Historical Reading and Spelling

[MacWage]

I was wondering . . .

For those that read (or try to read) period writings with period spellings,

Do you find your spelling goes down the tubes?

Mine DEFINATELY does. Is that common, or is it just me?

[McMurdo]

Well I was a proofreader for 13yrs, so for me no the spelling does not suffer. Right now, actually I am reading "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens.

[MacWage]

I am talking about the 1500s through 1800, before spelling was standardized anything close to modern spellings.

[JimB]

No I don't think my spelling goes down. In fact, I pick up on the differences pretty quickly and wonder about the freedom people seem to have felt back then to spell things any darn way they wished. Kinda fun really.

I have noticed that my vocabulary has increased a lot and I'm picking up more arcane words into my everyday speech. When you read this stuff daily like I do, it sort of creeps in.

Right now I'm reading "Our First Revolution" by Michael Barone. It's about the English revolution of 1688 and how it impacted our American Revolution. The right to bear arms came right out of this.
Fascinating.

PS......please ignore any misspellings in the above :-)

[McMurdo]

I am talking about the 1500s through 1800, before spelling was standardized anything close to modern spellings.

Oh alright, well to answer your question no that does not degrade my spelling either.

[AtagahiKC]

No, but everytime I try to learn a new language, my spelling suffers immensely.

I blame French for my subsequent spelling deficiencies. I was a perfect speller before then. Cherokee wasn't as much a problem since it uses non-Roman characters. Italian screwed up my spelling again.

I also find that if I read too many things from the U.K., then the odd "u" creeps into "color" or other words. It's so sad that the entire U.K. spells things incorrectly, really. (Just kidding!!)

I'm a "visual speller". It is kind of like a weird version of a photographic memory. When I read, pictures of the words go into a sort of picture database in my mind. When I'm spelling, I notice that I am subconsiously checking my spelling against those pictures of the words.

When I study other languages or read U.K. prose, it tends to screw up my picture database and spelling chaos ensues.

It may be that you are a visual speller, as well. If so, relax and enjoy its quirky nature. It's unpredictability simply means that you are well-read and have varied interests in reading material.

[Ozman1944]

I guess it's just you; lol (by the way-it's "Definitely" , no "a"). I think what happens is you get so into what you are reading, you don't notice the odd spelling, but just accept it and rad on, but you brain retains it and pops it out next time you write something. For me, I always notice the olde tyme spelling, think "how weird", then move on.
But you probably retain more of the knowledge from what you read than I do. Most Americans don't spell that well anyway - they keep dropping their "U". Colour, Flavour, doughnut, etc. :-)

[McMurdo]

Snip...I think what happens is you get so into what you are reading, you don't notice the odd spelling, but just accept it and rad on,/Snip

Hey Ozman it's read not rad

Have you been doing some historical reading?

[TheSp8]

Wasn't it Jefferson that said he had no respect for a man that only knew one way to spell a word? Given that, my spelling generally doesn't degrade very much but I'll tend to speak and write in a more archaic style.

YMOS,
Tony

[brandycr]

It doesnt bother my reading but ive noticed I pick up speech patterns and accents if Im around them much.Dont even notice till someone points it out quess thats just mt inner odd coming out lol .