Spelling tricks from the days before autocorrect
People have been using mnemonics to help them spell words correctly almost as long as correct spelling has been considered something to strive for. In the Middle Ages, writers had no use for these tricks because orthography (from Greek orthos 鈥渃orrect鈥� + graphia 鈥渨riting鈥�) was not a cultural aspiration. People wrote words down as they pronounced them, so woman, for example, could also be wommane, wommon, wuiman, waman, wemon, whoman, vomman, vimman, wifmanne, ummanne, vifmon, and so on.听
By the 19th century, though, proper orthography had become big business. Noah Webster鈥檚 鈥淭he American Spelling Book,鈥� for example, outsold every book but the Bible in the century after its publication in 1783.听
John Michod鈥檚 鈥淥rthographic Aids鈥� (1855) was one of the first to include mnemonics, though they were on the whole not so catchy as they later became. Instead of 鈥渋 before e except after c,鈥� Michod has 鈥淭he dipthong ei when it sounds like long e,/ Most frequently follows the consonant c/ Reverse it and if it still sound the same,/ it follows a consonant not c by name.鈥�
Since then, spelling mnemonics have proliferated and gotten better. Some help distinguish homonyms: The capitol is a round building (not capital). The principal is your pal (not principle). Others cue us how to spell words that don鈥檛 look the way they sound: I鈥檒l be a friend to the 鈥渆nd.鈥� People shiver 鈥渂r鈥� in February. There鈥檚 鈥渁 rat鈥� in separate.
Double letters are also cued by mnemonics. 鈥淥ne collar and two socks鈥� or 鈥渙ne coffee and two sugars鈥� reminds us that necessary has one c and two s鈥檚. 鈥淩eally red shows suffering鈥� indicates that embarrass has double r鈥檚 and double s鈥檚. I even came across one for my聽nemesis 鈥� 鈥�accommodate has lots of room鈥� (doubles of all the potentially confusing letters).听
Acronyms are the do-it-yourself mnemonic: If there鈥檚 a word that gives you trouble, it鈥檚 easy to come up with a phrase that encodes the spelling. Rhythm, for example, can be remembered as 鈥淩hythm Helps Your Two Hips Move,鈥� while the beginning of beautiful is represented by 鈥淏ig Elephants Are Ugly.鈥� These can be of limited use, however, as eventually the acronym becomes harder to remember than the word itself, as with 鈥淕eorge鈥檚 Elderly Old Grandfather Rode A Pig Home Yesterday鈥� and geography.听
Mnemonics are cute anachronisms from a brief historical period when we wanted to spell words right and had only ourselves to rely on. Today, on our devices, we just need to spell a word in the general vicinity, and autocorrect fixes it.听
