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Sunday, December 27, 2015: "spred" for "spread"
The EA in the conventional spelling of today's word is both needless and misleading, in that EA is most commonly pronounced as long-E. Here, the sound is short-E, which will become plain if we simply drop the A, which has the added advantage of saving us a letter, which is always to the good: "spred".
Saturday, December 26, 2015: "spontaneus" for "spontaneous"
Why is there an OU toward the end of this word? There is no OU-sound. Rather, the sound is a schwa, and that sound would be clearer if we simply drop the O. In this word, less really would be more: "spontaneus".
Friday, December 25, 2015: "spue" for "spew"
EW is a peculiar and unphonetic way to spell the long-U sound with an initial Y-glide. The W should actually be seen as a pronounced consonant, and the E before it should be seen as short-E because it is closed by a following consonant. If you combine short-E with a following W-sound, what you end up with is an odd version of the long-O sound, not long-U.There are three ways we could write the proper sound, UE, EU, and YU. YU would not ordinarily be chosen for this sound in the middle or end of a word. EU might. UE might. Of those two, UE seems the more sensible: "spue".
____________________My thanks to "Multi..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, December 24, 2015: "sufle" for "souffle"
Today's word* is readily confused with the food term, "soufflé", but only because they are spelled the same except for the accent, which makes a world of difference as regards the pronunciation, súe.fool as against sue.fláe.There are two things wrong with the traditional spelling. First, the OU does not represent the OU-sound, and second, we don't need two F's. If we drop the O and one of the F's, we get a much shorter and clearer spelling: "sufle".
____________________* Microsoft Encarta dictionary: "a soft blowing sound inside somebody's chest, heard through a stethoscope and caused by blood flowing through blood vessels".
Wensday, December 23, 2015: "sho" for "show"
OW is ambiguous, sometimes representing the OU-sound, as in "now", "kowtow", and, most relevant to today's word, "shower". That is not the sound here, which is a simple long-O, without more. The W is not just superfluous (an unnecessary addition), but actually a confusing complication. Let's just drop it,* OK?: "sho".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
* There are issues as to how to spell the plural of "sho", the noun. Some people might think that "shos" is good enuf; others might prefer to pluralize by means of an ES: "shoes". "Show" is also a verb, and different people might prefer different ways of creating the -ING (present-progressive) form once we change the base word to "sho", "shoing", on the model of "going", or "shoeing" or "shoewing" or even back to "showing". We need not address this until and unless "sho" replaces the traditional "show", and then actual usage will guide us. My own preference would be "shoeing" (to avoid confusion with the OI-sound) or "shoewing" or "showing". But, as I say, we need not address that unless "sho" actually replaces "show" in general use.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015: "stalyon" for "stallion"
"Stall", which appears at the beginning of today's word, is a word to itself, which has the AU-sound (as in "ball", "call", and "tall"). That is not the sound of the A here, which is a regular short-A (as in "pal", "alimony", and "alibi"). To show that, all we need do is drop the second-L."Lion", which appears at the endof today's word, is also a word to itself, pronounced with a long-I (as in "ion", "prion", and "antibiotic"). That is not the sound here, where the I represents not an I-sound at all but the sound of consonantal-Y (as in "canyon", "rayon", and "crayon"). Let's spell the end of today's word like that: "stalyon".
Munday, December 21, 2015: "sporofore" for "sporophore"
There is no way, in sensible, phonetic spelling, to justify the ridiculous and inefficient PH for a simple F-sound. If the sound is F, let's just write F, okay?: "sporofore".
Sunday, December 20, 2015: "squeejee" for "squeegee"
G has its own, unique sound, as in "gear", "get", and "geese". The sound here is not that of G at all, but of J. We have a letter J. Let's use it: "squeejee".
____________________My thanks to "Fishin..." for this suggestion.
Saturday, December 19, 2015: "specculate" and "specculation" for "speculate" and "speculation"
A single-C leaves unclear, esp. to new readers of English (children in English-speaking countries, people of any age in non-English-speaking countries) whether the E before it is long or short. It's short. To show that plainly, let's double the C: "specculate" and "specculation".
Friday, December 18, 2015: "souwer" for "sour"
This Food Friday, let's reform the spelling of one of the basic flavors of all foods and beverages (along with, mainly, sweet, salty, and bitter). Its spelling, however, may be misleading to some readers, given words like "glamour", "contour", and "pour". Here, the OUR is to be read as representing two syllables, the first containing only the OU-sound and the second having an unwritten ER sound or schwa before the final-R. That sound should be written plainly. We couldn't write "souer", because that would be visually confusing. We might write it "souar", but that spelling, tho perfectly reasonable and easy to separate into two syllables, is not found in any word in present spelling. The alternative clear spelling of two syllables would be "souwer". Tho that letter combination isn't found in present spelling either, we are so used to seeing WER (as in "tower", "flower", and "power") that it shouldn't cause readers any problem: "souwer".
____________________My thanks to "Music..." for this suggestion.
Thursday, December 17, 2015: "summ" for "some"
"Some" is an absurd spelling, which should rhyme with "home", "chrome", and "dome". Instead, it rhymes with "bum", "rum", and "sum". In that "sum" is already a word, we would be well advised not to use that exact same spelling. But we can add a second-M at the end, and thus distinguish the two words plainly: "summ".
