Questions tagged [orthography]
This tag is for questions concerning the written representation of the English language, especially spelling and word breaks (including hyphenation).
23
questions
23
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Is the ‘t’ in ‘witch’ considered a silent t?
I was under the impression that because ‘witch’ ends with a /tʃ/ sound, the ‘t’ is not silent but directly represents an essential element of the pronunciation.
However, a word game (the New York ...
- 355
0
votes
1
answer
81
views
"unparseable" vs. "unparsable" [closed]
What is the correct spelling of this word? See the discussion at (Codespell) false positive: unparseable.
- 103
4
votes
3
answers
254
views
Term for pronouncing every letter, like t in water
Native USA English speakers frequently skip (or elide?) certain letters, like the t in water, and modify others.
What is a term for someone who (self-consciously?) pronounces every voiceable letter?
P....
- 1,543
1
vote
1
answer
90
views
Bell crank, bell-crank or bellcrank? [duplicate]
Which of the following versions of the same word is best to use for documents written in international and American English?
Bell crank
Bell-crank
Bellcrank
I tried to trawl the internet for an ...
- 19
1
vote
0
answers
34
views
Over Achieved vs. Overachieved [closed]
Can these be spelled both ways? Or overachieved is the only correct way?
- 119
2
votes
0
answers
34
views
Spelling convention of past tense from <-'d> to <-ed>, when did this change happen [duplicate]
Doing some historical corpus research right now and I am noticing the spelling convention in LModE of realizing the past tense with an apostrophe quite regularly, such as in walk'd rather than walked. ...
user44920
0
votes
3
answers
175
views
Why does "consecutive" have a 'c' instead of a 'q'?
The etymology of the word shows it comes from the Latin consequi, to follow after, which is an origin of the word sequential as well. So why is consecutive not spelled consequtive, or why is ...
- 11
0
votes
0
answers
49
views
Treating Medieval text/poem's name according to Chicago
Republishing a work from the '50s where the author references a medieval text, a poem, with a Latin title that is otherwise written in Middle English, and now must present it in a manner that conforms ...
- 97
1
vote
1
answer
224
views
Is it unacceptable to start the second clause of a semicolon with a number?
I know it's generally frowned upon to start a sentence with a number encoded by Arabic numerals, e.g. "4 percent of people live in the USA". Is it okay to do this for the second clause ...
- 237
6
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What does 'shyme' mean?
Reading Dracula, I found this sentence:
It’s a shyme that people are allowed to top their walls with broken bottles
In no dictionary was I able to find a definition; ChatGPT says that it is a ...
1
vote
0
answers
139
views
Why does 'we' have one 'e' while 'see' has two?
I am wondering why the words me and we have one 'e', even though the word see has two.
- 11
1
vote
2
answers
149
views
Is the spelling 'judgment' a feature of American English? (As opposed to the other -dg[e]ment words?)
According to the the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the "e" is optional when a word ends in "-dg(e)ment".
Dictionary examples:
acknowledgement {also acknowledgment}
...
- 742
1
vote
1
answer
84
views
Is there a term for antonyms that are a small edit distance from each other?
I'm looking for examples of dramatic typos - where a minor edit can dramatically change the meaning of a phrase, and would like to know if there's a name for this phenomenon.
Paronyms are a similar ...
- 119
19
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Why is Reuben spelled with an "eu"?
Reuben is most commonly spelled as such in English and in English only. The digraph "eu" as far as I know never represents /uː/ in English nor in any other language, and surely not in any ...
- 199
-1
votes
2
answers
56
views
What is a more contemporary expelling of this excerpt from Turner? [closed]
The following quote is by Turner (1509 – 1568), and to me, the spelling is incomprehensible. If the passage is re-written using spelling rules closer to those rules used in the present day, then how ...
