![]() ![]() And we’re gonna Marie Kondo this spelling system and make sure that all of the symbolsĪre actually doing what we want them to do. We’re gonna pull everything out of the boxes. And so having a spelling reform is like saying, “Okay. Lauren: English has lived in the house of the Latin alphabet for a very long time. I’m gonna be organised this time.” And you say, “This is where everything’s gonna go.” But the longer you’ve lived in a house, the more random boxes of stuff in the attic you When you first move into a house, you unpack everything and you I think of spelling systems across languages as kind of like living in a house. Gretchen: Yeah! It also makes it really interesting. Lauren: But it makes it so great as well. Original spelling conventions or older spelling conventions, and then those come into conflict with each other. So, if a word comesįrom Old English versus if a word comes from French, or from Latin, or from Greek, or from one of the many other languages that English has borrowed words from, English tends to keep each word’s Gretchen: I like to think of English spelling not so much as a phonetic approach to spelling – we don’t spell based on how something sounds – we spell based on where a word comes from. Every word is like this great little time-capsule nugget of linguistic information. Spelling is hard is that it is a long and storied history. Lauren: I would like to just say that I have a medieval manuscript approach to spelling, which is gonna be really important, and we’ll explain why in this episode. Whereas, you put a post up and then I message you being like, “Hey. Gretchen: I misspell things, but then I also notice them before the post goes up. I am definitely the more prone to misspelling out of the two of us. Lauren: When you say “we,” I think you mean me. Gretchen: Why is spelling so hard, Lauren? Why do we spend years and years learning how to spell and then we still mess it up? You can listen to that and many other bonus episodes by going to /lingthusiasm, which we’ll also link to in the show notes. We returned the favour by quizzing you on some Australianisms that Alice chose. People are at telling different directions, and whether linguistic or cultural factors affect how good you are at directions or what types of directions you pay attention to or you notice. It was really fun to do in the liveshow because we got to have a whole room of people in an auditorium point where they thought north was and see how good Gretchen: Alice’s research is so interesting. Lauren: This month’s Patreon bonus episode is an interview with Alice Gaby, which is all about how we use directions in language and her work with an Australian language, Kuuk Thaayorre. Gretchen: It is called “Because Internet” and is available where good books are sold. There’ll be a link to that in the show notes. And you should definitely pre-order mine! If you’re excited for any book, really, you should pre-order So, if you’re likely to end up on a bestseller list, it’s gonna be the first week, and the pre-orders all count towards that. Gretchen: Pre-orders are really important because, first of all, they help the publisher decide literally how many copies to print because they have a sense of how much people are interested in the book.Īlso, because when they’re trying to count book sales for whether something ends up as a bestseller or is on some sort of list, all of the pre-order sales count towards that first week of sales. Lauren: You were explaining to me why pre-orders were so important. Gretchen: Just so you can laugh at how I don’t have a cot/caught distinction and so I can’t actually do the vowel that you do in your name. I may have to listen to the audiobook just to laugh at that. Gretchen: Despite the fact that, of course, I normally call you “Lauren.” Their last names, and when I got to you, I was like, “I’m guess I’m calling her ‘Gawne’ for this book.” Gretchen: In fact, you are featured a little bit in my book about internet linguistics, which was very funny because as I was talking about everybody else in the book, I was referring to everybody by This is why I get to be excited, because I know people are in for a treat. But you have already read my book about internet linguistics. Gretchen: I am also very excited for people to finally get to read it. But first, Gretchen, it’s almost time for your book to be out in the world, and I Today, we’re getting enthusiastic about why spelling is so hard and also hard to change. Gretchen: Welcome to Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics. Studies mentioned and further reading can be found on the Episode 33 Listen to the episode here or wherever you get your podcasts. It’s been lightly edited for readability. This is a transcript for Lingthusiasm Episode 33: Why spelling is hard - but also hard to change. ![]()
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