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Or Andrew Jackson approaching the problem from the other end. “It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.” As a r
by somat 17d ago
Or Andrew Jackson approaching the problem from the other end.
“It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.”
As a rather, well... "creative" speller I blame Webster for locking things down and ruining it for the rest of us.
- jimmydddd 17d agoI few years ago I saw a TV interview where some gen-z kid confidently stated: "the dictdionary is supposed to reflect how I talk, not the other was around."
- eru 17d agoThat's actually how many of the dictionary people see themselves.
- thesuitonym 16d agoMost dictionaries are descriptivist, and that's why they frequently have multiple spellings of words. It's because of your teachers, style guides & internet trolls that anyone says the dictionary spelling is the only correct spelling.
- xboxnolifes 17d agoThe tricky part is that spoken language and written language are not the same. Even if you are a descriptionist that believes dictionaries should represent how people write, it doesn't necessarily mean that the spelling changes based on how people pronounce it.
- saulpw 17d agoA natural descriptivist.
- tux3 17d agoAlso known as descriptivism. That's what it do.
- thaumasiotes 17d agoThat is in fact what the dictionary is supposed to do.
- b112 16d agoYes, but also with a bit of lag. A dictionary would be all but useless, if it included words used for 2 months, and essentially never used in that context, way, or spelling again. That sort of means teenage slang probably shouldn't appear, and amusingly if it did appear in the dictionary, it'd probably be less 'cool' to use that slang. And alt-spellings for 'being kool' aren't what I'd call a dictionary thing. Put another way, slang is in the dictionary, but only long-standing slang. Such as 'cool'. I'd see it more as temp slang->more used->enters dictionary-> eventually the 'slang' note is dropped, it's just language. I'd want to see a word used for a few years, before it enters. And really, some slang morphs endlessly, like a fire flickering and then going out. How do you capture that? Even online, it'd be out of date once published. And lots of slang is colloquial. Do you care to add slang language used across dozens of regions in the US? I recall 20 years ago, Oxford Dictionary took a literal physical trip across Canada, and made the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, filled with 2200 'Canadianisms'. Akin to what you're saying here, if people are using it, it should be in there. But these were things Canadians had been saying for decades... Anyhow. I guess my point is, the kid was wrong because transitory has no value in the dictionary. His special words won't be used by even him, in a year.
- semilin 16d agoWhat a rude approach! I will always prefer the more classic and civilized way of waiting for the dictionary to invent new words for me to use.
- Valodim 17d agoDifferent languages went down different paths in this regard, each with their own interesting advantages and disadvantages. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthographic_depth https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthographic_depth