Posted by
Andrews on Sunday, April 20, 2008 5:28:52 PM
I have written several previous installments about spelling and grammar mistakes (
here and
here), as well as writing about why I think
grammar does matter. Today I plan to write something much shorter.
I have recently noticed that a host of spelling errors not only appear frequently on the internet, but seem to be replacing the actual spellings of the words. I can't recall at the moment every word I have seen regularly misspelled, but two stick in my mind.
The spelling "rediculous" seems to be supplanting the real spelling, whcih makes little sense, as the correct spelling more closely matches the pronunciation. Unless a lot of people are now pronouncing the word "REE-dic-u-lous" instead of "rid-ic-u-lous" and I simply missed the change in pronunciation. (In an earlier post I commented that the pronunciation matching the new spelling reminds me of Eddy Murphy's impression of Ricky Ricardo, and to my mind that is still the closest approximation of that spelling.)
The other spelling error makes just as little sense. It doesn't even match the common pronunciation. The spelling "distain" seems to be replacing "disdain". I have no idea why that is, as the differentiation between d and t seems pretty strong in most dialects I hear, and it is clear to my ear that disdain is still being pronounced with a d rather than a t. So, unless those using the new spelling are assuming they mispronounced the word, I can't see why they would adopt the spelling with the t.
I am sure I will add to this list as other popular misspellings occur to me. But if any readers can explain why these particular misspellings seem to be on the rise, please let me know.
UPDATED 04/25/2008
I just noticed a strange misspelling. At least this one makes some sense, as the alternate spelling matches the pronunciation. On the other hand as it adds a superfluous letter, I don't quite get it. Most misspelling remove letters, they don't add them.
The misspelling I am seeing more and more often is "pidgeon" taking the place of "pigeon". Now, the spelling they are using is quite common as a last name, including actor Walter Pidgeon, but the name of the small bird is spelled "pigeon". Not exactly sure why the actor's name has come to replace the correct spelling.