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Spelling trouble

by Jacqueline Alexander

Did you know that one of the most commonly misspelled words is, somewhat ironically, 'misspelled'? Another one that presents difficulty for us is 'accommodation' whilst millennium, playwright, calendar and twelfth all have us reaching for the nearest dictionary. For some reason, most of us have a blind spot when it comes to spelling these words and many more besides.

Weird is another one but mainly because it breaks the 'i' before 'e' rule; a rule that transports our minds back to a time when the three 'r's were fashionable and a weekly spelling test had the power to bring out a cold sweat. In fact, the 'i' before 'e' rule shouldn't really be a rule at all - there seems to be more exceptions than adherents; their, atheist, foreign, weight, heir, height and leisure to name but a few. Add conscience to the equation and the whole 'after c' affair seems to become null and void.

The success of Lynne Truss's book, 'Eat, shoots and leaves' has gone some way to proving that we care about our punctuation so it seems only natural that spelling should hold a similar level of interest. To cure yourself of a bad spell, yourdictionary.com has a complete list of the little horrors that constantly trip us up complete with tips on how to remember to spell them correctly. Some of the tips are a bit weak but others may just do the trick; accommodate is large enough to accommodate two c's and two m's, acceptable is a case of remembering to accept any table and independent is all about the e's.

One word I have never struggled with is 'equipment' but apparently 'equiptment' is misspelled 22,932 times on the web. There are no tips on how to spell this one but might I suggest that men do not p before having t! It's not necessarily true but it might help.

Language is constantly evolving. We have spoken English for many thousands of years but if you take a look at an original version of The Canterbury Tales, you wouldn't think so; Chaucerian English is barely recognisable by today's standards. Back in the sixteenth century, poor old Shakespeare had to make do with only about 100,000 words available to him rather than the 530,000 we have today. He used around 24,000 in his complete works but invented approximately 1,700 more. No one complains about these additions to our vocabulary but the same cannot be said of the new language emerging from the world of texting.

Much has been written about the rights and wrongs of this acronymic form of writing with many averse to embracing a new method of communication. I am not suggesting for one moment that we all gen up on the finer points of texting but you must agree that it's a little frustrating when you receive a text (or email - this approach seems to be invading all forms of written communication) and you can't decipher it. So, before you have a go at me just HOAS (hold on a sec), BITD (back in the day) when we didn't understand a certain word, we used a dictionary to look it up, so smsdictionary.com is doing just that. IHIH (I hope it helps). Some texts still BTHOOM (beat the hell out of me) and if the same is true for you, I recommend that you simply reply to the culprits with the message TMA (too many acronyms). That should do it.

Once you have got to grips with translating SMS messages, you may be ready to face the urban dictionary. A warning is required at this point because some of the language is not what you might call savoury. Stephen Fry has predicted that there will be no such thing as swearing in the future. Apparently, broadcasting has embraced so many of these previously taboo words that it is difficult to predict a time where we will be able to invent offensive words so they will simply cease to exist. For the time being though, many people consider a few four letter words to be unsuitable for everyday use so proceed to this site with some care.

The Urban Dictionary has been created for the people, by the people so you too can contribute to the progression of language. Just think of a term that you consider to be a good candidate and send it in. Everyone on the site gives your suggestion the thumbs up or down and, if it proves popular, you, like Shakespeare, will be shaping the language of the future.

This dictionary makes interesting reading and some of the suggestions have a certain je ne sais quoi about them that may just see them included in the next edition of the OED. Have you put your children under mouse arrest recently? If you have banned them from using the computer at home then that's exactly what you have done. Do you know anyone that constantly makes mistakes, then you have an errorist as a friend. And if you find that same friend being a little over enthusiastic in the texting department, just tell them that they are in danger of becoming typeractive and there is no medication available to help them. Yet.

Whilst studying all this new terminology, it was heartening to see that M&S is listed to mean exactly what we think. Some things will never change although urbandictionary.com does list it with a warning not to confuse it with S&M. It doesn't bear thinking about. TTFN.

http://www.urbandictionary.com
http://www.smsdictionary.co.uk
http://www.yourdictionary.com

Jacqueline Alexander presents Web Watch every Tuesday at 5.45pm on BBC Radio Berkshire on 104.1FM, 104.4FM, 95.4FM, 94.6FM and DAB Digital Radio. To listen in, just visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire.

What is Web Watch?

Web Watch is broadcast on BBC Radio Berkshire, published in the Henley and South Oxon Standard and published online right here at web-watch.info.

As a cross-media project, Web Watch is designed to help you find the best sites here on the Internet.

You can catch Web Watch on air every Tuesday at 5.45pm when Jacqueline Alexander sits down with Phil Kennedy during the Drivetime show on BBC Radio Berkshire to chew the virtual fat.