Wensday, December 16, 2015: "soald" for "sold"
In OLD, the O should be rendered short by being followed by two consonants, but it is actually supposed to be given its long sound. To show a long-O toward the end of a word, esp. a word that ends in two consonants, OA is a good convention ("roast", "loath", and "reproach"). Let's write OA here too: "soald".
____________________My thanks to "Clap..." for suggesting reform of today's word, tho I chose a slitely different solution.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015: "skurmish" for "skirmish"
IR is ambiguous, and is sometimes pronounced as either long-E ("irritate") or short-I ("iridescent"). The sound here, however, is that most commonly written ER, but also OR, UR, and AR ("better", "bettor", "urgent", "secretary"). All those spellings except UR have more than one pronunciation, however, so UR would be best: "skurmish".
Munday, December 14, 2015: "shazamm" for "shazam"
We have today an interjection* from comic books that is not just infrequently seen but also ambiguously spelled. You wouldn't know just from seeing it that the word's stress falls on its second (last) syllable, but we can make that clear by doubling the final consonant: "shazamm". ____________________* Merriam-Webster: "used to indicate an instantaneous transformation or appearance".
Sunday, December 13, 2015: "scouwel" for "scowl"
OW is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced as long-O, without more ("know", "stow", "below"), but other times being pronounced as the OU-sound. In today's word, the OU-pronunciation is intended, so we should employ OU. The OU-sound cannot, however, be said in the same syllable as a following-L. Rather, a second syllable, with a schwa sound, has to be said. The schwa sound can be expressed by any vowel letter except I ("about", "telephone", "abbot", "circus"). In today's location, E seems a good choice ("newel", "jewel", "angel"), so let's use E: "scouwel".
Saturday, December 12, 2015: "savwahfair" for "savoir-faire"
OI should never, in English, have the sound it is asked to carry in today's word, WAH. If WAH is the sound, it should also be the spelling. WAR without an H ('savwarfair') would be seen by many people as representing the sound, and sense, of "war", but "savoir-faire" has nothing to do with "warfare". So let's write WAHR.There are two remaining issues with this word. First, should we use a hyphen to connect the two words from the original French phrase? And do we need a silent-E at the very end? English doesn't like hyphens in the middle of compound words, so let's drop it and push the two elements up against each other. And some readers might wonder if an E at the end is supposed to be pronounced, as it is in words like "epitome", "psyche", and "syncope". A few readers might see an E there as signalling that the last syllable is stressed, but most would not, and indicating syllabic stress with a silent-E at the end of a word is not standard practice, so let's just drop that E, okay?: "savwahrfair".
Friday, December 11, 2015: "rebellyus" for "rebellious"
IOUS should be pronounced with a long-I, as in "pious". But here, the I stands in for the sound of the consonant Y. If that's the sound, let's write Y. Beyond the present-I, we have an OU that does not represent the OU-sound, but merely a schwa. If we drop the O, we are left with US at the end of the word, which is fine (compare "abacus", "fungus", and "hiatus". So let's write that: "rebellyus".
Thursday, December 10, 2015: "plouw" for "plow"
OW is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced as long-O ("know", "show", and "glow") but other times being pronounced with the OU-sound. Here, the sound is that of OU in "ouch", so let's insert a U between the O and the W, because if we replaced the W with U, we would have the ambiguous "plou", which many people would read as tho written "ploo": "plouw".
____________________My thanks to "Don..." for this suggestion.
Wensday, December 9, 2015: "frenollojy" for "phrenology"*
Today's word starts with the idiotic and indefensible spelling PH for a simple F-sound. If the sound is F, we should write F. The O in the second syllable is short, which you could not know from the single-L that follows it. We should double that L to show that the O before it is short (as in "follow", "collar", and "hollandaise"). A third problem occurs toward the end of the word, a G that represents not G's own sound but J's. We have a J. Let's use it: "frenollojy".
____________________* Microsoft Encarta World English Dictionary: "the study of the bumps on the outside of the skull, based on the now discredited theory that these bumps reflect somebody's character".
Tuesday, December 8, 2015: "foropter" for "phoropter"*
We have here again one of those all-too-numerous uses of the moronic formula PH for a simple F-sound. The sound is F, so let's write F. The rest of the word is fine: "foropter".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "A device containing different lenses used for refraction of the eye during sight testing".
Munday, December 7, 2015: "peedeattric/s" and "peedeatrishan" for "pediatric/s" and "pediatrician"
The sound of the E before the D is unclear, given words like "pedestal" and "pedestrian". To make plain that that E is long, let's write it clearly, as EE. In the second syllable, we have another long-E sound, but it's written wrong, in IA, which should be pronounced with a long-I, not long-E, as in "trial", "liar", and "defiance". Given that the sound is long-E, let's write an E there.The A is short, so we need to double the T, both to show that and to cue the reader to place this four-syllable word's primary stress on the third syllable. That takes care of the first of these two related words.
The second takes the same EE as the first, but we don't have a T in this one. Rather, CIAN stands in for the sound combination more commonly written TION, an absurd spelling that is, however, so common that we would have trouble convincing everyone to replace it everywhere. Here, TION wouldn't do anyway, since it does not refer to the quality or state of being pediatric, but to a doctor who specializes in treating children. The sound of the TI is what is generally written SH. So let's make that substitution. The remaining -AN is part of the word's traditional spelling, so we can leave that.
Putting this all together, we end up with: "peedeattric/s" and "peedeatrishan".
