", "eghed", "fathed", "fiddlehed", "figyerhed", "Flathed", "forhed", "fountenhed", "godhed", "hammerhed", "hogshed", "letterhed", "loggerhed", "masthed", "overhed", "pinhed", "pothed", "railhed", "redhed", "speerhed", "subhed", "thunderhed", "towhed", "warhed", "wellhed", and every other occurrence of the present word "head".
____________________My thanks to "GreenD..." for "hedline" and "FireW..." for "hedlite/s.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012: "grohgrane" for "grosgrain"
Today's word, like yesterday's, concerns a type of cord (or fabric), and derives from French, but has been in English for a long time, even longer than "fourragère" ("grosgrain" entered English in about 1865). So it's time to anglicize its spelling so we know how to say it, on sight.The S is silent, so shouldn't be there. The two-letter consonant cluster GR, however, renders the sound of the preceding-O unclear. We would expect it to be short, but it's actually long. To show that, we might write OA, OE, or OH ("groagrain", "groegrain", or "grohgrain"). "Groagrain" could confuse the meaning, since "groats" is hulled grain, but "grosgrain" has nothing to do with grain. So that's out. "Groegrain" might do, but OE is sometimes said in two syllables ("poem", "coed", "churchgoer"). So OH is probably clearest.
As for the second element of the word, "grain" is misleading, in that this word relates to fabric, ribbon, or cord, not to an agricultural product. So "grane" would be better: "grohgrane".
Munday, April 23, 2012: "foorazhair" for "fourragère" and fourragere"
This term for a military decoration is from French, but has been in English since about 1915, so it's time to anglicize it: "foorazhair".
Sunday, April 22, 2012: "eppisode" and "eppisoddic" for "episode" and "episodic"
We have, with this pair of words, two places in which a single-consonant leaves unclear the sound of the preceding vowel, which many new readers will see as long, whereas they are both short. In "episode" there are two single-consonants, the first of which is preceded by a short vowel, but the second of which is preceded by a long vowel, thanks in part to the influence of the "silent-E" after the D. When we get to the adjective, there is still a single-D, but this time the O is short! We need to show clearly which of these vowels is short, by doubling the appropriate following-consonant: "eppisode" and "eppisoddic".
Saturday, April 21, 2012: "dredloks" for "dreadlocks"
There are two unnecessary letters in this compound word. Let's drop them and save a little effort and ink in writing the word: "dredloks".
Friday, April 20, 2012: "chedder" for "cheddar"
This Food Friday, let's fix the name of one of the most popular cheeses, if not the very most popular cheese, in the English-speaking world, "named after Cheddar, village in Somersetshire, England, where it was first made".AR is ambiguous ("star", "war", "altar", and "arabesque" are pronounced stor, waur, ául.ter, and àar.a.bésk, respectively). The pronounciation most people expect when they see AR, however, is the first above, a "broad"-A or short-O (the same sound). That is not the sound here, which is, instead, the sound most commonly written ER. Let's write that: "chedder".
____________________My thanks to "Clap..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, April 19, 2012: "booht" for "boot"
We have today another of the words with an ambiguous OO that could be read as short, as in "hood", "foot", and "brook", whereas it is actually long, as in "boost", "tooth", and "booze". There is no unambiguous way to spell the short-OO sound except OO, so we should find other spellings for the long-OO sound, which is a long-U without an initial Y-glide.Unfortunately, since some long-U's do have a Y-glide in front ("pure", "cute", and "ubiquitous"), we have to be careful when we put forward a U for a long-U sound. In some places, that would be safe, esp. after R, when there is never a Y-glide ("true", "rude", "accruing"); and other places where a Y-glide would seem unlikely, tho not impossible (in Britain), such as after L ("blue", "lure", and "ablution"). But "bute" (for today's word) would probably be seen as having a Y-glide, so we shouldn't write that. "Buet" might also be read wrong. We can, however, use OOH, as in "oohing and ahing", "pooh-pooh", and "Pooh-Bah". That would be safe: "booht".
____________________My thanks to "Table..." for suggesting reform of today's word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Wensday, April 18, 2012: "anglofone" and "francofone" for "Anglophone" and "Francophone"
Let's fix two words often heard in Canada, because of Canada's bilingual split, but not much heard in other old-line English-speaking countries. "Anglophone", for "English-speaking", is the pair to "Francophone", "French-speaking".Neither needs a capital letter, so that's fix No. 1.
