Strewth the spelling of English is weird!

[nomadpete]

16 minutes ago, red750 said:

Sewer: An artificial, usually underground conduit for carrying off sewage or rainwater. 

 

Sewer: one who does sewing.

Or a plaintiff?

[old man emu]

Sorry, Red, but although spelled the same way, they are sounded differently. Check entries 1 & 2

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sewer

[red750]

I know that! But if English is not your first language and you are reading it, you could be confused.

 

Like the post I saw on fb. "Sewers wanted". You had to red the context.

[red750]

Another one often misspelled is 'plat' for 'plait'. - I will plat (plait) my hair. Which is weird when it becomes 'platted'.

 

And 'plad' for 'plaid'. She wore a plad (plaid) skirt.

[old man emu]

Plait etymology: late 14c., pleit, "a fold, a crease, a flattened gather made by doubling cloth or similar fabric in narrow strips upon itself," also "interlaced strands of hair," from Anglo-French pleit, Old French ploit, earlier pleit, "fold, manner of folding," from Latin plicatus, past participle of plicare "to lay, fold, twist" (from PIE root *plek- "to plait").

 

Plat etymology: flat piece of ground," mid-15c. (mid-13c. in surnames), a variant of plot (n.) assimilated to Middle English plat (adj.) "flat," which is from Old French plat "flat, stretched out" as in "plateau"

 

"PLAD" is not a recognised word. It is a medical acronym that we would meet as Posterior Lip Augmentation Device (hip surgery)

 

Plaid  etymology: 1510s, "garment consisting of a long piece of woollen cloth, often having a tartan pattern, traditionally worn in Scotland," from Scottish, from or related to Gaelic plaide "blanket, mantle,".  The meaning "a pattern of bars crossing each other at right angles" is by 1890. As an adjective, "ornamented with a pattern of bars or stripes of colour crossing one another at right angles," c. 1600, from the noun.

[pmccarthy]

Plat in mining is the access to the shaft on each level. From the word platform. For example, the 13 level plat.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

Plat in mining is the access to the shaft on each level

That means that it is jargon and only has meaning in a specific area. It wouldn't have meaning in an open cut mine, would it?

[onetrack]

One thing that gets right up my nose today, is the constant reference to "draws" - when the word should be spelt "drawers".

This is so prevalent - in advertising, signage, and a hundred other places - that I'm sure the generations under 50 have never learnt what the correct spelling actually is.

 

Edited April 8, 2021 by onetrack

[pmccarthy]

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

That means that it is jargon and only has meaning in a specific area. It wouldn't have meaning in an open cut mine, would it?

Agreed. I think it is Cornish. With words like winze, flucan etc.

[old man emu]

winze: a ventilation shaft between levels. the word appears to be a corruption of "winds" as in air movement.

 

flucan:  Cornish term for a wide fault-gouge zone filled with decomposed mineral matter, described by Silliman and Whitney (1855) as a talco-micaceous slate that was completely disintegrated such that no blasting was required, as it ran easily.

[red750]

Not so much "spelling", but wrong word usage is another characteristic which seems to be on the increase, particlarly with social media (fb) users, but also creeping into this forum.

 

One of the instances to which I refer is 'to' instead of 'too' - "to much to drink" instead of "too much to drink" .

 

Another is 'of' instead of 'have' - "I could of gone with you" instead of "I could have gone with you".

 

(Now I'll have O.M.E. dragging out the dictionary again.)

[red750]

And another. "Alot" when they mean "a lot". Alot of people getting their Covid jabs."

 

It should be "A lot of people..."

 

From Grammarly.com:

 

What Does a Lot Mean?

Alot is a common misspelling of a lot. A lot should always be spelled as two words. The meaning of a lot depends on the context. Usually, it means “many” or “to a great extent.” Let’s look at some examples.

 

Correct:   Shelley reads a lot of books during her morning commute.
Incorrect: Chopped parsley looks alot like chopped cilantro.

 

These are not to be confused with "Allot"

 

Again from Grammarly.com:

 

What Does Allot Mean?

To allot means to apportion by shares or to set aside for a special purpose. How do you use this verb? Let’s look at some examples of allot in a sentence.

 

Example:   The settlers were alloted one acre of farmland.
Example:   The employer allots one hour for lunch.

Example:   We will allot tickets to members first, then to general public.

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, red750 said:

(Now I'll have O.M.E. dragging out the dictionary again.)

Wasn't me. I didn't do it. No one saw me!

 

If I had, I coulda been a contender!

 

This shows how spelling reflects pronunciation, as it was before spelling became standardised due to the printing press and later by the creation of dictionaries and spelling books. 

[spacesailor]

But No answer to my spelling question. 

Now it,s All breaking down !.

Even our neighbors over the pond Want their own language. ( Aotearoa ), 

NOW

The prince of the Welsh principality, is the English Prince Charles.

WHEN

Prince Charles becomes KING !  Does his principality become !.

The KINGDOM of WALES .

spacesailor

[Marty_d]

Hey, that reminds me of a joke.

 

An Aussie walks into a bar and hears two largish ladies speaking in an accent.

 

"Excuse me", he says, "but are you girls from Scotland?"

 

One of them turns around and snarls "It's 'Wales', you idiot, 'Wales'!"

 

"Oh, I'm sorry," he says, "Are you whales from Scotland?"

[facthunter]

I think Trump referred to Charles as the Prince of  Whales, but he also said HE hasn't READ any books. Nev

[nomadpete]

[willedoo]

Some of the terminology is amusing at times. The Defence Department is upgrading the Collins class submarines with an 'advanced optronics system'. Read that as 'a better periscope'. More accurately, it's a digital camera on a stick.

 

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/maritime-antisub/9872-collins-class-fleet-to-receive-tech-upgrade

Edited April 23, 2022 by willedoo

[nomadpete]

Darn. I forgot we had this thread. Should we bring OME's horse over here for spelling?

[old man emu]

1 hour ago, nomadpete said:

Should we bring OME's horse over here for spelling?

Sure. Just as long as you shoo it.

[spacesailor]

High tech periscope,  would be counter productive in a nuclear blast !,  that Old type would not get knocked out. By a near miss ). Prism or mirror. 

spacesasailor

[facthunter]

To slow it down a bit you could De-canter it.  Nev

[red750]

Now here's one to test you. It is quite long (I used copy and paste). See if you can read this aloud, pronouncing every word correctly. Bet you stumble (well maybe not OME).

 

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough —
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!

[onetrack]

I'd blame the French for the way English has become such a mongrel language!

[red750]

Ahh...the Mother tongue...