Sunday, December 6, 2015: "provvidence", "provvident", and "provvidenshal" for "providence", "provident", and "providential"
PRO is a common prefix, commonly pronounced with a long-O or schwa ("pronoun", "provide"). In today's words, however, the sound is short-O. To show that, we should double the following consonant, here, a V. In the adjective now spelled with -TIAL at the end, there are two problems. First TI does not spell the SH-sound. SH does. And second, new readers might see the IA as being pronounced as two adjoining vowel sounds, long-I and either short-A or schwa, as in "triangulate", "reliance", and "messiah". If we change the TI to SH, no one will read it wrong: "provvidence", "provvident", and "provvidenshal".
Saturday, December 5, 2015: "plosiv" for "plosive"
IVE should be pronounced with a long-I ("hive", "strive", "derive"). Here, the sound is short-I. There's a quick fix for that. Drop the E: "plosiv".
____________________My thanks to "JEA..." for this suggestion.
Friday, December 4, 2015: "pepperonee" for "pepperoni"
This Food Friday, let's make a minor change, to only the fourth syllable of this long name for a spicy Italian sausage. An I at the end of a word is commonly pronounced as long-I ("alkali", "alibi", "hippopotami"). The sound here, however, is long-E, not long-I. The clearest rendering of long-E is EE. We might opt for the slightly shorter -Y, but that would be less clear, because sometimes -Y is pronounced as long-I too. Altho that is most common in words of one syllable ("by", "dry", "fly"), it also occurs in some longer words ("awry", "deny", "indemnify"). Let's use EE: "pepperonee".
Thursday, December 3, 2015: "parrasykollojy" for "parapsychology"
Today's word is one of the craziest in the English language. There are five things wrong that we need to address.First, AR is ordinarily pronounced with a "broad"-A (or short-O, the same sound), as in "far", "startle", and "marginal". That's not the sound here, which is a regular short-A. Before an R sound, that is customarily written ARR, as in "marrow", "carrel", and "barrister". So let's double the R.
The second problem is the preposterous silent-P. Even saying "silent-P" aloud shows how indefensibly stupid it is. So let's drop the P.
The third problem is the CH, which represents not the CH-sound as in "chaffinch" but a simple K-sound. If the sound is K, let's write K.
The fourth problem is that a single-L poses the question to the reader of whether the O before it is long or short. It's short, and the way we often show that is by doubling the consonant after it. Even if we double the L, that may not be entirely clear, given that OLL nonetheless sometimes represents a long-O sound, as in "boll", "roll", and "pollster". Still, it's more like clear, given words like "follow", "holler", and "rollicking". So doubling the L is worth doing.
Finally, a fifth problem presents itself with a G that represents not G's own, unique sound, represented by no other letter, but the sound of J. How many times do we have to say that if the sound is J, let's just write J?
Putting this all together, we get: "parrasykollogy".
Wensday, December 2, 2015: "petuenya" for "petunia"
The sound of the U in today's word is unclear. It could be long; it could be short. It's long. To show that, we should write UE. At the end of the word, the spelling IA is misleading for the sound here, which is a Y followed by schwa. To show that sequence, we should write Y + A: "petuenya".
Tuesday, December 1, 2015: "parragon" for "paragon"
AR is most commonly pronounced as a "broad"-A or short-O, the same sound ("bar", "afar", "startle"). Here, the sound is short-A, which before an R-sound is more commonly written with a double-R ("arrow", "barrel", "carry"). So let's double the R in today's word: "parragon".
Munday, November 30, 2015: "payzly" for "paisley"
There are at least two things wrong with the traditional spelling of today's word. First, there is a Z-sound, but no Z. Instead, S stands in for Z, but S has the wrong sound. If the sound is Z, we should just write Z.Second, EY could be pronounced as long-A, as in "they", "fey", and "convey", but here it represents only a long-E, which is much better shown by -Y or -EE. Here, -Y seems clear enuf.
A third possible problem is the AI for a long-A sound. Yes, it could be that, but it could also be pronounced as long-I, as in "aisle"; short-A, as in "plaid"; or the AI-sound itself, as in "airmail". AY is a clearer spelling for the long-A sound. Let's use that.
Putting this all together, we get: "payzly".
Sunday, November 29, 2015: "Prottestant" for "Protestant"
PRO- is a frequently encountered prefix that commonly takes a long-O sound. That is not its sound here, which is, instead, short-O. To show that, all we need do is double the following-T, which has the added benefit of cuing the reader to the fact that the word's stress falls on the first syllable: "Prottestant".
Saturday, November 28, 2015: "prairee" for "prairie"
IE is ambiguous, often taking the sound long-I ("belie", "denied", "hogtie") but much more commonly representing a long-E, as in today's word. We have a much clearer spelling for long-E than that — EE. Let's use it: "prairee".
Friday, November 27, 2015: "poalt" and "poaltry" for "poult" and "poultry"
This Food Friday, let's fix two related words for birds. The first refers to a young bird, esp. one used for food; the second, to food birds (but esp. chicken, turkeys, ducks, and geese) of any age. Both words contain the vowel sequence OU, but have no OU-sound. The sound is actually long-O, which midword could be written more clearly as OA, OE, or OH.OH midword, tho clear, is unusual, being found in only a few words, such as "ohm", "kohl", and "kohlrabi". Still, it is found in some words, and if no other spelling were to prove clear, we could employ OH.
