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.
Back to Spelling Index
Page
Back to Ozideas Home Page
|