Other spellings

You have letters - now what do you do with them?
PB
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:40 pm

Other spellings

Postby PB » Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:48 pm

How do I compile a word list of alternate spellings in words. e.g. for the sound (k), some spellings you can have are:- 'c', in 'cat', 'k', in 'kitten', 'ck', in 'duck','ch' in 'school', 'q' in 'queen'.

What I'm looking for is a dictionary, advice on how to search for or other ways to find alternate spellings for this sound, and all the others of course. e.g. 'cc' in the word 'baccalaureate', or the 'cc' in 'soccer or 'qu' in 'bouquet' all have the sound (k) but with different spellings.

Apoclima
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 555
Joined: Thu Feb 10, 2005 5:00 pm

Postby Apoclima » Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:58 pm

Ghoti

Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Sun Dec 11, 2005 2:38 am

Welcome aboard, PB!

Fishing around AlphaDictionary finds this from our own Good Doctor . . .

As to actually answering your question, though, I'm not sure, other than taking a brute force approach and just listing the ones you know. Or are you looking for how the variations came into being?

You might try browsing Wikipedia's entry on Linquistics. There's a link to a detailed list of topics. This sounds like it's related to Phonology.

Also check out some of the links under Consonant. One of the entries lists the "hard C" as a "voiceless velar plosive" with the symbol "/k/" in the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet).

We expect a report here when you're done!

:wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

bnjtokyo

Postby bnjtokyo » Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:56 am

PB, Try to find the little book I ran into on a remainder table once. It's called "The Bad Speller's Dictionary" by Krevisky & Linfield, published by Random House in 1967 (ISBN 67-14465). My copy is a reprint dated 1985.

It allows the reader to look up "vetaranery" to find "veterinary" for example.

Happy spelling,

PB
Junior Lexiterian
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2005 5:40 pm

Spellings

Postby PB » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:27 pm

Larry, I eventually found what I was looking for. Merriam Webster Dictionary some years ago listed alternate spellings for the sounds of our language, in one of their editions:- Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary. This book was published from 1983 to 1992 and unfortunately is no longer in print. The list was also removed from later editions due to space constraints. The book is fairly common in libraries and used bookstores,however.
The list is not available in any digital form, but they did me send you a copy.
My thanks goes to Joshua S. Guenter, Ph.D.
Editor of Pronunciation Merriam Webster Dictionary who saved me many hours of tedious searching.

Stargzer
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2578
Joined: Tue Feb 15, 2005 3:56 pm
Location: Crownsville, MD

Postby Stargzer » Thu Mar 02, 2006 4:49 pm

Hey, glad to be of help for a change! :wink:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee


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