OA is found for long-O in a host of words, such as "roast", "toast", and "boast"; "loan", "moan", and "roan"; "goal", "shoal", and "coal"; "boat", "coat", and "moat"; and other places. The frequency of such spellings argues powerfully for the use of OA here.
There is one other possibility, however, OE. Alas, before L, OE most commonly represents two vowels in adjoining syllables, not one vowel sound within a single syllable: "photoelectric", "hydroelectric", "noel", etc. That would thus seem a poor choice.
We have a winner!: OA.
As regards the end of the longer of today's words, "try" is a word to itself, with a long-I, whereas here the sound is long-E. We could write "-TREE", to show that the sound is actually long-E, but "tree" is a word to itself too, and people who see "poaltree" might think it some kind of plant, like a Christmas tree. So let's leave the -TRY: "poalt" and "poaltry".
Thursday, November 26, 2015: "projjeny" for "progeny"
PRO- is a common prefix, commonly pronounced with a long-O. That's not the sound here, which is short-O. To show that, all we need do is double the following consonant. At present, however, the wrong consonant follows the O, a G, whereas the sound is that of J. We have a J. Why would we write G if the sound is J? We should replace the G with J, then double it to show that the preceding-O is short: "projjeny".
Wensday, November 25, 2015: "pliar/s" for "plier/s" and "plyer/s"
"Lie" takes "liar", not "lier", so readers will probably feel it more natural to write: "liar/s".
Tuesday, November 24, 2015: "ommatiddeum" and (plural) "ommatiddea" for "ommatidium" and "ommatidia"*
There are two short vowels in each of this pair of very long words. The first is shown by a double-M; the second, however, is not shown by a double-D. It should be, so let's double the D in both singular and plural. We also should change the IA to EA, since the sound of the first vowel is long-E, not long-I: "ommatiddeum" and "ommatiddea".
____________________* Individual element of an insect's compound eye.
Munday, November 23, 2015: "nuroppathy" and "nuropathic" for "neuropathy" and "neuropathic"
EU should be reserved to the sound long-U with an initial Y-glide. Here, there is no Y-glide, so let's just drop the E, and leave the U.The second problem in the first word is that the syllabic stress is not self-evident, and many readers will read the word as being pronounced nyúe.roe.pàa.tthee. In the second word, a stress pattern more like that does prevail: núe.ra.pàath.ik. To show the stresses in the noun, we should double the P, whereupon all the other syllabic stresses will fall into place. We don't need to do that with the adjective: "nuroppathy" and "nuropathic".
Sunday, November 22, 2015: "morchuary" for "mortuary"
T does not spell the CH-sound (as in "church"). CH does: "morchuary".
Saturday, November 21, 2015: "meloddic" for "melodic"
In the current spelling, a single-D leaves unclear how the O is pronounced, and many readers will see it as long, whereas it is actually short. To show that, we should double the D: "meloddic".
Friday, November 20, 2015: "marshmello" for "marshmallow"
This Food Friday, let's fix the name of a soft, spongy candy. There are two things wrong with the traditional spelling. First, the vowel sound before the L's is short-E, not either short-A or the AU sound in "all". To show the actual sound, all we need do is change that A to E. The second problem is the OW at the end of the word, which could be seen as the OU-sound (compare "how", "now", "brown", "cow"), but which is actually just a long-O. To make that plain, all we need do is drop the W, which has the added virtue of saving us a letter, which is always to the good: "marshmello".
Thursday, November 19, 2015: "maldamaire" for "mal de mer"
We don't need three words as a synonym for the one English word "seasickness". If we just delete the spaces, we'd be left with one word, "maldemer", which would not be read right. The E in the middle should be replaced by A. At the end of the word, we need to replace the ER with at least AIR. But since the (now-one) word's stress falls on the last syllable, we need to add a final-E after the R. That might not be entirely clear, but it's probably as clear as we can make it: "maldamaire".
Wensday, November 18, 2015: "meen" for "mean"
EA is ambiguous ("bread", "lead" — 2 pronunciations — "reality", "creation", etc.). Here, the sound is a simple long-E, which is best shown by EE: "meen".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015: "mytie" for "mai tai"
We haven't had a Booze Tuesday entry for a long time, but here's one. AI in English is ordinarily pronounced as long-A, as in "maid", "waist", and "stain". The sound here, however, is long-I. Midword, that is often shown by the letter Y. At the end of a word, it could be shown by I alone or IE. In words of one syllable or in the ending -FY, it might also be shown by Y. Here, however, IE seems best: "mytie".
Munday, November 16, 2015: "malakite" for "malachite"*
CH is an indefensibly stupid and inefficient way to spell a simple English K-sound. CH should represent the CH-sound, as in "church" only. We have a K. Let's use it: "malakite".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a green mineral, basic copper carbonate, Cu 2 CO 3 (OH) 2, an ore of copper, used for making ornamental articles".
Sunday, November 15, 2015: "loggafile" for "logophile"
We are accustomed to seeing "logo" as having two long-O's, one in each syllable. In today's word, however, neither O is long. Rather, the O in the first syllable is short, as would be made plain by doubling the following-G, and the O in the second syllable is said as a schwa, which would be clearer if written as A.The third syllable starts with the ridiculous and contemptible formula PH for a simple F-sound. That has got to go, and F should replace it: "loggafile".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a lover of words".
