SPELLING DEMONS

What makes them demons?

Words in the Pitman College List of 120 Worst Spelling Demons are set out here in the Table of Demons. They show nine categories of features that make them problems for spellers

1. Surplus letters that do not help to show meaning or pronunciation, and can even mislead
2. Doubled letters which cannot be predicted
3. Unpredictable spellings of vowels
4. Unpredictable spellings of consonants
5. Misleading spellings of morphemes (units of meaning)
6. Problems in spelling unstressed vowels
7. Regular spellings when you dont expect them.

1.Surplus letters

N 81= 67.5%
More surplus letters

2.Doubled letters

N 53= 44.2%

3. Misleading vowels

N 43=35.8%

4. Misleading consonants

N 38=31.7%

accommodate

assassin

acknowledge

acquire

aggravate

appropriate

ballerina

because

building

business

conscious

correspondence

colleagues

commemorate

commission

committee

compatible

comparative

connoisseur

corroborate

courteous

disappoint

desperate

disastrous

dissatisfied

donkey

especially

exception

efficient

embarrass

equipped

erroneous

essential

fascinate

feasible

February

foreign

fulfilled

friends

gauge

guile

 

guardian

height

illiterate

i illuminate

immigrant

incidentally

indispensable

irrelevant

irreparable

irresistible

immediately

liaison

manoeuvre

medicine

Mediterranean

miniature

minutes

mortgage

movable

negotiable

necessary

occasion

occasional

occurrence

parallel

paralleled

parliament

penicillin

scholastic

seize

science

scissors

separate

unconscious

unparalleled

usually

valuable

view

Wednesday

 

 

 

accommodate

assassin

acknowledge

acquire

aggravate

appropriate

ballerina

beginning

benefited

correspondence

colleagues

commemorate

commission

committee

connoisseur

corroborate

disappoint

deterrent

dissatisfied

especially

efficient

embarrass

equipped

erroneous

essential

fulfilled

fulfilment

harass

hypocrisy

illiterate

illuminate

immigrant

incidentally

inoculate

irrelevant

irreparable

irresistible

immediately

Mediterranean

necessary

occasion

occasional

occurrence

omitted

omission

parallel

paralleled

penicillin

scissors

unparalleled

withhold

usually

achieved

acknowledge

aerial

appropriate

ballerina

because

building

bureau

business

chief

conscious

colleagues

connoisseur

courteous

deterrent

disastrous

feasible

foreign

friends

gauge

genius

guile

grievance

guardian

height

humorous

hypocrisy

illuminate

immediately

liaison

manoeuvre

movable

monetary

preceding

seize

science

truly

unconscious

usually

valuable

view

Wednesday

weird

accidental

knowledge

chaos

conscious

criticism

especially

exception

expenses

efficient

essential

exercise

fascinate

foreign

gauge

genius

height

honorary

incidentally

medicine

mortgage

negotiate

negotiable

necessary

occasion

occasional

occurrence

penicillin

preceding

scholastic

science

scissors

strategy

stratagem

tendency

transient

unconscious

usually

Wednesday

 

5 Spelling for unstressed vowels

N 57=47.5%

More unstressed vowels

More unstressed vowels

6.Spelling morphemes

N17=14.1%

7.Unexpected
regular spelling
N 7= 5.8%

bachelor

category

correspondence

compatible

comparative

competent

connoisseur

contribute

corroborate

criticism

disappoint

desperate

deterrent

especially

efficient

embarrass

essential

feasible



February

foreign

government

grievance

orary

humorous

hypocrisy

illiterate

immigrant

incidentally

indispensable

irrelevant

irreparable

irresistible

immediately

independent

maintenance

medicine

miniature

minutes

mortgage

movable

monetary

necessary

occurrence

parallel

paralleled

parliament

penicillin

scissors

separate

strategy

stratagem

tendency

transient

unparalleled

usually

valuable

acknowledge

argument

disastrous

essential

feasible

forty

desperate

height

humorous

irreparable

livelihood

maintenance

strategy

stratagem

truly

twelfth

withhold

valuable

bachelor

exercise

equipped

fulfilment

harass

inoculate

omitted

As the Demon-Spelling Table shows, 67.5% of the words in this list are booby-trapped with unnecessary letters. This is a really effective wickedry, because learners and even adult spellers have little clue to knowing what the dobbed-in letters are or where to put them. It’s like walking in a garden with bare feet when you know there are spring-traps set, but now what they are or where.

