As English is spoken in many countries worldwide, it’s moot to argue that there is only one way to pronounce a word. Take the word ‘route’ for example – here in Britain, we pronounce it ‘root’, while in America it is pronounced ‘rowt’. Even within Britain, regional accents mean that the same word can be pronounced in many ways. Because English has evolved from a variety of different languages, you can’t consistently rely on the spelling of a word to figure out how it’s pronounced. As soon as you learn a pronunciation rule, you’re presented with all the exceptions – just take a look at the following ‘ch’ wo...
One of the biggest sporting events in the world, The Tour de France, is due to pass the Yorkshire home of Spellzone at the weekend so the word 'cycle' comes to mind. 'Cycle' orginates from the Late Latin 'cyclus', and the Greek 'kuklos' meaning 'circle, ring, wheel, any circular body, circular motion, cycle of events'. 'Bicycle' as in "to ride a bicycle" dates from around 1883, and is formed from two words. The English 'bi' meaning 'two' and 'kyklos' mentioned above. Fortunately for today's racers, the bicycle superseded a bizarre contraption know as the velocipede, a French invention nicknamed 'T...
My home county, the green and historic county of Yorkshire seems to have an inexhaustible repertoire of wonderful phrases, idioms words and expressions. If the dialect weren't tricky enough to comprehend, (in certain parts of Yorkshire the intricacies of their vocabulary might warrant a separate language!) the accents across Yorkshire vary incredibly. My mother grew up in West Yorkshire, where some of the most wonderfully exaggerated idiolects can be discovered and so my sister and I have visited our family there throughout our childhoods. I remember one day browsing the comic book shelves of a newsagents with my Mum, the kindly shop-owner wanted to advise me on which comic book...
This week’s 'Word for Wednesday' is‘spell’. The Oxford Dictionary gives a grand total of four different definitions for this word. A reminder of how important context is to the meaning of many words, and why the English language can be so confusing to learn. Since we’re a spelling website let’s start with the most obvious definition; Spell as a verb means to write or name the letters that form a word in the correct sequence. ‘I wish you would learn to spell’. The second definition is a little more archaic, one of spell’s noun definitions is a charm or incantation – a set of words, which supposedly have magical powers. Uses o...
Being born and raised in York, England and looking forward to my holiday visiting friends in Sweden, I started to think about the words that connect our cultures. Many of these words are still used in Yorkshire and are of Old Norse origin. Here are a few examples: Barn (pronounced Bairn) - a young child Beck - a stream Berserk - going mad Brigg - a bridge Cleg - a horse fly Crake - a crow (my parents live in a village called Crayke) Dale - a valley Fell- a hill or mountain Flags - paving stones Flit - to move house ( Are you flitting? ) Foss - waterfalls or rapids - (there is a River Foss in York) Gat - got Gate - Street - Micklegate is a street in York Gawp - look Hey up (s...
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