Spelling Write

Sometimes, in life, you come across some people who can really spread happiness around them, who can make you feel happy in an instant. Just talking to them makes you smile; you find that you laugh a hell lot when you’re around such a person. They are hard to find. But once you find them, it’s super-hard to let go of them!! I spoke to someone like that, yesterday. I met him around a month ago. And I LOVE talking to him. I feel so happy talking to him and I don’t know how he does it…but he makes me laugh so much during our few minutes of conversation. Talking to him has almost become something like a routine for me…I hate routines but this is one that I look forward to. Every time we talk, I laugh a lot. A lot more than I might have laughed during the rest of the day. I have told him about how happy he makes me feel, but he just waves it off. So, this is just to tell him how much I enjoy talking to him…and to thank him for the abundance of joy he gifts me each day, through mere words!!

Talking about words… Just now, I read this post on a blog I follow – The Obsolescence of Spelling. Last day, I was talking to a friend of mine. I have this habit of asking a lot of questions. Some might find it interesting while some others get so bugged by it. Anyway, I continue with my crazy questions. So, while I was talking to her, I asked her why we have silent letters (like w in wrong, p in pneumonia, s in island, n in damn, etc.). I mean, why bother having those letters if we are not meant to pronounce them in the first place? It doesn’t make any sense at all! The post I read was about spelling, how it is important to get it right, so on. When I read it, I remembered the thoughts I had had during the conversation with my friend. There was this forwarded e-mail I got, long back, which consisted of a paragraph with words all wrongly spelt but with the correct first and last letters (smoehintg leik tihs). The mail claimed that if a word was written with the correct first and last letters, we could read it right, even if it was wrongly spelt. And I found that it was true. I could actually read that gibberish!!

So, that made me wonder. Why do we bother about spellings, then? If we can read words just by using the correct first and last letters, then why put so much effort into writing the correct spelling? And again, if you get the idea of what I’m trying to say, do spellings really count? I don’t know. English is such a messed up language. It has its roots in so many other languages from all over the globe…with variations, in some cases and so many complicated stuff like silent letters, grammatical details, so on. There’s this line I read in a magazine once: ‘English is the only language in which [you say that] noses run and feet smell’. So true! It kinda makes you think what you have been learning English for, right?

Anyway, I’m not trying to trash the language. Not at all. I’m just putting into words some thoughts that have been on my mind lately. Personally, I love English. My mother tongue is not English but I feel most comfortable in this language. I find that I can express myself best through English. I love words, learning more of them, putting them into use. And I’m a person who gives a lot of importance to spellings and pronunciation. I always try to spell and pronounce words correctly. I like it when people correct me because I don’t want to go wrong with words. I love them too much to use them wrongly! Yet, why do I ponder over the peculiarities of the language? Well, I think a lot! I hope that explains it all! 🙂

By the way, today is Charles Dickens’s 200th birthday! I have always loved his books. My favourite Dickens book of all times is A Christmas Carol. Which is yours? I love his style of writing and the depth of his characters. His books were among the first classics I read while growing up. So, naturally, his books are special, for me. Anyway, here’s wishing a Happy Birthday to Charles Dickens!! (Thank you, sir, for the wonderful books you gave the world!) 🙂


5 thoughts on “Spelling Write

  1. I love how our brains can decipher words all mixed up in the middle, so long as the first and last letters remain the same. Mind, I suspect that ability is only there after a lot of exposure to those written words (which most of us have these days).
    As for Dickens, probably Great Expectations. 🙂

  2. Great post! Thanks for linking back to my blog and for adding me to your blogroll. I agree with theotherwatson’s comment. I think you can only decipher words that are mixed up like that if you’ve had a lot of experience with the language.

Voice your opinion :)


WordPress.com Logo


Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s