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	<title>Comments on: The Oddest English Spellings, Part 17</title>
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	<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/</link>
	<description>Academic insights for the thinking world.</description>
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		<title>By: OUPblog &#187; Blog Archive &#187; Monthly Gleanings: September 2010</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-177863</link>
		<dc:creator>OUPblog &#187; Blog Archive &#187; Monthly Gleanings: September 2010</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 29 Sep 2010 12:38:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-177863</guid>
		<description>[...] history rather than etymology, I found no material in it that would make me modify my opinion.  Weird sisters in Macbeth.  In my post on words with the letter groups ier, ear, and the like, I said that the [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] history rather than etymology, I found no material in it that would make me modify my opinion.  Weird sisters in Macbeth.  In my post on words with the letter groups ier, ear, and the like, I said that the [...]</p>
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		<title>By: Steve Bett</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-169314</link>
		<dc:creator>Steve Bett</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Aug 2010 21:33:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-169314</guid>
		<description>With just 2 diacritics, it is possible to clarify the pronunciation of all but one of these spellings.

WLO:  tièr, téàr teàr  táèr/ter, terròr, weàr, wéàry, wéìrd.

SB: The words in TS may be weird and confusing but a pronunciation print with diacritics for an unstressed vowel can clarify the pronunciation of all but one.

Spelling them is a different matter since all these words can be spelled a half dozen different plausible ways. 

They are only spelled one way in a dictionary pronunciation guide and probably just one way in QicRyt.

tièr, téàr teàr  táèr/ter, terròr, weàr, wéàry, wéìrd
QicRyt:  tir tir ter ter ter&#039;r wer wiiri wiird</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>With just 2 diacritics, it is possible to clarify the pronunciation of all but one of these spellings.</p>
<p>WLO:  tièr, téàr teàr  táèr/ter, terròr, weàr, wéàry, wéìrd.</p>
<p>SB: The words in TS may be weird and confusing but a pronunciation print with diacritics for an unstressed vowel can clarify the pronunciation of all but one.</p>
<p>Spelling them is a different matter since all these words can be spelled a half dozen different plausible ways. </p>
<p>They are only spelled one way in a dictionary pronunciation guide and probably just one way in QicRyt.</p>
<p>tièr, téàr teàr  táèr/ter, terròr, weàr, wéàry, wéìrd<br />
QicRyt:  tir tir ter ter ter&#8217;r wer wiiri wiird</p>
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		<title>By: Masha Bell</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-168897</link>
		<dc:creator>Masha Bell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:19:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-168897</guid>
		<description>What people are least aware of is that in the 16th century English spelling was quite simply messed up. This happened because the first English book to be bought in large numbers – the bible – was typeset entirely by printers on the European mainland who rarely spoke any  English. 

Tyndale’s New Testament was first published in 1525. He had translated it living on the run, hiding in Holland, Belgium and Germany, because English bishops supported the Pope’s ban on translating the bible into native languages. He finished translating the Old Testament living that way too, just before heretic hunters employed by Sir Thomas More manage to track him down, had him hanged and burnt at the stake as well. 

All later editions of the new and old testaments were simply slightly amended versions of Tyndale’s originals. Between 1525 and 1566 there were 40 editions of Tyndale’s bibles, with weirder and weirder changes to English spelling. Most of the spellings which continue to give learners a hard time and lead adults to commit ‘spelling mistakes’ are simply 16th century printing errors.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What people are least aware of is that in the 16th century English spelling was quite simply messed up. This happened because the first English book to be bought in large numbers – the bible – was typeset entirely by printers on the European mainland who rarely spoke any  English. </p>
<p>Tyndale’s New Testament was first published in 1525. He had translated it living on the run, hiding in Holland, Belgium and Germany, because English bishops supported the Pope’s ban on translating the bible into native languages. He finished translating the Old Testament living that way too, just before heretic hunters employed by Sir Thomas More manage to track him down, had him hanged and burnt at the stake as well. </p>
<p>All later editions of the new and old testaments were simply slightly amended versions of Tyndale’s originals. Between 1525 and 1566 there were 40 editions of Tyndale’s bibles, with weirder and weirder changes to English spelling. Most of the spellings which continue to give learners a hard time and lead adults to commit ‘spelling mistakes’ are simply 16th century printing errors.</p>
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		<title>By: Richard Bell</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-168542</link>
		<dc:creator>Richard Bell</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 16:25:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-168542</guid>
		<description>Except there are no &quot;weird&quot; sisters in Macbeth. They are &quot;weyward&quot; sisters three times; &quot;weyard&quot; sisters twice. They were weird sisters in Holinshed but Shakespeare changed it. Four of the five instances of the word are in verse passages and in three of the four scansion requires two syllables. Early editors corrected it to &quot;weird,&quot; blaming the compositors for the spelling in the Folio, but it seems unlikely that they would change a common word to another word five times in one play.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Except there are no &#8220;weird&#8221; sisters in Macbeth. They are &#8220;weyward&#8221; sisters three times; &#8220;weyard&#8221; sisters twice. They were weird sisters in Holinshed but Shakespeare changed it. Four of the five instances of the word are in verse passages and in three of the four scansion requires two syllables. Early editors corrected it to &#8220;weird,&#8221; blaming the compositors for the spelling in the Folio, but it seems unlikely that they would change a common word to another word five times in one play.</p>
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	<item>
		<title>By: Tweets that mention OUPblog » Blog Archive » The Oddest English Spellings, Part 17 -- Topsy.com</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-168457</link>
		<dc:creator>Tweets that mention OUPblog » Blog Archive » The Oddest English Spellings, Part 17 -- Topsy.com</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:32:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-168457</guid>
		<description>[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Teena Kuizon, Teena Kuizon and Patrick Wallace, Lauren. Lauren said: Really, really weird (or werde?) : http://ow.ly/2nMOV [...]</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Teena Kuizon, Teena Kuizon and Patrick Wallace, Lauren. Lauren said: Really, really weird (or werde?) : <a href="http://ow.ly/2nMOV" rel="nofollow">http://ow.ly/2nMOV</a> [...]</p>
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		<title>By: John Cowan</title>
		<link>http://blog.oup.com/2010/08/english-spellings/#comment-168447</link>
		<dc:creator>John Cowan</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:19:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://blog.oup.com/?p=10622#comment-168447</guid>
		<description>What (or rather, whose) standard pronunciation?  English has many competing accents.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What (or rather, whose) standard pronunciation?  English has many competing accents.</p>
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