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prettygoodword ([personal profile] prettygoodword) wrote2010-04-05 07:27 am

heterography

heterography (het-uh-ROG-ruh-fee) - n., a spelling different from that in current use; (ling.) the use of a single grapheme (or combination of graphemes) to write more than sound.


For the first meaning, when writing quickly I sometimes write tho or tho' instead of though -- in this sense, as opposed to orthography (the correct way of writing). For the second meaning, English is filled with examples: -ough can be pronounced at least 6 different ways if you cough enough through the slough -- in this sense, as opposed to homography (a single way of writing). Hetero- as an English prefix means both different and other, where "other" can have the connotations of wrong, and comes from the Greek héteros, the other of two options.

---L.

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