Spelling

Spelling is an element of orthography that involves the writing of words with the correct letters in the appropriate order.

Quotes

• Spelling is the art of writing words with their proper letters. In the English language this art is peculiarly difficult.
  • Joseph Angus: Handbook of the English Tongue (1861), p. 96

• Languages never stand still. Modern spelling crystallises lost pronunciations: the visual never quite catches up with the aural.
  • Anthony Burgess, A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English (1992)

• If the professors of English will complain to me that the students who come to the universities, after all those years of study, still cannot spell "friend," I say to them that something's the matter with the way you spell friend.
  • Richard Feynman, The Meaning of It All (1999)

• Spelling checkers (sometimes called "spell checkers" by people who need syntax checkers) ...
  • Bruno Martins and Mário J. Silva, Spelling correction for search engine queries, Proceedings of EsTAL-04, España for Natural Language Processing (2004).

• My spelling is Wobbly. It’s good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places.
  • A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, in Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 6 (1926)

• With the aid of my all-important spelling correction program, I can be confident of my presentation. Do I fear that I will lose my ability to spell as a result of overreliance on this technological crutch? What ability? Actually, my spelling is improving through the use of this spelling corrector that continually points out my errors and suggests corrections.
  • Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (1988), Ch. 7

• As to spelling the very frequent word though with six letters instead of two, it is impossible to discuss it, as it is outside the range of common sanity. In comparison such a monstrosity as phlegm for flem is merely disgusting.
  • George Bernard Shaw, The Author (Summer 1944)

• They spell it Vinci and pronounce it Vinchy; foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
  • Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, ch. 19 (1869)