I take it that you mean ‘it was spelled like you pronounce it’. I’m sure that political correctness plays a role here, I have no quarrel there, but a one-on-one non-ambiguous link between sound and spelling is uncommon in the English language to say the least and is certainly not something that applies to niger. I mean - how do you pronounce tiger?
Again, I’m sure that political correctness led to a change of the spelling (although it seems that the PC police have not convinced the country of Niger to follow suit). But you can’t say that the current spelling is somehow less intuitive than the previous one.
When I was a kid, back in the 50s, I saw both spellings about equally, but they were both pronounced “ketchup.” I never heard “catsup” pronounced the way it’s spelled.
I am shocked that “alright” is being taught in schools now.
I think that “disc” is pretty much used only with “compact disc” in the US. The logo, with the big “disc” type, is on every CD, which helps to reinforce it, but I haven’t seen “disc” used in any other way.
“Mic” is pretty standard in the theater industry, and I think it’s bleeding over to everyday usage. I don’t like it either; I think it looks like it should be pronounced “mick.”
Facsimile is a great example. I don’t think most younger people even know that’s what fax is short for.
Do people really consider “donut” close to standard? I see it used as a colloquial attenuation (like “thru”) or as a stylization in brand names, but the actual word remains “doughnut.” I’ve even seen a doughnut shop with the stylization in the name on the roof and the word (among a list if items offered) on the window below that.
None of the alternate spellings given in this thread (except things like “teh” ) are less intuitive than the previous one. By and large, I’d say they are all spelled closer to the way we pronounce them now.
It would be fine with me (no I’m sure it probably wouldn’t really as it would mess up sight reading) if we dropped ‘c’ entirely and used ‘s’ or ‘k’ as appropriate, dropped all soft ‘g’ and replaced with ‘j’. But I see no reason to replace an ‘i’ with a ‘y’ in the middle of a word – particularly when it’s pronounced as a long ‘i’.
The online dictionaries I consulted listed it as a legitimate variant, at least in the U.S.
How do you feel about “baloney” as an alternate spelling for “bologna”?
Assuming we’re talking about the lunch meat, I’m not sure which spelling I prefer. It bothers me that “bologna” isn’t pronounced the way it’s spelled (according to either English or Italian rules of pronunciation); but “bologna” is the more traditional and official spelling, while “baloney” means “nonsense” or “bullshit.”
Minuscule has become miniscule. So much the Firefox accepts either. The root is “minus” not “mini” though.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen “doughnut” written out. So much that I don’t even bother trying to write it that way anymore because it seem weird.
Niger is pronounced nee-zher. “zh” as in pleasure. When I hear nai-jer I hear it in an aristocratic British officer’s voice.
During my lifetime, “bussing” became “busing”. I think this was an AP style change that affected other words ending in “s” as well. I still don’t like it. “Busing” just looks wrong.
“Busing” is people being transported by a bus (which used to be called an omnibus). “Bussing” is kissing. Two separate words – or they should be anyway.
Everywhere? Google has 5.77 million hits for mini- vs. 10.5 million for minu- . Plus dictionaries have it, although mostly as a variant. Part of my search that mini- is from the late 19th century, more popular 1940s on, so I guess not in my lifetime technically, but fewer people today are aware of what it “should” be.
I would attribute it to a common misspelling, but I also feel that if you asked a hundred people on the street to write the word, minu- would not be predominant, and maybe less than 50% of the time.
I don’t remember when it was, but I saw a surprisingly recent reference to the country of Viet Nam.
Ah, yes–those infamous Russian “mikehailrophones.” (How else do you get “mike” from “mic”?)
Somewhat off-topic–has anybody else read Mark Twain’s story about the Esquimaux maiden?
I didn’t see anyone else mention the reason for the spelling “disk” … or maybe I missed it. The word “disk” is short for “diskette,” which are distinct from round discs. Diskettes are, to the best of my knowledge (I’ve been in the computer industry for well over twenty years) square(ish) plastic sleeves containing round magnetic media. I’ve never seen anything referred to as a diskette that didn’t fit this general definition.
The changed word that bugs me the most, other than the loss of -gue endings on various words), is rooves vs. roofs. Even my spellchecker won’t accept rooves anymore (it insists I must have meant “grooves”).
