Spelling

Spelling: definition

How exactly can we define spelling?

Spelling is the way in which we order letters to form words - Pexels

In formal writing contexts:

Bad spelling can undermine the content of the text it is in, as it may be seen to reflect an author's carelessness or lack of effort in their work. Because of this, an author may also be seen as unreliable.

What is a misspelling?

A misspelling is a word that is written so that its letters are not in the accepted order. This can happen for a number of reasons such as the examples listed below:

How can I improve my spelling?

There are currently over 170,000 words in the Oxford English Dictionary. But, according to a 2010 study completed by Harvard University and Google, there were around 2,000,000 words in digital books. With this in mind, it would be almost completely impossible to learn how to spell every word!

There are, however, techniques and ideas that we can look at to help us learn the correct spellings of words. One of these techniques is developing an understanding of phonics, etymology and morphology.

Phonics

We can use an understanding of phonics to help with spelling, as many words in the English language are spelled as they soundd. There are two building blocks we use to write words in this way:

Phonemes - The smallest unit of sound we make when speaking a word.

Graphemes - The letter(s) used to translate these phonemes (or sounds).

When we want to translate spoken words and thoughts into writing, we can break the words down into phonemes (or sounds). From there, we can use the graphemes that represent these sounds to write them down.

For example, the word 'said', might have been spelled as 'sed', if it were spelt as it sounds. Unfortunately, it is not spelt like this and so we use our knowledge of graphemes to think of ways we might intuitively pronounce the letters.

We might then be able to reverse this phonetic spelling to spell the word correctly. Being able to manipulate the sounds into various graphemes is a key way to make spelling easier.

Morphology

We might be able to also use an understanding of morphology to make accurate spelling easier. To understand morphology, however, we must also understand what a morpheme is:

We can use morphemes to expand and break down other words.

It is also possible to combine multiple morphemes.

Thus, we can use an understanding of morphemes to help with spelling, as it allows us to combine morphemes we are already familiar with to spell more complicated words.

Etymology and history

Although it may sound bizarre, we are also able to consider the etymology of English words (or the linguistic and historic origins of them) to understand spelling. The English language has experienced great periods of change in its development into its present state, that might influence the way words are written and pronounced:

Late Modern English (c. 1800 AD - present)

This is the way that we describe the version of English we speak today. It has evolved over hundreds of years through the involvement of many different languages of both Germanic and Romantic roots.

Early Modern (c. 1500 AD-1800 AD)

The Great Vowel Shift occurred during this time causing the long Middle English vowel sounds to evolve, resulting in the beginning of standardised spelling during the 15th and 16th centuries.

During this time, Shakespeare had a great influence on the development of vocabulary and is credited with the creation of over 1,500 words.¹ He did this by altering the state of words (such as shifting nouns into verbs and verbs into adjectives), adding prefixes and suffixes to various words, connecting words together and also creating his own words entirely.

Middle English (c. 1100 AD-1500 AD)

The Norman Conquest occurred in 1066. With this, a greater influence of the more poetic Romantic languages, such as French and Latin, was introduced into English.

Geoffrey Chaucer was an author during this period, and remains famous today for writing The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), a text in Middle English.

Old English (c. 450 AD-1100 AD)

Initially, the English language was formed by various Celtic dialects being combined with Latin (because of Roman invaders) which was used in political and military situations by those in higher positions in the social hierarchy. However, owing to various invasions over the next century from Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, the language would develop slightly into being Anglo-Saxon.

Very little literature exists during this period, beyond biblical writings and Beowulf (700-1000) - the oldest surviving poem we have left.

Words from Old English are typically monosyllabic, harsh-sounding and simplistic in meaning such as the words:

How does this help?

An understanding of the history of certain words may help to know how a word may be spelt (whether it has silent sounds as many French rooted words may, or is almost phonetic like many words with Germanic roots).

Similarly, an understanding of etymology helps with spelling because an understanding of etymology may help you to recognise the different roots of words and how they are spelt.

Learn the most commonly misspelled words

While it isn't necessarily logical to learn every single spelling of every individual word, it is possible to learn the most misspelt words to at least avoid them. Here is a list of 20 of the most misspelt words in the English Language in 2010:

Spelling Challenge

Let's see whether you remember these spellings! Fill in the words correctly and then check yourself against the table above.

English spelling vs. American spelling

There are many slight differences between Americanized and British spellings, which can lead to confusion. This is because English maintained the spellings adopted by other languages from Europe, while American English became slightly more phonetic in pronunciation.

Here are some words which differ in British and American English:

Although many will accept Americanised versions of spelling, it is important to try and maintain consistency between spellings.

Why might someone disregard the correct spelling of words?

While this entire article has been discussing the importance of spelling, there are times when experimental forms of literature might entirely disregard it.

For example, the British poet Benjamin Zephaniah frequently writes his poems in a way that expresses a greater sense of identity. This is deeply reflected in the language used within his works which allows him to convey his Caribbean roots and exemplify the severity of his dyslexia.

Zephaniah's incredibly intimate poem that explores his childhood experiences with racism: 'No Problem' (1996):

What other types of Spelling are there?

While you can write words using the English language, there is also a separate way to display which particular sounds to use, using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). This allows people of any language to be able to pronounce any word, provided they understand the symbols. There are around 107 symbols that are used in the IPA. Yet, in the English Language we only use around 44 of these, some of which are listed below:

By using these sounds, we can make it clear how words should be pronounced through the unique coding of each phoneme.

¹ 'Shakespeare's Words.' The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, 2021.