Spell check
26 November 2011
I write, therefore I obsess over American English. One of the things I really love is spellings. And yes, it’s because I misspelled newphew (darn, did it again) at the eighth grade county spelling bee.
When we lived in FL, I found out Alachua only had one spelling, but two pronunciations depending on whether you were talking about the county or the town in the county. Pretty cool. When we lived in AL, I found out Talladega has two pronunciations, one for the town and one for the race. When we moved to KY, I learned that Rowan, Athens, and Versailles all were pronounced differently from anywhere else I’d lived. Granted more phonetically, but differently. My sister lives in TX and tells me that Bexar rhymes with Bear. (Okay, I tracked that one down to a TX drawl plus the original Spanish word thrown together.)
This past weekend I added another one. This one definitely all spelling. We drove through the Allegheny mountains, and passed the municipality of Allegany. I swear. I spell checked the sign twice.
I simply do not know how I did not get credit at least for originality on the spelling of nephew. I mean, how did they know I wasn’t from someplace else, and I was Right?
Kath, spell checking as she goes without a whole lot of faith in it.
