Spelling

I told myself that I was going to post today, but my subject matter has changed. While there are plenty of things I plan to rant and moan about, for now I leave it to a singular thing: spelling.

I have never been a particularly inspired speller. I generally rely on the fact that I've read enough books that most spellings have become ingrained in my mind, and I'll therefore (all going well) know if they're wrong.

But, occasionally, I completely miss these things. For example, I only learned recently that I did not know how to spell 'glamorous'. My problem with that word (and others like it) was that 'glamour' has a 'u' in it (well, the English spelling, anyway. Possibly a bit less confusing for Americans...) but in 'glamorous' one does not just add 'ous' to the end. No, you must remove the original 'u'. I was informed that I had been spelling it wrong for many years... See, the problem is that, a lot of the time, I don't think about spelling that much. It just happens... But then someone asks you to spell something specifically, and you're at a loss. Suddenly very unsure of the world and your place in it, never mind the place of letters!

Alright, perhaps I'm being a little dramatic. But my friend Kim kept asking me to spell things today, as a result of what I affectionately call a 'mid-Leaving Cert. crisis'. Such a condition does not make you wonder if you're getting old, or your life isn't going anywhere... it's where you start to wonder if there is actually any of the information you need for the most important exams of your life knocking about in your suddenly-empty-feeling head. Your breathing gets erratic, the insomnia starts. You realise that, while you can conjugate verbs and use the dreaded Modh Coinniolach (conditional tense: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=modh+des+bishop&aq=f ) in Irish, as well as knowing how to say 'pathetic fallacy' as Gaeilge (fallas na truamhéala) but do not know a simple phrase such as 'good luck'. I know how to say 'good luck' in French, but not Irish.

Anyway, a similar crisis strikes in English. Yes, I know how to analyse Hamlet, as well as compare and contrast The Kite Runner, Emma and Casablanca, yes I can wax poetic about various poems by William Wordsworth, Eavan Boland and Robert Frost.

What? You want me to spell likelihood? Um... well... It's either an 'i' or a 'y' in the middle, I'm sure of it...
Soliloquy? Does it have an 'a', or doesn't it???
As I'm on the internet I'm perfectly capable of checking these spellings, and am aware that they are correct, however these are examples of words that confused me earlier today...

Speaking of which, my friend also claims that 'medieval' is spelt 'mediaeval', which baffled me accordingly, until I looked it up. Turns out my way is far more common, even in Britain. So, ha! It's a more old-fashioned way, which admittedly does look quite cool... But it's supposed to be that strange old attached 'ae' symbol that was used in His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman for 'daemons' (sorry, first time I encountered the symbol).

Of course, when I was 10 I thought it was spelt like medi-evil, so yeah...

It strikes me that, for someone who wishes to do English at university level lack of spelling could be a bit of a barrier, but I'll worry about that later *shrugs*

QUOTE: "Whoa, an asymptote. I am an asymptote! Brrr!"
My friends are strange... and to think, that quote was exclaimed after an English lecture on 'Faith Healer' by Brian Friel just 'cause the lecturer compared the readers and interpreters of the work to concentric circles...