acomodate asassin acknolege aquire agravate apropriat balerina becaus bilding, consius. coleags comemorate comission comittee compatibl comparativ conoissur coroborate curteus disapoint desperat disastrus disatisfied donky especialy exeption eficient embarras equipd eroneus esential fasinate feasibl Febry or Februry forin fulfild frends gage gile gardian hight iliterat iluminate imigrant indispensabl irrelevant ireparabl iresistibl imediatly liason manuver medicin Mediteranean miniture minuts morgage movabl negotiabl necessry ocasion ocasional paraleld parlament penicilin scolastic seze sience sissors separat unconsius unparaleld usualy valuabl vew Wensday

Adding a list of further demons, to bring the number up to 190, 75% could be shortened to make them less devilish.

Further, 47.5% have no clues about how to spell obscure unstressed vowels. The spelling demon muttering, so you cant hear clearly what he is saying - it might be -ance or it might be -ence, or, for all you know, -ince, -once or -unce.

It is hazardous to guess whether 44.2% have doubled consonants, but they have. Fowler of Fowler’s English Usage saw doubled letters as one of the greatest causes of schoolboys’ tears in spelling. The girls of course did not cry.

There are cunning ways for 35.8% of the words to mislead you about how the vowels are misspelled.  You might expect that about English vowels, but you would not expect 31.7% to have misleading spellings of consonants.

Then there is the linguistic savagery of 14.1% inconsistency in representing units of meaning (morphemes), which English spelling is supposed to be good at - speak/speech, fire/fiery

Then, wait for this - 5.8% have regularities which from bitter experience are not expected.  (Little Jessica wrote ‘I like to serf,’ realised that looked too sensible, so crossed it out and wrote ‘I like to surghe’.)

The average spelling demon is a demon x 2.4, not just ornery difficult, because it will bristle with 2.4 spelling menaces, This ensures that if the poor spellers are not snagged by one difficulty, they will still be caught by others.

It is surprising that we still have a pandemonium of ‘spelling demons’, when English-speakers think they have thrown off superstitious fears. 
As in the infernal regions of all the demons described by the poet John Milton in Paradise Lost, there are hierarchies and categories of devilry.  This lisst of ‘Worst Spelling Demons’ is only one example of what goes on in what we would prefer to think is a heaven-blessed spelling system.

 

Further pages on spelling:

1. Introduction
Introduction to spelling improvement. /spockham.htm. Text of a radio broadcast
Rationale. How assumptions and barriers against improving the writing system do not hold. Answering the common objections to spelling improvement. /sration.htm

2 Needs and abilities of users and learners: -

i. Needs and abilities of readers
ii. Needs and abilities of writers to spell
iii. Needs and abilities of learners
iv. Needs and abilities of users of international English
v. Spelling reform for the Internet (an older page)

3. The nature and teaching of English spelling

See the online video, http://www.ozreadandspell.com.au
The underlying English spelling system that could be made more consistent - /spelsys.htm
Spelling patterns for the English vowels - /svowchart.htm
The Book of Spells & Misspells
- a treasury of spelling for everyone
22 Lessons in reading and spelling - v01acover.htm
The 16 word spelling test for anyone who thinks they can spell - 16sp.htm
Spelling and classroom practices - sclassprac.htm
Spelling cribs for a story - the ugly duckling

4 Improving English spelling

Spelling improvement. 2002
Seven principles to repair English spelling, 2005
Cutting out the surplus letters in words.Streamline - a first step in updating spelling.
Quik gidelines for a next step, with sampl texts, and furthr notes. FASTR Spelling
Cutting out surplus letters 2002
Further steps you can try yourself, with f, j, consistent word endings and vowel spellings.
Further experiments to spel sensibly - Pronunciation and gramr, and a final solusion?
The future of English spelling. What can be done?

5. Spelling as an entertainment

Spelling Games - starting with a Spelling ABC - different from a Spelling BEE
16-word Spelling Test of 16 common words that few experts can spell all correctly. /16sp.htm
International English Spelling Day, October 9 /spday.html
How people spelled when they spelled as they liked before the 18th century dictionaries /spfree17c.htm
Don Quixote spells in 'Spelling without traps'. - /spquixote.htm. To come
Twelve Short Short storys about the fùtùr. Can u imagin a mor ùser-frendly speling sistem? Look at every wurd to see if u think its speling is a trap for lerners.