Aggregious differences between English spelling and common sense

[sleipnir214]

One thing that makes English spelling so difficult for everyone, both English as a first language and English as an additional language, is the fact that standard English spelling is not just non-phonetic but often very non-phonetic.

I'm not talking about words like "phonetic" (which, ironically, should be spelled "fonetik"), which is mildly irritating. I'm talking about words with such a high percentage of superfluous letters that they offend common sense: "through" and "eight" come immediately to mind.

Does anyone have a further example?

Anyone have more examples?

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[Stella740pl]

ESquared,

I think I just got it. Yours was a joke about the spelling. But still it should be a noun ("A process of building big white buildings with tall white columns in an area"), isn't it?

 

[CajunCenturion]

Capitalization is a noun, but it has nothing to do with the constructions of big white buildings. But it has a lot to do with the financing of building that building. Capitalization is also the preferred method of shouting while online.

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[ESquared]

oh. yeah. noun. Those parts of speech thingies. Righto.

Let's just say I meant to change capitolization to capitolize.

I think more people are missing the joke.

 

[Stella740pl]

CajunCenturion,

OK, now I am confused. You spelled it with 'a' twice - did you mean 'o' in the first case? I did look up it with 'o' before posting in several on-line dictionaries, with no luck. I googled for it, and checked a few pages randomly from the results - every time it was misspelled "capitalization".

As for "constructions of big white buildings", as I said, I think it was a joke, meaning "capitolization" as constructing Capitol/Capitolium.

 

[sleipnir214]

ESquared:
Since I don't recall your having posted in this forum before today, I would like to give you a piece of friendly advice:

When dealing with the crowd that hangs out in this forum, it is imperative that when you enter a post to point out someone else's error, your post should, itself, be completely error-free. Otherwise, you are just opening yourself up for unwanted attention.


stella740pl:
I think he got it right. But then you can't necessary accept my opinion -- it was my misspelling in the first place that started this current flurry of activity.



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[ESquared]

This is probably a poor choice of forums for me to participate in because I'm a spelling, language, and grammar fanatic. You see, I have generally learned to suppress my thoughts and make no reference to other people's problems with same, but in this forum it becomes almost too tempting to resist...

 

[sleipnir214]

ESquared:
<facetious>
Even after the little verb/noun thing?
</facetious>



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[ESquared]

When dealing with the crowd that hangs out in this forum, it is imperative that when you enter a post to point out someone else's error, your post should, itself, be completely error-free. Otherwise, you are just opening yourself up for unwanted attention.

Thank you! I was already—belatedly—ruminating on this concept.

I think I'll start chanting my new mantra, "The preview button is my friend. The preview button is my friend. The preview button is my friend.

 

[sleipnir214]

What's even worse is that I made a specific point of looking up "capitalization" (versus "capitolization") online before I submitted my post.

And I still managed to spell the dratted work wrong.

An event which is additionally irritating, considering I don't think "capitolization" is really a word.

I suppose in the old days when kings would occasionally move their capitols around, the process by which a city was elevated to capitol status could be called "capitolization".


[This discussion, though, does bring to mind a comedy riff I heard once. The comedian was talking about Jesus of Nazareth's miracle of turning water into wine. The comedian said that more than anything, he was interested in the whole chardinization process.]




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[Stella740pl]

sleipnir214,

But then you can't necessary accept my opinion ...
Sorry, I didn't get what you meant by that,

but then

it was my misspelling in the first place that started this current flurry of activity - don't you think it's a good thing when something, even an error sparks a new round of activity? It can get interesting.

 

[ESquared]

<facetious>
Even after the little verb/noun thing?
</facetious>

Even after the little verb/noun thing.

I generally try to ignore obvious typos (the person does know, but simply typed it wrong) and focus my Instantaneous(!) Reverse-Integrating Lazorr Beem™ on ignorance and apathy.

 

[sleipnir214]

stella740pl:
I meant that you should not accept my opinion about CajunCenturion's spelling, as my earlier post has proven that my opinion on the subject of "capitol/capital" can't necessarily be trusted.

But then, none of us caught my mistake for more than two months.



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[Stella740pl]

sleipnir214

But then, none of us caught my mistake for more than two months
I hate to say it now, but, to be frank, I did see it before. It's just I am not in the habit and don't have much time for correcting other posters' spelling. Besides, from the context of your post, I did understand what you mean. What started me is ESquared's post, which at first I thought to be also misspelled and, in addition, I didn't understand what he/she meant. Few minutes later I realized that it was a joke about your spelling. But it started a new round - and, I guess, it's good.

 

[CajunCenturion]

As far as I know, capitol is a noun (sometimes proper) which respesents the building or buildings in which legislative activity takes place. When as a proper noun (Capitol being capitalized), at least on this side of the pond, it refers specifically to the Capitol building in Washington DC. To my knowledge, there is no word "capitolization", nor any other form of the noun capitol, other than the plural capitols.

The word capital covers all the remaining uses and forms.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, until someone posts otherwise.

Good Luck
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[Stella740pl]

To my knowledge, there is no word "capitolization", nor any other form of the noun capitol, other than the plural capitols.

The word capital covers all the remaining uses and forms.

Good! That's what I thought was the case and what I wanted to know. You got me confused at first. Your previous post sounded like there is such a word, and you were just correcting its meaning.

 

[rosieb]

sleipnir214
May I disagree? As an English english speaker.

OED (admittedly 1990) doesn't recognise "capitol" as a word, so maybe capitolisation is the process of americanization of a capital.

(And wouldn't that be chardonization? Or even Merlotinization - more likely to have been red)

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[ESquared]

I wasn't so much trying to correct spelling as to share the amusing mental image that capitolization sparked in my brain.

It's usually not worth correcting minor spelling errors unless they are aggregious [sic].

 

[sleipnir214]

rosieb:
I'm glad you brought it up -- the research I had to do to answer allowed me to clarify in my mind the usage of the two words.

American English supports two words: capital and capitol.

A capital is the town or city which is the seat of a government entity.

A capitol is the building or complex of buildings in which a legislative assembly meets.

So Washington, D.C., is the capital of the United States. Within that city is the Capitol, which is the building in which the U.S. Congress meets.

The two words have different but possibly related derivations. See capitol and capital at YourDictionary.com.


<aside>
Chardonization[/b] is probably closer. I'm not sure about merlotinization, though. You're probably right in that it was a red wine, but I can't find anything online about the species of grapes used to make wine in that region back then.
</aside>



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[ESquared]

I am a native English-speaker and I learned the difference between capitol and capital as a child. In fact, I think I received, several times, specific lessons to teach this. I assumed everyone would quickly get my joke because this is 'background knowledge' for me, and I was not thinking about what someone could be expected to know who did not have a similar childhood experience.

 

[synack76]

wake up and smell the ghoti ...