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Spelling is a set of conventions forwritten language regarding howgraphemes should correspond to the sounds ofspoken language.[1] Spelling is one of the elements oforthography, and highly standardized spelling is aprescriptive element.
Spellings originated astranscriptions of the sounds ofspeech according to thealphabetic principle. Fullyphonemic orthography is usually only approximated, due to factors including changes in pronunciation over time, and the borrowing of vocabulary from other languages without adapting its spelling.Homophones may be spelled differently on purpose in order to disambiguate words that would otherwise have identical spellings.
Standardization of spelling is connected with the development of writing and the establishment of modernstandard dialects.[2][3] Languages with established orthography are those languages that enjoy anofficial status and a degree of institutional support in a country. Therefore, normative spelling is a relatively recent development linked to the compiling of dictionaries (in many languages, specialspelling dictionaries, also calledorthographic dictionaries, are compiled, showing prescribed spelling of words but not their meanings), the founding of national academies and other institutions of language maintenance, including widespreadeducation andliteracy, and often does not apply tominority andregional languages.
In countries or regions where there is an authoritativelanguage academy, such as France, the Netherlands, and the German-speaking areas, reforms have occasionally been introduced (not always successfully) so that spelling better matches the changing pronunciation.
Examples are:
There have occasionally beenEnglish-language spelling reform proposals, at least since the 16th century, but they have made little impact apart from a few spellings preferred byNoah Webster having contributed toAmerican and British English spelling differences.
Learning proper spelling by rote is a traditional element of elementary education, and divergence from standard spelling is often perceived as an indicator of low intelligence,illiteracy, orlower class standing.[4]
Spelling tests are commonly used to assess a student's mastery of the words in the spelling lessons the student has received so far. They can also be an effective practice method.Spelling bees are competitions to determine the best speller of a group. Prominent spelling bees are sometimes even televised, such as theNational Spelling Bee in the United States.
Divergent spelling is a popular advertising technique, used to attract attention or to render atrademark "suggestive" rather than "merely descriptive", or to evade copyright restrictions. The pastry chainsDunkin' Donuts andKrispy Kreme, for example, employ non-standard spellings.
While some words admit multiple spellings, some spellings are not considered standard. These are commonly called "misspellings". A misspelled word can be a series of letters that represents no correctly spelled word of the same language at all (such as "leik" for "like") or a correct spelling of another word (such as writing "here" when one means "hear", or "no" when one means "know"). Misspellings of the latter type are called "atomic typos", and they can easily make their way into printed material because they are not caught by simple computerspell checkers. Deliberate misspellings that emphasize the pronunciation of aregional dialect are part ofeye dialect (such as writing "'Murica'" instead of "America", or "helluva" instead of "hell of a").
Misspellings may be due to accidentaltyping errors (e.g. the transposition errorteh forthe), lack of knowledge of the normative spelling, or lack of concern over spelling rules at all. Whether or not a word is misspelled may depend on context and the orthographic conventions adopted, as is the case with American/British English distinctions. Misspelling can also be a matter of opinion when variant spellings are accepted by some and not by others. For example, "miniscule" (for "minuscule") is a misspelling to many,[5] and yet it is listed as an acceptable variant in some dictionaries.[6][7]
A well-known internet scam involves the registration ofdomain names that are deliberate misspellings of well-known corporate names to mislead or defraud. The practice is commonly known as "typosquatting".[8]
English orthography has a broad degree of standardization. However, there are several ways to spell almost every sound, and most letters have several variants of pronunciation depending on their position in the word and context. Therefore, some spelling mistakes are common even among native speakers.[14] This is mainly due to large number of words that were borrowed from other languages with no successful attempts of complete spelling reform.[15] Most spelling rules usually do not reflect phonetic changes that have taken place since the end of the 15th century (for example, theGreat Vowel Shift).[16]
Portuguese spelling is not strictly phonematic. It is associated with an extension of thePortuguese language and the emergence of numerous regional and dialect variants. In 2009 the global reform of the Portuguese language was initiated to eliminate 98% of inconsistencies in spelling between various countries.[17]
The orthography of theIcelandic language is based on the etymological principle, like English; thus the Icelanders themselves experience difficulties in writing.[18][19] The modern Icelandic alphabet is based on the standard introduced by the Danish philologist Rasmus Rask.
The fundamental principles of theSpanish orthography are phonological and etymological, that is why there are several letters with identical phonemes.[20] Beginning from the 17th century, various options for orthographic reforms were suggested that would create a one-to-one correspondence between grapheme and phoneme, but all of them were rejected. Most modern proposals to reform spelling are limited to the removal of homophone letters that are preserved for etymological reasons.[21]
In many languages, types of misspelling arise from features of those languages which are not present in English: for example,
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