Conference thebay::joyoflex

OK, I'll bite, how can we have a spelling game in here if we have to
write down the word in the first place ... unless ....naaaaa that's no
good!


Stuart

Antidisestablishmentarianism is a very long word ... spell it!

My daughter is a poor speller; we have to work with her every night on her 
spelling.  Every once in a while, to break the monotony, when I'm dictating 
the words to her, I slip in a "clinker".  Once in between "legend" and "radio" 
I said "antidisestablishmentarianism", and she spelled it correctly!  It's 
really pretty easy, if you break it down and sound it out.  She also got 
"prestidigitation", and "anthropomorphic" (guessed the "ph" right) but missed 
"onomatopoeia" (that "oe" is sneaky).  And, unfortunately, she also misspelled 
"radeo."

Clay

    let me immediately attempt to rathole this with an I-hope-relevant joke
    (I try to have a joke for EVERY situation in life; I call 'em "classic
    stories):
    
                       "How do you spell onomatopoeia?"
    
                           "Just the way it sounds!"
    
    (RECURSION ALERT!  RECURSION ALERT!!)

    Then of course there are a few good ones like
    
    	diphthong
    	caesarian
    
    and to go with antidisestablishmentarianism we have the non-word
    made famous by Mary Poppins ...
    
        supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
    
    or that town in Wales that ends
    
        .......gogogoch
    
    that I can never remember.

    There is Llanfair, but that's British Rail's shortened version.
    
    I think I have a longer place name then that one.  It is in my atlas
    and seems to be the name of a mountain on New Zealand's North Island,
    the southeast coast.  The shear length of it stretches out over 200
    miles of ocean and attracts the eye.
    
    Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

    Re. 5:
    
    Actually that's only the shortened, official version (57 letters).
    The full, un-official one is 85 letters:
    
    Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronuku-
    pokaiwhenuakitanatahu
    
    Which, of course, means (in Maori):
    
    The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knee who slid, climbed
    and swallowed mountains, known as Traveller (or Land Eater) played on
    his flute to his loved one.
    
    As for Wales, the full name is only 58 letters:
    
    Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
    
    But since the Welsh consider "ch" and "ll" as separate letters they
    would only count 51 letters to this name, which means:
    
    St Mary's church in in a hollow by the white hazel, close to the
    rapid whirlpool, by the red cave of St. Tysilio.
    
    Hans
    

    (Transliterated freely from memory, original(?) Native American name
    for a lake somewhere in Massachusetts (now known as "Lake Chagog" or
    somesuch circumsised :-) version, meaning something like "You fish on
    your side; I'll fish on my side; and nobody fishes in the middle.")
    
    (Transliteration liberties taken to use as many double-letters and
    diphthongs as possible to increase the printout length, but I'm afraid 
    the constituent phonemes are not numerous enough to rival the Welsh or
    Maoris for the Demonsthenes Award.)
    
          (-: And yes, I knew about Coventry too, ::EGGERS! :-)

    Re .5
    >The shear length of it stretches out over 200 miles of ocean
    
    All from one sheep?
    
    Or all from one scissors?
    
    Mispelled!  Mispelled!  Recursion re-alert!  Recursion re-alert!

	Ref .8
    
>>    Mispelled!  Mispelled!  

	Did you misspell `misspelled'?  

	Or are you accusing someone of bad pelling?   :-)

Who needs all of these long words?  I always liked the unit of electrical 
conductivity (it's only three letters long).

		MHO

Larry

    Re: ?

    I had to laugh when my "shear" error was pointed out to me.
    It was not intended as an NZ sheep joke.

    When I make these errors, it is usually the result of first, clumsy
    typing, and second indiscriminate use of the spelling corrector. I've
    seen the number of these errors increase over the last few years, and
    I've become persuaded it is due to the cavalier use and misuse of the
    technology.

    I don't think place-names are allowed in spelling bees. 
    
    I was thinking more along the lines of 
    
    phylum (a direct line of descent within a group)
    
    Confused spellers would possibly try:
    
    filem
    filum
    phylem
    phyllem
    philem
    
    and so on.
     

    Re: .-1

    Then you have never participated in a "geographical spelling bee".

>    I don't think place-names are allowed in spelling bees. 
    
	I distinctly remember winning one in 3rd grade (?) on
	Ceckoslovackia (er, I mean Checkoslovacia, umm, Czkechko-
	shlovakia, no, Czeckoslovakya, wait a minute ...)

		-- Cliff

    >    When I make these errors, it is usually the result of first, clumsy
>    typing, and second indiscriminate use of the spelling corrector. ...
>    ...I've become persuaded it is due to the cavalier use and misuse of the
>    technology.

    I'm glad you recognize the dangers of becoming too reliant on spell 
    checkers and similar tools. For the most part I refuse to have anything
    to do with them. I've seen far too many people (e.g. on my current 
    project) willingly overlook spelling errors on the grounds that "we'll
    just spell check it when we're done". The trouble is they then assume
    it'll correct all their grammar too (a formidable task) and pick up
    "is" for "it", "shear" for "sheer", etc. And meantime I have to grit 
    my teeth whenever I must read one of their "drafts". Still, I know
    I'm not prefect myself ALL the time.

    ...Robert

    Right, and that last one won't be cought by spell.

>>    Right, and that last one won't be cought by spell.
					 ^
					 |
	Will that one? -------------------

    Yes.
    
    I checked to be sure.