Spooling Mistales

Rob Pulham

Western Thunderer
Well it might be okay to the Americans. They spell lots of words wrong.
I once read some where that many of the words that we think they spell wrong were actually originally correct over here too. But they were altered to allow Prince Albert to be able to get his tongue around them when he married Queen Victoria. How true or how many words were affected I have no idea but it does sound plausible.
 

Allen M

Western Thunderer
The professor (Higgins?) in the play/film "My Fair Lady" can tell us all about it. :( :eek: :headbang:

Regards
Allen
 

Neil

Western Thunderer
It's not just spelling - Americans are good a pismonunciation as well!

Absolutely, aloominum and mrrr are the most common but listen to how they (mis)pronounce solder; quite baffling.

Mind you we shouldn't be so complacent or smug here in the UK. I've noticed those who live south of the civilised regions tend to say barth when they obviously mean bath. My Welsh tutor who hailed from the home counties confessed to being quite happy to say plant when in the Welsh context (child) but couldn't bring herself to say anything other than plarnt in English.

What a diverse bunch we are; vive la difference.
 

simond

Western Thunderer
My daughter when young developed an abrasive Kent accent (despite being a Maid of Kent, not a Kentish Maid) but was obviously conflicted by her parents - MrsD would tend to the southern and I to the Northern, resulting on a visit to Bodiam many years ago with “the caRsul is surrounded by grAss” followed moments later by “the cAstle is surrounded by graRss”.

Poor little dear, she was only four. She seems to have coped, happily.
 

40057

Western Thunderer
Spelling mistakes are not always the fault of the writer. In e-mails and other typed communications (maybe here too?) the autocorrect can introduce mis-spellings if the mis-spelt version is very widely repeated. President Trump (in)famously referred to ‘Nambia’. Did he mean Namibia, or Zambia, we’ll never know. But his crass ignorance has been so widely mocked and lampooned that ‘Nambia’ has become a well used word. For a time at least, Namibia was liable to be auto-corrected to Nambia as a result.

Not a mis-spelling but of similar origin. My former colleague, Melanie, had her name autocorrected repeatedly to ‘Melania’ reflecting just how common Melania Trump was in media appearances.
 
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Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I was watching an episode of the American series NCIS and noticed a spelling mistake.....
20230618_223514.jpg

Ooops. How did that not get picked up ?

The continuity department's attention to the minutiae of detail is obviously not their thing....

Sodium is written as Na not NA as the second letter of the chemical symbol is always in lower case. Fortunately there is not an element with a single letter A as the symbol, however N is Nitrogen.

You couldn't write Nobelium (No) as NO as the latter is the formula for Nitric Oxide. Similarily with Cobalt (Co) - written as CO it becomes Carbon Monoxide.
 

michael080

Western Thunderer
This is not limited to the English language: I guess you won't need much knowledge of the German language to detect the typo.
Interesting that no one cares about it.

IMG_4037_cr_sml.jpg

Michael
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
Blame the French, not the Americans. The Americans only pronounced "Sault" the same way the French founders of the town of Sault Ste. Marie in Upper Michigan pronounced it.
The fact they then went on to spell it how it was pronounced, and write it on their locomotives, is merely a happy coincidence....
20201223_215358.jpg
:p :))

Can you imagine "SAULT" on there instead..???!!! :confused:
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Can you imagine "SAULT" on there instead..???!!! :confused:

Why not add SOUS as it sounds the same when spoken although has a different meaning to Sault. And we thought the English language was bad enough with words sounding the same when spoken but have different spellings and meanings.

SOO SAULT SOUS....?
 

Jordan

Mid-Western Thunderer
And we thought the English language was bad enough with words sounding the same when spoken but have different spellings and meanings.

SOO SAULT SOUS....?
I thought it was a law of the French language that no word is ever pronounced how it's spelt..??

Jordan @Jordan ,

Is 2203A related to Baldy?
Indeed, and all the other F7s the Soo Line had (& on paper, Wisconsin Central, as denoted by the four-digit numbers of 2203A & Old Baldy 2228A) but whereas many of them had the top headlight plated over, as per 2203A, only 2228A lost the top headlight mounting completely.
/Soo Line Bore Mode /Off.

*resisting urge to post another gratuitous Soo Line photo*.... :oops:
 
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