Heterography

[Dr. Goodword]

• heterography •

Pronunciation: he-têr-ah-grê-fi • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: 1. A nonphonetic or inconsistent spelling system: the use of the same letter to convey different sounds (as the C in city and candy) or different letters to express the same sound, as spelling the sound [s] C in city and S in sea. 2. An aberrant or unusual spelling, as m-i-l-c-h for milk or l-y-t-h-e for lithe.

Notes: The spelling system of a language is its orthography, Greek for "correct or true writing". The trueness of writing systems varies greatly and, as we have pointed out before, English orthography is dismally heterographic, to use the adjective for today's Good Word. Be sure to reassure your children, as they learn how to spell English words, that their difficulty is not their fault.

In Play: Heterographically speaking, in other words, English is a world leader: "Speaking of English heterography, I have never understood the purpose of the -ugh in though or thought." Many nations periodically introduce spelling reforms that update the spelling systems of their languages: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Portugal, and Brazil have been adjusting the spelling in their languages at the turn of the 21st century. English, however, is spoken by large populations in several different countries (Australia, Britain, Canada, India, New Zealand, the US, and South Africa), so agreement on any change is highly unlikely.

Word History: Today's Good Word is a fairly recent combining of heteros "different, the other of two" + graph- "write" + ia, a noun suffix. The root graph- has a fascinating family history. The patriarch of this family is PIE gerbh- "to scratch". In the Germanic languages it underwent metathesis, switching the position of the [e] and the [r], leading to English crab, a beast that can deliver an excellent scratch. As the rules of scratching were honed into languages, the same stem produced the stem of grammar. This is a word we will return to someday, to explain how it became glamour! (Right now we have to scratch a note of thanks to Pierre Laberge for suggesting this very, very Good Word.)

[tkowal]

Today's Good Word suggests additional adjectives: homographic, heterophonic and homophonic, and several combinations. Examples of pairs of words:

• homographic and heterophonic: read (present), read (past)

• heterographic and homophonic: read (past), red (color)

• homographic and homophonic: light (as bright), light (not heavy)

Obviously most pairs of words are heterographic and heterophonic!

[George Kovac]

What a fabulous word! We should deploy it beyond its technical uses. For example: “The heterography of Senator Pyrrhus’ tweets matched the recklessness of his claims”

[LukeJavan8]

Not only the 'ugh" in though and thought,
but there are nine different pronunciations
of "ough" in English
cough
thought
though
slough
doughty
bough
et. al.
Where does this "ough" come from anyway???????????????????

[George Kovac]

How do you pronounce the fake word "ghoti"?

The answer is "fish".

Why do “ghoti" and "fish" sound the same?

gh = f as in rouGH or lauGHter
o = i as in wOmen
ti = sh as in naTIon (or almost any other word ending in “—tion”

English, which is an efficient language on so many scores (no gender, simplified tenses, the ability to use the same word as verbs, nouns and adjectives), is a labyrinth when it comes to spelling and the second person plural. (“You guys”? Even broadcasters use that now. “Y’all”? That is charming and clear, but I never use it north of the Mason-Dixon Line or down here when talking to Yankees. (Full disclosure: I am a Yankee but have lived a quarter century in the South).

As to the challenges of the singular and plural forms of the second person—and why English will never fix the problem—historically and in today’s finely calibrated culture wars—see the excellent discussion in Section 5 of today’s New York Times. The author lays all the blame squarely at the feet of those pesky 17th century Quakers.

I don’t know whom to blame for English spelling. (Or why I still have to use “whom”—isn’t English generally more forgiving on case?)

Sent from my iPhone

[damoge]

I admit freely and happily to being a pedant.
I would be most unhappy if our spellings were made consistent. The uncomfortable mix is a history lesson. Where did that word come from?
"eau" -- french
"ough"-- german
Lots more, but no need to beat this horse.
I used to happily spend my summers in Belgium. What a wonderful place to be if you love language and the way it is used.
The two major officials languages are French and Flemish (a dialect, really, of standard Dutch).
Squeeze them together and what do you get? English!

[bnjtokyo]

To Mr Kovac, would you please post a link to the NYTimes article to which you referred? I am interested in the this second person singular pronoun problem. Please see my post under Res Diversae last July
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=9760
requesting help.

[George Kovac]

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/16/opin ... akers.html

What Quakers Can Teach Us About the Politics of Pronouns. In the 17th century, they also suspected that the rules of grammar stood between them and a society of equals. By Teresa M. Bejan. New York Times, November 17, 2019

[Dr. Goodword]

A Dutchman, Gerald Nolst Trenite, wrote a brilliant poem about English heterography called "The Chaos". It was all over the Web mistitled as "English is Tough Stuff" at the end of the last millennium.

[Slava]

This is a word we will return to someday, to explain how it became glamour!

We haven't seen grammar so far, but glamour has crossed our path a couple of times, and even got commented on. Here and Here.