The Edge, November 17, 2007
Spleling’s sloe prupsoe is to certae wrods. A wrod’s sloe prupsoe is to comuminctae a msesgae form its auhtor.
The oirgnial mesasge was comumniacted form one pesron to the ohter and we’re all hpapy. No corerspnodecne nedes to be enetred itno.
Spleling is olny a rceomemndtaion. Offiically, it is the ulitmtae and prefcet way to oredr the letetr seqeunce of a wrod but is not vtial in the wirtnig of taht wrod.
Jsut lkie wtih darwnig, the olny prefcet way to darw is idnetiaclly to the subejct. But if it’s not pcitrue prefcet, you can stlil tell waht the darwnig is of.
Now tkae tihs colmun. It is ridlded wtih spellnig cerativtiy but you can stlil undrestnad waht I am comumnciatnig to you. Thus you can see crorect spelilng is not as imoprtnat as you may hvae frist thuoght.
And so, the porbelm is wtih the reaedr, not the spleler. It is olny thsoe wtih solw mnids that are torubeld by seplling msitakes.
Thsee dsiadvnataged poeple comptue ecah letetr in a wrod and hvae to thnik bcak to scohol and dceide if tehy lerant that sequnece of letetrs.
Thsoe wtih fsat mnids can see a wrod and thier mnid isntatnly comptues the corerct wrod intneded by the autohr, wtihuot intreruption.
If you are a perosn who notcies mnay spelilng errros in dayto- day life, don’t be too disocuraegd. You are porbalby gitfed at cuontnig out luod qucikly.
Try it!
Did you know: The rules of the board game Scrabble originally allowed any spelling of a word to be used, as long as the other players could tell what the word was communicating.
While that is now banned, you can instead use words that noone knows the meaning of, as long as they are spelt correctly. That's just floccinaucinihilipilification!