Saturday, November 14, 2015: "nop" for "knop"*
This unusual word is one of a bunch that currently start with an absurd silent-K. If it's silent, it doesn't belong there, so let's just drop it and save ourselves a letter and the need to remember that there is a K there for no good reason: "nop".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a small knob or similar rounded protuberance, especially for ornament."
Friday, November 13, 2015: "jadite" for "jadeite"
EI is ambiguous, sometimes being pronounced as long-E ("either"), sometimes as long-I (also "either"), sometimes as long-A ("weight"), and yet other times as two syllables ("albeit", "spontaneity", "ileitis"). Here, the sound is long-I, but we don't need two letters, EI, to represent a long-I in a location like this, where a final-E follows a single consonant, as will signal to most readers that the I is long. -ITE is good enuf to show a long-I.Do we, then, need an E in the middle of the word to show that the A in the first syllable is long? No. There is only a single-D after the A, so the reader is unlikely to read the A as short. We don't need an E after the D, so let's just drop it, alrite?: "jadite".
Thursday, November 12, 2015: "iriddeum" for "iridium"
There are three little problems with this four-syllable word. First is the sound of the I before the single-D. The I is short, which would be much better shown by a double-D. Second, the word's primary stress falls on the second syllable, which will be understood better once the D is doubled. Third, the IU should be pronounced with a long-I, as in "triumph", but is actually pronounced with a long-E, so should be spelled EU instead. Putting this all together, we get: "iriddeum".
Wensday, November 11, 2015: "hypottenuse" for "hypotenuse"
HYPO is ordinarily understood to end with a long-O, but here, the O is short. To show that, we should double the T: "hypottenuse".
Tuesday, November 10, 2015: "glu" for "glue"
We don't need UE at the end of a word to show a long-U, because a single-U not closed by a following consonant naturally takes its long sound. So let's just drop the E, OK?: "glu".
Munday, November 9, 2015: "galumff" for "galumph"*
PH is an indefensible way to write the English F-sound. The excuse is sometimes made that PH indicates words derived from Greek — as tho anyone cares about that — but here, the word was coined by Lewis Carroll, perhaps from "gallop" and "triumph". And altho "triumph" derives from various sources including Greek, "galumph" is very far from being a Greek word. So it is hard to justify a PH in it.The quéstion remáins whéther one F will do, in this locátion in this word, or if we should write two, which would sígnal that the word takes stress on the sécond sýllable, not the first, which most two-sýllable Énglish words do (see the wrítten áccents in this páragraf). A sécond-F seems wise to show that depárture from cústomary stress pátterns: "galumff".
____________________* OxfordDictionaries.com: "Move in a clumsy, ponderous, or noisy manner:"
Sunday, November 8, 2015: "fettish" for "fetish" and "fetich"
We can easily dispense with the bizarre alternative spelling "fetich", which inexcusably uses CH to stand in for the SH-sound. We should also not hesitate to replace the single-T (which has given rise to the unnecessary alternate pronunciation fée.tish), with double-T, which makes plain to the reader that short-E, not long-E, precedes the T-sound: "fettish",
Saturday, November 7, 2015: "eer" for "ear"
EA is ambiguous, and can be pronounced several ways ("eat", "bread", "realize", "area", "break", "Sean", etc.). Here, the sound is a simple long-E, and the clearest way to write that is EE: "eer".
Friday, November 6, 2015: "devellop/ment" for "develop/ment"
The main problem with this pair of long words is knowing where to place the syllabic stresses. Many people who learn English as a foreign language or second language, esp. in places like India and Pakistan, tend to stress the first syllable because they see no guidance as to where it should actually go. If we double the L, however, they will know to stress the second syllable: "devellop" and "devellopment".
Thursday, November 5, 2015: "demollish" for "demolish"
A single-L leaves unclear whether the preceding-O is long or short. It's short. Altho it is not possible, in traditional spelling conventions, to make plain a short-O before L, because in some words two L's follow an O that is nonetheless pronounced long ("boll", "droll", "enroll"), a double-L is more likely to be read as signalling a short-O, as in "volley", "holler", and "pollen". So let's double the L: "demollish".
Wensday, November 4, 2015: "cullur" for "color" and "colour"
Only the C, L, and R in the two spellings of this word make any sense. The other letters are all wrong, and the British spelling's -OUR is ridiculous. It should be pronounced like the first-person possessive adjective, "our", in two syllables (óu.wer).The vowel sound in the first syllable is definitely short-U, so we should write U. The vowel sound in the second syllable is most commonly written ER ("better"), but also UR ("splurge"), AR ("collard"), and, yes, OR ("bettor").
We can't write "culler", because that is already a word, meaning "one who culls" (removes, as from a herd). "Cullur", "cullar", and "cullor" are all available, but since U will now appear in the first syllable, it would seem to make best sense to use it in the second syllable too: "cullur".
____________________My thanks to "John..." for this suggestion. "Space..." suggested two other alternatives, "kuller" and "cuhler", but "cullur" seems the best choice.
Tuesday, November 3, 2015: "collic" for "colic"
A single-L leaves unclear whether the preceding-O is long, as in "prolapse", or short, as in "collar". The parallel spelling "folic [acid]" has two pronunciations, the preferred, with a long-O, and an alternative, with a short-O. Let's make clear that in this word, the O is short, by doubling the following-L: "collic".