The second issue in both words is the dopy PH, which not only is an absurd way to write a simple F-sound, because if you say a P and then H close after, you do not end up saying anything even remotely like an F-sound. Rather, you have the sound sequence in words like "uphill" and "uphold". And we don't write "phrancophone", do we? If the sound is F, let's just write F: "anglofone" and "francofone".
____________________My thanks to "fishstick..." for "anglofone".
Tuesday, April 17, 2012: "zoohm" for "zoom"
There are two OO-sounds, long as in "bamboo" and short as in "rook". Because of this ambiguity, some words have taken on an alternative pronunciation derived not from the historical sound of the word, but only from its ambiguous spelling. Such spelling-pronunciations as root for "root" (properly, ruet), roof for "roof" (ruef), and room for "room" (ruem) have tainted the language."Zoom" has also been attacked by this unfortunate spelling-pronunciation nonsense, in a series of commercials for Mazda vehicles, in which a young boy says not zuem zuem (long-OO, the long-U sound without an initial Y-glide) but zoom zoom (short-OO, as in "good"). To show people that there is only one correct pronunciation for "zoom" — with a long-OO sound — we need to spell it with an H, as in "ooh" and "pooh-pooh": "zoohm".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Munday, April 16, 2012: "whoopdeedoo" for "whoop-de-do" and "whoop-de-doo"
We don't need hyphens in this word, tho we do need the second-O at the end, since a final-O should be read as a long-O sound ("no", "go", "so"). The sound is actually a long-U with no initial Y-glide, which is best spelled, in final position, OO: "whoopdeedoo".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for suggesting reform of today's word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Sunday, April 15, 2012: "vejjetarean" for "vegetarian"
GE is ambiguous, and should be reserved for locations in which it represents G's own, unique sound, expressed by no other letter (as in "geese", "geisha", and "geyser"). That is not the sound here, which is J's sound. In that we have a letter J, we should use it. In that the vowel before the J-sound is short, we should write double-J to make plain that the preceding-E is short.In the last part of the word appears an I that represents neither of I's own sounds, long as in "trident" and short as in "pick". Rather, the sound is long-E. Why would we write an E-sound with anything but E?: "vejjetarean".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
Saturday, April 14, 2012: "tooht" for "toot"
OO is ambiguous, having two sounds, about equally frequent: short-OO, as in "good", "book", and "toots/ie", and long-OO, as in "shoot", "aloof", and "ballyhoo". Which sound is in today's word? You cannot know from the present spelling. But if we add an H after the OO, as in "ooh", "pooh-pooh", and "Pooh-Bah", the reader will know to pronounce a long-OO: "tooht".
____________________My thanks to "Firewall..." for suggesting reform of today's word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Friday, April 13, 2012: "saxifrij" for "saxifrage"
AGE is ambiguous ("age", "usage", "fuselage", pronounced aej, yúe.saj, fyúe.sa.lozh). In today's word, the vowel sound in the last syllable is a schwa so close to short-I that we might as well write an I: "saxifrij".
Thursday, April 12, 2012: "rinoreea" for "rhinorrhea"
This preposterously spelled word has more wrong than right. Where shall we start? How about TWO silent-H's?! Appalling. Drop them both.Second, the double-R suggests that the word's stress falls before it, whereas the stress actually falls after the double-R. So let's drop the second-R.
That would leave "rinorea", which is almost right, but leaves unclear where the stress falls in this four-syllable word. If we also double the E, we fix that: "rinoreea".
Wensday, April 11, 2012: "pettal" for "petal"
A single-T renders unclear the sound of the preceding-E. Is it long ("fetal", "acetaminophen", "detach")? Is it short ("getaway", "metabolic", "tetanus")? It's short. The simplest way to show that clearly is by doubling the T: "pettal".
____________________My thanks to "yaora..." for this suggestion, and to "Caste..." for another suggestion as to how to revise this word.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012: "okoppy" for "okapi"
There are two problem areas in this 5-letter word. First, there is an A that many people will read as a short-A as in "at", tho it could also be read as a long-A as in "ate", given a single-P after it. In actuality, it's an unexpected "broad"-A or short-O (the same sound). So let's replace the A with O, and double the P to show that the O is short.The second problem is the I at the end of the word, which many readers might see as a long-I, as in "cacti", "stimuli", and "syllabi". The sound is actually long-E (or, in "clipped" British dialects, short-I), which at the end of a word is customarily written Y. Let's fix that too: "okoppy".
