Or Andrew Jackson approaching the problem from the other end.
reply“It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word.”
As a rather, well... "creative" speller I blame Webster for locking things down and ruining it for the rest of us.
I few years ago I saw a TV interview where some gen-z kid confidently stated: "the dictdionary is supposed to reflect how I talk, not the other was around."
replyThe tricky part is that spoken language and written language are not the same. Even if you are a descriptionist that believes dictionaries should represent how people write, it doesn't necessarily mean that the spelling changes based on how people pronounce it.
replyThat's actually how many of the dictionary people see themselves.
replyThat is in fact what the dictionary is supposed to do.
replyAlso known as descriptivism. That's what it do.
replyA natural descriptivist.
replyAnd are British, at least in Australia (and the US, I guess?) we pronounce the second "i".
replyIt is always fun when you notice where someone is from based on secondary clues like that -- my favourite is the choice of "a" or "an" where it is ambiguous (for instance, I recently ran across "an HTTP request" where I would've said "a HTTP request").
I'd argue that "le" is not really phonetic to how people pronounce words ending in that; "missils" would be more phonetic
reply> I'd argue that "le" is not really phonetic to how people pronounce words ending in that
replySorry? How do you think people pronounce words such as truffle / turtle / tremble / pickle / maple / rubble / etc. etc. etc.?
Should be missels then?
replyLet's settle the argument by all agreeing on mussels instead, and enjoy a nice seafood dish with garlic and a white wine sauce. Delicious.
replyThey're where they keep the nuclear wessels.
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