Munday, November 2, 2015: "quof" and "quoffure" for "coif" and "coiffure"
There are two words spelled "coif", one of which means "hood" and is pronounced as it looks, with the OI said as in "void", "hoist", and "purloin". The other word means "hair style", in which the OI is pronounced in the French manner, with an English W-sound followed by a short-O. That originally French term is the first of today's related words. The second, longer word is a fuller form of the shorter, with the same sound in the first syllable.To show the sound at the beginning of today's words, English would customarily use QU followed by either A or O. Since the sound in the QUA- formulation, as in "quad", "quarrel", and "quaff", is "broad"-A, another name for the short-O sound, O would be clearer: "quof" and "quoffure".
Sunday, November 1, 2015: "corjal" for "cordial"
DI does not spell the J-sound. J does: "corjal".
Saturday, October 31, 2015: "coddicil" for "codicil"
We have here a spelling that many people will see as representing a long-O in the first syllable, esp. since CO- is a common prefix, with a long-O sound. To show that the O is actually short, we need to double the following-D: "coddicil"
Friday, October 30, 2015: "chy" for "chai"
This Food Friday let's fix the name of a kind of tea from South Asia. AI is a very bad spelling for a long-I sound, and should be reserved to a long-A ("paid", "stain") or, before R and L, flat-A ("airmail"). In words of one syllable, the conventional way to write a long-I sound at the end of a word is with -Y ("my", "shy", "dry"), so let's write that: "chy".
Thursday, October 29, 2015: "carreoca" for "carioca"
This term for a variation on the samba and the music for it derives from the name of a resident of Rio de Janeiro, which differs only in having a capital-C. AR is ordinarily pronounced with a "broad"-A, or short-O (the same sound): "car", "jar", afar". The sound here, however is short-A. To show that in conjunction with a following R-sound, the convention is to write two R's ("marry", "carry", "barrier"). Let's write that.IO should be pronounced with a long-I, as in "Iowa", "ion", and "diode". Here, the sound is long-E, so we should write E. Putting these two little changes together, we get: "carreoca".
Wensday, October 28, 2015: "casq" for "casque"*
We have here a word of one syllable that is a homophone for a more widely known word, "cask". -QUE is ambiguous and misleading, in that it could be said as a second syllable. Here, it is not, but merely represents a K-sound, without more. There are only so many ways to write a K-sound in final position unambiguously: K, C, CK, and Q. But if we take the -QUE away from today's word, we are left with an S to which the representation of a K-sound would be added. There is no present English word that ends in SCK. Mind you, if there were good reason to write that, we could do so. But people would regard SCK at the end of this word ("casck") as not just unprecedented but also inefficient.C might do: "casc", on the model of (only) "disc" and "mollusc". "Casq" would be breaking new ground, in that no present word ends in SQ. But it's defensible, in that every reader of English will know that it is intended to represent a K-sound. Especially in the case of today's word, Q seems more reasonable than C, in that it has an antique look, and the first definition of "casque" at Dictionary.com is "an open, conical helmet with a nose guard, commonly used in the medieval period". So, let's use Q: "casq".
____________________* The other definitions at Dictionary.com are "any helmet-shaped head covering", and "Zoology. a process or formation on the head, resembling a helmet."
Tuesday, October 27, 2015: "cilenterate" for "coelenterate"*
COE- should be pronounced at least with a "hard"-C (the K-sound) and probably also with a long-O. In this word, however, the C is "soft" (the S-sound), and the OE is pronounced with a long-E that is so abbreviated as to be perceived as a short-I, none of which an ordinary reader could be expected to know. If we drop the O that confuses the issue, that will go far to clarifying things. But why not go all the way, and change the OE to I?One issue then remains: how is the -ATE to be pronounced, with a long-A or short-I? As it happens, dictionaries recognize both pronunciations, so we can just leave that cluster of letters unchanged: "cilenterate".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "any invertebrate animal of the phylum Coelenterata, including the hydras, jellyfishes, sea anemones, and corals, characterized by a single internal cavity serving for digestion, excretion, and other functions and having tentacles on the oral end".
Munday, October 26, 2015: "clu" for "clue"
We don't need a silent-E at the end of this word. With or without the -E, it will be pronounced the same. In the plural, we will need an E before adding S, but that is a standard convention, so does not need to be specially accommodated: "clu".
____________________My thanks to "space..." for this suggestion.
Sunday, October 25, 2015: "cozmollojy" for "cosmology"
There are three things wrong with today's word. First, an S stands in for a Z. Why? We have a Z, and it represents the right sound, whereas S ordinarily represents a different sound. Let's replace the S with Z.The second problem is that a single-L leaves unclear, esp. to new readers of English, whether the O before the L is long or short. It's short. To show that, we should double the L.
The third problem is that a G stands in for a J-sound. Why? We have a J. Let's use it.
Putting this all together, we get: "cozmollojy".
Saturday, October 24, 2015: "cassowerry" for "cassowary"
Today's name for a large, fliteless bird ends in WARY, which is a word to itself pronounced wái.ree. That is not the sound here, which is instead the sound most commonly written ER. Let's use that, and double the R to make sure the E is not seen as long: "cassowerry".
Friday, October 23, 2015: "carraway" for "caraway"
This Food Friday, let's fix the spelling of a flavorful seed found especially in rye bread. AR ordinarily conveys the "broad"-A or short-O (same sound), as in "bar", "car", and "star". That is not the sound here, which is, instead, short-A. When short-A appears before an R sound, the R is often doubled to show that: "carriage", "barren", "narrow". That would be clearer, so let's do it: "carraway".
