Spelling - phonetic or actual

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Soldato
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Over the last couple of days I have noticed a marked increase in words being spelt phonetically as opposed to how they are actually spelt.

Ignoring the "run it past a spell checker" point is this the level of education that our country is providing that people can only spell "long" words phonetically? And do people feel that it is acceptable to only spell in this manner.

It is easier to understand than some spelling mistakes and certainly better than l33t speak and txt s p k in my opinion.

I appreciate the fact that these people are trying to use words that they may not use everyday, it is something to be commended - just wondering why this is happening and why it seems to have increased.

Or has it always been like that and always with the same volume.

Thoughts...
 
General population getting more lazy more like. I hate it phoneticly, it means i actually have to read it out loud and then guess what it means rather than see the word and know its meaning.
 
Do you think it is better or worse than l337 / txt spelling? Or view both with equal animosity?
 
Not only are we seeing more people using more text-based communication methods these days, but also these methods are used to interact with our American cousins.

I believe the point you're making is an influence from across the pond. Some particular instances that spring to mind.

Through/thru
Colour/color

Bar said:
Do you think it is better or worse than l337 / txt spelling? Or view both with equal animosity?
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He's answered that question in the OP.

Raymond Lin said:
General population getting more lazy more like. I hate it phoneticly, it means i actually have to read it out loud and then guess what it means rather than see the word and know its meaning.
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O RLY?
 
Raymond Lin said:
General population getting more lazy more like. I hate it phoneticly, it means i actually have to read it out loud and then guess what it means rather than see the word and know its meaning.
Click to expand...

But you've just spelt phonetically wrong when it was spelt correctly in the OP :eek: If you'd spelt it with an 'F' then the irony would probably kill me :D
 
[teacher]
This post is not about picking at the replies within the post but about getting peoples opinions - lets try and all behave like adults
[/teacher]

ohhh Bra straps!!

;)
 
Being old school and a Victor Meldrew sort of guy, I hate all the txt/l33t/phonetic type stuff. I get flamed regularly here for pointing out things that are not just typos but seemingly glaring omissions in people's knowledge of the English language.

I am not perfect and often slip up, providing ammunition for those who would label me a Grammar Nazi.

I suppose the things that get to me are the lame excuses for not bothering; "it's only a forum", I'm not writing an essay" etc ....... we must also have the highest proportion of dyslexic sufferers on the planet too.

Much rambling there but I think it gives an idea of my feeling on this issue. ;)
 
The worst thing about the 'i'm dyslexic!' response is that pretty much every person that suffers from dyslexia works very, very hard on their ability with the written word.

Most of the time they spell dyslexia wrong, which just isn't going to happen if its true that you suffer from it.
 
I sometimes spell things phonetically but purely for the reader so they can hopefully understand how I'm articulating a particular word, as with reading print you can never get an idea of the intonation of the speaker apart from using italics, which as most people know can cause clashes between forumers if they don't understand how something is being said in a particular tone.

Even though some people may complain about things being spelt phonetically that the standard of spelling is decreasing, does it really matter? On a forum ultimately the point is to exchange ideas, as long as the text is legible (which admitedly it isn't always) then I don't have a problem with things not being spelt in a dictionary type fashion.
 
Cue repost, circa May 2004, of thread regarding spelling, missing and mixed up letters, and the inevitable ensuing torrent of abuse in response.

I spell in braille anyway.
 
The English language always ahs and always will evolve. I don't agree with text speak, but I do welcome phonetic spelling. If English language evolves along these lines who knows.
 
Gilly said:
The worst thing about the 'i'm dyslexic!' response is that pretty much every person that suffers from dyslexia works very, very hard on their ability with the written word.

Most of the time they spell dyslexia wrong, which just isn't going to happen if its true that you suffer from it.
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Not necessarily true. I know someone who doesn't really work at it at all, and frequently mis-spells dislexia, but he is definately dyslexic.
 
I use to work in the book printing industry, and when printing American books it was read and changed from American english to English english, but as with most things it was stopped because of the cost. With the advent of PCs people with no graphical skills set themselves up as typesetters and things went really downhill after that.
 
It looks dumb quite frankly.

I only done it as a child when I was uncertain on how to spell a word. Instead of spelling it phonetically, go learn how to spell it correctly.
 
I think it's down to a lack of education tbh. A few years ago I wrote an article about how text messaging was heralding in a new era of what was very close to 'olde english'. In the 'olden' days, people used to spell as they heard because only the educated actually had need to write anything, and that then grew into the language that we know today.
However, as it has changed to come to this point, it will change again - and thanks to texting and jargon speak, it seems to be going back to much more phonetic than 'proper' spellings.
 
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