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About Me
- MacKenzie Edwards
- A couple months into this semester, I was riding a real Taylor Mali wave and happened upon his poem, "The The Impotence of Proofreading" (which I have included in this blog). Having just come from CORE 301 and ruminating on common sense, it occurred to me how common-sensically arbitrary our spelling system is. Thus, I present you with this blog; my thoughts on spelling and the English language. Take that, Webster!
So this is the only one i know off the top of my head if i think of any others i will let you know....Rendezvous
ReplyDeletebologna
ReplyDeletecolonel
wednesday
Wednesday is really awkwardly spelled. If I think of more I will let you know.
ReplyDeleteBookkeeper
ReplyDeletetwo o's, two k's, and two e's, consecutively! :O
pluss "ookk" just looks weird.
how bout that fantastic spelling phrase " I before E except after C, but there are exceptions..." this makes no sense as a rule if it can't ALWAYS be applied! also, in England we have a word for a line (as in to line up and wait to get somewhere) and that's 'queue'...(not 'cue' as in snooker cue). if that's not a weird spelling i don't now what is! hope that helps chick.x
ReplyDeleteColonel
ReplyDeleteIt's just weird how it's pronounced "kernel", but it's not too strange.
scissors.
ReplyDeletebecause the 'c' is completely unnecessary.
psychic has always struck me as really odd, like the pronunciation would not bring you to that spelling... possession, phoenix too and opossum and aardvark, so weird. They all have seemingly superfluous letters here and there. anomaly <-- i have no idea how anyone would figure out on their own how to spell this just by hearing it alone. infrared, oscillate... Also two more whose spellings could seemingly be pronounced in a number of different ways had you not known the correct pronunciation.
ReplyDelete...
those are only a few I could think of...English is so odd~
bologna, wether/weather, column, colonel, license, conscience, sense/cents/scents, mission/mention (-sion v.s -tion), pronunciations of "ough" (rough, through, though, trough, plough, etc.)
ReplyDeleteLet's see: sword, wield, epitome, subtle, often, sure, align, through, thorough, facetious, conscience, diagonal, embarrassed, license, mortgage, gauge, rhythm, bureau, February, jewelry, colonel, corps, nuclear, realtor, occur, stubbornness, neighbor, tragedy, thousandth, doubt, used to, yield. Although my favorite is boatswain (pronounced bo.sn).
ReplyDeleteHope this helps. Rob and I had fun with this one.
glacier
ReplyDeletei before e, except after c. wTf?
Christmas... why a ch- sound instead of a kr- sound? its the first word i came up with.
ReplyDeleteif you took the silent "h" in "what", and the silent "e" in "love", and the silent "l" in "llama", and the silent "p" in "pterodactyl", could you technically say "help" and then no one would be able to hear it?
ReplyDeleteI don't know about awkward spelling, but how about awkward pronunciation? Rough, cough, tough, dough, and bough SHOULD all rhyme and yet they don't.
ReplyDeletethrough, though, thought, thorough, rough, cough, enough, bough, trough ....for starters, onomatopoeia
ReplyDeleteWell yes, my name is unique isn't it? It's not boring like your names...you guys know I'm kidding. Anyway, it would be cool if the project was on my name, but I highly doubt it.
ReplyDeletesupercalifragolisticexpialadocious
ReplyDeleteI think awkward is spelled rather awkwardly. I mean, who uses "w" twice in a word. And the word "aadvark" is spelled strangely, with two "a"s and one "v".
ReplyDeleteHope that helps!
tomb. the spelling and just if you look at the letters individually it doesn't make sense that it sounds like it does. kind of like the word "the," especially in all caps. (:
ReplyDeleteimpugn, vacuum, yacht...
ReplyDeletemaybe more to come...
fluorescent, melee, hemorrhage
ReplyDeleteLlama and aardvark don't make sense to me. I don't see the purpose of the additional letters in front. Go fig.
ReplyDeleteI don't have a word but i have an anecdote that might be fun to include. It's about Mark Twain, he once said something like "english is the only language where you can spell fish "ghoti""
ReplyDelete(you take the gh from enough, the o from women, and the ti from caution) You'll have to look up the exact quote to cite it, but that story is always the first thing that comes to mind when people talk about the ridiculousness of the english language.
foreign, pneumonia,
ReplyDeletethe silent letters are so confusing, especially if you are learning the language
--kelsey
syzygy. 'Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteunique...
ReplyDeleteb-u-t : but
ReplyDeletec-u-t : cut
so how should one pronounce
p-u-t ?
Another one -- what is a 5 letter english word with 80% of the letters silent.
A. Queue :)
definitely naphtha and iridescent. or just scent for that matter. ha
ReplyDeleteoaf
ReplyDeleteWhy is cat spelled with a C instead of a K? Why is there a silent H in herb and a silent K in knave (why isn't it just spelled "nave"?). Why is brooch pronounced "broach"?
ReplyDelete"Trough" sounds more differently than "Through"? "Tomato"?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but I will message you if I can think of anything else!
gnat! The G does not need to be there at all! The ph in phone is weird too.
ReplyDeleteGnat reminds me of Gnu. It's weird also. It just tempts you to say "Guh-new" instead of "new".
ReplyDelete