Thursday, October 22, 2015: "capichulate" for "capitulate"
T does not spell the CH-sound in "church" or "chaffinch", CH does: "capichulate".
Wensday, October 21, 2015: "canneteell" for "cannetille"*
We have here another of the innumerable words in English that use "Continental" European values rather than English. The present spelling uses French conventions, but the word's origins are in Spanish and Mozarabic! In French, the -ILLE is pronounced -ée.(ya), but the English pronunciation ends in an L-sound. It's time to write this word as native speakers of English will find clear: "canneteell".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "a gold or silver thread with a spiral twist, formerly much used in embroidery."
Tuesday, October 20, 2015: "benefficence" and "benefficent" for "beneficence" and "beneficent"
The present spelling of today's words leaves unclear both where the word's primary stress falls (compare "beneficial") and the pronunciation of the BE- at the beginning, which has a schwa or short-E, not a long-E nor short-I. If we double the F, everything else falls into place: "benefficence" and "benefficent".
Munday, October 19, 2015: "booteneer" for "boutonnière" and "boutonniere"
The antiquated spelling with a grave accent has largely disappeared. It's time for the unphonetic alternative form to go out of use as well. The OU does not represent the OU-sound of English, but that of French, which is the English long-OO sound (which might also be thought of as long-U without an initial Y-glide). So we should write either OO or U.The ONN represents not a short-O, as it should, but a schwa (followed by an N-sound). Schwa can be written with any vowel. If we use E, it will signal to many readers that the OO before the T is long, which is right.
The double-N suggests to the reader that the word's primary stress falls just before it, whereas it actually falls on the last syllable.
The IE represents not a long-I, but long-E. And the E at the very end of the word is superfluous, so should not be there. In short, almost everthing about the traditional spellings of this word is wrong.
Today's word should actually be written: "booteneer".
Sunday, October 18, 2015: "boozukee" and "boozukees" for "bouzouki", "bousouki", "buzuki" and (plural) "bouzoukia"
We can hugely simplify the English words for this Greek musical instrument. The present preferred spelling has two OU's, the first representing English short-OO; the second, English long-OO. That's unreasonable and confusing. The second spelling has an S in place of the Z, even tho the sound is Z! So that has to be made an S. The third spelling has two U's in place of the two OU's, but again representing two different sounds. And in all of them, a final-I stands in for a long-E! Madness.The first-OU should be replaced by OO, the only reasonable spelling for the English short-OO sound (as in "good", "foot", and "rook"). The second-OU should be replaced by U. The final-I should be replaced by -EE, which has the added virtue of making plain that the U before the K (before the EE!) represents a long-U, not short.
Once we have changed the -I to -EE, the irregular plural -IA should be abolished, and a regular plural created by simply adding -S: "boozukee" and, plural, "boozukees".
Saturday, October 17, 2015: "bottany" and "botannic/al" for "botany" and "botanic/al"
The noun in this pair of related words has a short-O in the first syllable and schwa in the second. To show the short-O, we need to double the T.The adjective has a schwa in the first syllable and a short-A in the second. To show that, we should write only one T after the O, and double the N after the A: "bottany" for the noun and "botannic" and "botannical" for the two forms of the adjective.
Friday, October 16, 2015: "benum" for "benumb"
We have here one of those dopy words with a silent-B. Why? If the B is not said, why is it in the word? Let's just drop it, OK?: "benum".
Thursday, October 15, 2015: "arbitrozh" for "arbitrage"
This term from finance is pronounced in the French fashion, with the -AGE being said not as either -IJ (with a schwa so close to short-I that we might as well write I)* or -AGE (like the word "age" itself, with a long-A), but with a "broad"-A or short-O (the same sound) and a ZH-sound at the end (as with "collage", "montage", and the educated pronunciation of "garage"). There is, however, no way the casual reader, esp. outside the old-line English-speaking countries, can know that. We need to show that sound thru a radical respelling: "arbitrozh".
____________________* Bizarrely, some British dialectals do (mis)pronounce this word as tho the ending were written IJ. Britons who insist on that uncultivated pronunciation are welcome to write this word as either "arbitrage" or "arbitrij".
Wensday, October 14, 2015: "aquaireum" for "aquarium"
The sound of the second-A in today's word is not clear. In other words starting with AQUA-, the second-A is pronounced either short or "broad" (the same sound as short-O). That is not the sound here, which is, instead, flat-A, as in "airmail". Let's show that, by adding an I after that A.A second issue presents itself toward the end of the word, where an I is used to represent a long-E sound. Why? If the sound is E, write E: "aquaireum",
Tuesday, October 13, 2015: "antaggonist" for "antagonist"
In this four-syllable word, the stressed vs. unstressed syllables are not clear. We can make them clear, by doubling the G, which cues the reader to place primary stress on the second syllable, whereupon other stresses fall into place: "antaggonist".
____________________Note: Naturally, the same doubling of the G holds for all derivatives: "antaggonizm", "antaggonistic", "antaggonistically".
Munday, October 12, 2015: "annimossity" for "animosity"
There are in this word two instances of a single consonant that should be doubled. The first is the N after the A that starts the word, because there are many words in which an A at the beginning is pronounced as a schwa (e.g., "afar", "abyss", and "abandon"). To show that this A is short, we should double the N after it.The other single consonant that should be doubled is the S, both to show that the O before it is short and to indicate that the third syllable takes the word's primary stress: "annimossity".
