I think that, from the comfort of our Coronabunkers, it is time to revisit homophones — you no, words that sound the same yet are spelled differently.
There are sew many from which to choose. Hear and their you might here one and go, “Hey! That sounds write, but looks wrong. Perhaps if I right it out…”
Sum people might be annoyed at this misuse of the Queen’s English, but I say a sentence is only as good as the some of it’s parts. Due you think there is something wrong if I dew this every once in a while?
Two think there are at least too different spellings to a lot of English words. Sometimes our language is so confusing, you almost knead a guide to keep up. Like a dictionary. Oh, wait…
Is it fare to say that as long as the receiver of the message understands the underlying meaning, then communication has been achieved, weather or knot the words are spelled like some are accustomed?
This argument might be a tough sail too the more rigid of our communicating compadres. Sure, it might seam ridiculous to use a word that, while sounding the same, is spelled differently than its intended phonic cousin.
However, imagine reading this missive to someone over the phone. When asked, they will tell ewe the passage they herd was exactly what the sender intended.
Perhaps it is in our nature. The ”square peg in a round whole” school of thought. Even though our ears here the same sounds, our I’s, upon reading a homophonic passage, stutter step over words that, while having the proper acoustic signature, look out of place. Incongruent to the sensibilities of a people razed on grammatical correctness, if you will.
Slang aside, did you know there have been serious attempts to reform the English spelling system? In the 1900s, President Teddy Roosevelt decided to simplify the language in order to save printing costs.
Roosevelt was a fan of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie’s “Simplified Spelling Board,” an effort by Carnegie to create one worldwide language, which he believed would go a long way in promoting world peace.
Under this “simplification by omission,” the word “missed” became “mist,” “enough” was “enuf,” and so on. Roosevelt signed an Executive Order to make the new English the law of the land. Until the Court of Public Opinion had its say.
The Louisville Courier-Journal summed it up nicely in 1906: “Nuthing escapes Mr. Rucevelt. No subject is tu hi fr him to takl, nor tu lo for him tu notis. He makes tretis without the consent of the Senit. He inforces such laws as meet his approval, and fales to se those that do not soot him. He now assales the English langgwidg, constitutes himself as a sort of Frensh academy, and will reform the spelling in a way tu soot himself.”
Face it – unlike the Constitution, the English language is constantly morphing to meet the needs of our population. Seriously. Would you have thought “Netflix and chill“ would be a household phrase a decade ago? Of course not.
So weather you think people fly on plains or planes, believe precipitation is rain or reign or rein, and would rather savor a pair, a pare or a pear, relax. Variety is good for the sole.