Munday, April 9, 2012: "malevvolent" for "malevolent"
The single-V of the traditional spelling here permits two mistaken pronunciations. A reader can see this as a compound word, "male-volent", and know what "male" means, then wonder what "volent" means. "Volent" happens not to be a word, but there is an almost identical word, "volant", meaning "engaged in or having the power of flight". So "male-volent" (pronounced máil.va.lant) would mean a male with the power of flight, or who moves nimbly (another meaning of "volant")? No. "Malevolent" is not a compound word, but a single word meaning "wishing evil or harm to another or others".The other mistaken pronunciation that the present spelling could produce has a long-E sound before the V (ma.lée.va.lant). That's not right either. That E is actually short. And the way we customarily mark a short vowel is by doubling the following consonant. Let's do that here: "malevvolent".
Sunday, April 8, 2012: "loe" for "low"
OW is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced with a long-O sound ("show", "know", and today's word, "low") but other times being pronounced with the OU-sound ("town", "crowd", "plow"). To show that the sound here is long-O, we could simply drop the W, except that "lo" is, behold, already a word. But if we replace the W with E, we get a clear rendering of long-O: "loe".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
There actually is a rare word in Scots English spelled "loe" but pronounced lue. Since almost no one in the general English-speaking world knows any such dialectal oddity, we can ignore it.
Saturday, April 7, 2012: "koohk" for "kook"
OOH is used in a small but crucial number of words (like "ooh", "pooh-pooh", and "Pooh-Bah"), in all of which it represents the long-OO sound as in "bamboo", "cartoon", and "boondoggle", as distinct from the short-OO of "cook", "good", and "foot"). OO without more is unclear, as shown plainly by the fact that "cook" and "kook", "good" and "food", "foot" and "toot" are spelled absolutely parallel to each other but pronounced differently. We need to distinguish such pairs, and this is a good word with which to start: "koohk".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
Friday, April 6, 2012: "hotty" for "hottie" and "hotty"
We have today another word in which the alternate spelling is clearer than the preferred spelling, which could be misleading by comparison to words like "hogtie" and "necktie": "hotty".
Thursday, April 5, 2012: "jipsum" for "gypsum"
In today's word, the G does not represent its own, unique sound ("hard"-G: "get", "give", "gynecology") but the sound of J. We have a letter to represent the sound of J: J. Let's use it.The second odd letter in today's word is Y, which merely represents the short-I sound ("tip", "quip", "rip") There is no reason to use a Y here, and good reason not to, because Y sometimes represents a long-I sound midword ("hybrid", "dynamo", "tycoon"). Let's use I: "jipsum".
____________________My thanks to "GreenD..." for this suggestion.
Wensday, April 4, 2012: "filander/er" for "philander/er"
PH is a preposterous, inefficient, and ambiguous ("uphold", "uphill") spelling for a simple F-sound, so let's replace it with a simple F in these two words, the basic verb and the agent noun derived from it. Everything else is fine (with an F): "filander" and "filanderer".
Tuesday, April 3, 2012: "oister" for "oyster"
OY is one of two ways we commonly spell the OI-sound, as in "hoist", "join", and "foibles". Reading "oyster" is not the problem. The problem is having to memorize lists of words in which an OI sound is spelled OY instead. Every word that we can remove from the list of thousands of words we can't just sound-out but must memorize is a step in the right direction. If we write "boisterous", and we do, we should as well write: "oister".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
Munday, April 2, 2012: "manggle" for "mangle"
On Saturday I offered "janggle" for "jangle". All the argumentation for the same change to "mangle" appears there, so if you didn't see it then, just scroll down now: "manggle".
Sunday, April 1, 2012: "lybrerry" for "library"
The two-letter consonant cluster BR complicates the reader's task in knowing whether the preceding I is long or short. It's long. How can we show that plainly? IE?: "liebrary"? Maybe. How about Y, as in "hybrid", "dynamic", and "cyber"? That seems more efficient.Then there is the issue of the sound of the A. AR has different sounds, as in "war" (AU), "bar" ("broad"-A or short-O, the same sound), "scary" (AI), and "liar" (the sound most commonly written ER). Which applies here, and how is the reader to know?
The sound is the one most often written ER, so let's use that. Since there is a syllable after that, however, we need to double the R to prevent the E from being seen as long before a single-R.
Putting this all together, we get "lybrerry".
____________________My thanks to "garden..." for this suggestion.
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