Sunday, October 11, 2015: "anjellic" for "angelic"
The G here represents not G's own unique sound ("get", "gear", "geese") but J's sound. If the sound is J, let's write J. The second issue in today's word is that a single-L leaves unclear whether the E before it is long or short. It's short. To show that, we should double the L: "anjellic".
Saturday, October 10, 2015: "ammulet" for "amulet"
An A at the beginning of a word is often pronounced as a schwa ("amiss", "amuse", "amazing"). That is not the sound here, which is a full short-A. To show that, we need to double the following-M: "ammulet".
Friday, October 9, 2015: "ammadoo" for "amadou"*
The OU in the present spelling will incline many readers to see the word as French (from which it does derive), and thus as being pronounced as it would be in French, with a "broad"-A (the same sound as short-O) in the first syllable. But the vowel sound in the first syllable is an English short-A. To show that, we need to double the M.The second problem is that very OU that confuses the issue. It is pronounced in the French fashion, as a long-U without an initial Y-glide. The conventional way to show that at the end of a word in English is OO. English has two OO-sounds, long (as in "food") and short (as in "good"). Midword, there is no way to know which sound applies. But at the end of a word, where there is no consonant to close it and possibly mark it as short, the OO must be read as long. And that's right: "ammadoo".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "spongy substance ... growing on trees, used as tinder and in surgery".
Wensday, October 7, 2015: "abzolv" for "absolve"
There are two little problems in today's word. First, an S stands in for a Z-sound. Why? We have a Z. Let's use it. Second, there is an -E at the end of the word. Why? It doesn't mark the vowel before the LV as long, because it's short. Nor is it pronounced as a syllable to itself, pronounced as either long-E or schwa. It's there for absolutely no reason, and can cause readers to wonder WHY it's there. So let's just drop it, OK?: "abzolv".
Wensday, October 7, 2015: "awaurd" for "award"
AR is commonly pronounced with a "broad"-A, or short-O (the same sound): "bar", "car", "startle". That is not the sound here, which is, rather, the AU sound of "aura", "laurel", and "dinosaur". Let's use that: "awaurd".
____________________My thanks to "Music..." for this suggestion.
Tuesday, October 6, 2015: "annorexea" for "anorexia"
There are two things in this word that require attention. First, an A- at the beginning of a word is often pronounced as a schwa ("again", "about", "anonymous"), but here, the sound is a full short-A. To show that, let's double the following-N.The second issue is the IA, the I of which should represent a long-I sound ("iambic", "triad", "striation"). Here, it's supposed to indicate a long-E. If the sound is E, let's write E: "annorexea".
Munday, October 5, 2015: "wyzaker" for "wiseacre"
This word has absolutely no relation to the familiar, and peculiarly-spelled, word "acre",* a unit of area, so should not be spelled in that peculiar way but rationally. That is, the -ACRE part should be reformed to -AKER (as in "baker" and "maker").As for the WISE part, that presents a couple of problems. First, it uses an S for a Z-sound, so we should replace the S with Z. Second, if we write "wizeaker", a lot of readers will see a long-E sound between the Z and the K. We can convey a long-I sound in the first syllable with a Y, which, midword, is often pronounced as long-I ("dynamic", "thyroid", "hydroponics"): "wyzaker".
____________________* Dictionary.com: "< Middle Dutch wijssager prophet".
Sunday, October 4, 2015: "vejjetativ" for "vegetative"
We have here another of those words that bizarrely employ a G to represent the J-sound. We have a different letter to convey that sound. It's called "J" (pronounced "jay"). Why would we use G for a J-sound? Let's replace the G here with J, altho to show that the E before the J-sound is short, we should double the J, as we do almost every other consonant to show a short vowel preceding. (There are a very few exceptions, such as H and X.)The other problem with today's traditional spelling is that IVE should be pronounced with a long-I ("hive", "jive", "derive"), but here it represents a short-I. To show clearly that the I is short, all we need to do is drop the final-E, which has the added virtue of saving us a letter: "vejjetativ".
Saturday, October 3, 2015: "Euranus" for "Uranus"
Altho people in English-speaking countries may guess that an initial-U followed by a single consonant is to be pronounced as long-U preceded by a Y-glide, there is no widely understood rule to that effect, and people learning English outside the old-line English-speaking countries will have no idea that that is the case. For new readers, in any country, we should make absolutely clear that the vowel in the first syllable of this name of a large planet is long-U with an initial Y-glide. The conventional way to write that is EU: "Euranus".
Friday, October 2, 2015: "tappeoca" for "tapioca"
This Food Friday, let's reform the term for a type of pudding. IO should be pronounced with a long-I, as in "Iowa", "ion", and "iodine". Here, the sound is long-E. Ordinarily, we might write long-E as EE, but before another vowel, a single-E will do.The other problem with today's word is that a single-P leaves unclear the sound of the A before it. Here, the sound is short-A. To show that, we can double the P.
Putting these two little changes together, we get: "tappeoca".
Thursday, October 1, 2015: "teech/er" for "teech/er"
EA is highly ambiguous ("plead", "steady", "area", "Sean", etc.), and only sometimes represents the sound here, long-E, which is much better shown by EE: "teech" and "teecher".
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