Click
here for today's
suggestion.
Click here
to see the index of all words used so far.
Click here
for a statement of the principles that control the selection of
words.
This page lists some of the words that have been considered but rejected for this project since November 8, 2005. Reasons are coded by number. For a fuller discussion of these reasons, see the discussion of principles that control the selection of words, which appears elsewhere on this website. The numbers there differ from the numbers here, but the order in which the principles are discussed is much the same: (1) tho the present spelling may be less than ideal, it does not actually cause problems of consequence to readers, even new readers; (2) the suggested new spelling is no better than the old; (3) the proposed respelling draws needless fine distinctions that most people don't care about; (4) the suggested reform would create a new homograph with an existing word and thus risk confusion, especially in bits of writing that are less than full sentences, as for instance headlines; (5) THE ONE PROPOSED SPELLING CANNOT ACCOMMODATE ALL EDUCATED PRONUNCIATIONS IN MAJOR DIALECTS; (6) the change is too drastic: a lesser change would suffice and raise fewer objections; (7) the change seeks to replace one well-established pattern with another, for no reason other than consistency; (8) the change is needlessly longer than the traditional spelling, so will arouse avoidable resistance; (9) the change would not work with grammatical endings (e.g., "buz" would become "buzzed" and "buzzing", so there'd be little point to changing the root word to begin with); (10) the reform proposes altering grammatical endings (e.g., -S to -Z; -ED to -D or -T), which this project will not propose; (11) the change would needlessly break apart related words; (12) the change breaks from well understood patterns and proposes a new way of spelling (e.g., -shon for -tion); (12) the proposed new spelling "looks funny" or so "un-English" (even if logical) as would probably make it unacceptable to most people who have already learned to read English; (13) some words just can't be changed because every proposed change has such big problems as to make leaving it as-is seem advisable; (14) the word is too arcane for this project, which addresses words in common use among educated people; (15) the word, in its traditional spelling or as respelled, might be regarded as vulgar or offensive, or provoke snickers in one of the main target audiences for this project, schoolchildren; (16) the word is regarded not as English but foreign, and people would recognize its original spelling but not an anglicized spelling; (17) the word is technical or scientific, not part of the general public's vocabulary, and the specialized audience that uses it would have more difficulty with the simpler spelling than with the more cumbersome spelling they are used to; (18) we do not need to reform the spelling of demi-words, imitative sounds like "eh", "huh", "hm(m)" and "oops" that some people do not regard as words at all; and (19) the proposed respelling consists only of vowels, such as "oo" for "ooh" and "ae" for "eh" — English is uncomfortable with words that consist only of vowels (there being only three, a, I, and O, and each of those is a single letter, not multiple vowels without a consonant).
| Traditional Spelling | Suggested Reform | Reason for Rejection |
[A] |
||
| ambergris | 5 | |
| amine | 5 | |
| amyl | aimil | 5 |
| amoral | aimoral | 5 |
| apartheid | apartate | 5 |
[B] |
||
| baba ganoush, baba ganouj, baba ghanouj | 5 | |
| bastion | baschon | 5 |
| bayou | bieyu, bieyo | 5 |
| belle époque, belle epoque | bellaypauk, bellaipuk (etc.) | 5 |
| biacetyl | 5 | |
| bidet | 5 | |
| billet-doux | 5 | |
| boysenberry | 5 | |
| brasserie | 5 | |
| brougham | [at least 4] | 5 |
| bulimia | 5 | |
| bustier | boostyay, bustyay, busteeyay | 5 |
[C] |
||
| cadet | cadett | 1, 2 |
| carbine | carbeen, (carbyne) | 5 |
| casein | 5 | |
| cashmere | cazhmere | 5 |
| chantey, chanty | shanty, chanty | 5 |
| charmeuse | 5 | |
| cheerleader | cheerleeder | 7 |
| city | citty | 1, and would require many words with -city ending to change |
| clavier | claveer, claeveeyer, clavveeyer | 5 |
| clientele | clientell | 5 |
| colander | collander | 5, 2 (OL/OLL will be read the same by some people) |
| conifer | connifer | 5 |
| cognoscenti | 5 | |
| corymb | 5 | |
[D] |
||
| dais | 5 | |
| deify, deism, deity | 5 | |
| deshabille, dishabille | 5 | |
| diacetyl | 5 | |
| diapason | diapayson, diapayzon | 5 |
| doyenne | 5 | |
[E] |
||
| either | eether | 5 |
| en route | onrute | 5 |
| ensign | 5 | |
| esplanade | 5 | |
| eustachian (tube) | 5 | |
| everybody | 5 | |
[F] |
||
| facile | 5 | |
| faience, faïence | fayonse, fiyonse | 5 |
| familiar | familyer [Unicycle...] | 5 |
| finale | 5 | |
| fluoride | 5 | |
| fluoresce/nt | 5 | |
| forecastle | foaksal, others | 5 |
| fusillade | 5 | |
[G] |
||
| gamine | 5 | |
| garage | 5 | |
| graham | 5 | |
[H] |
||
| haole | houlee [reminded by Music...] | 5 |
| hashish | 5 | |
| hegemony | 5 | |
| hibiscus | 5 | |
[I] |
||
| internecine | 5 | |
| invertebrate | 5 | |
[J] |
||
| jacquard | 5 | |
| joule | 5 | |
[K] |
||
| Kechua | 5 | |
| kind | kiend, kynd, kynde | 13 |
[L] |
||
| loggia | 5 | |
[M] |
||
| machination/s | 5 | |
| maguey | 5 | |
| mah-jongg, mah-jong, mahjongg | 5 | |
| mantra | 5 | |
| maraschino | 5 | |
| metier, métier | 5 | |
| moiré, moire | 5 | |
[N] |
||
| nausea | 5 | |
| neither | neether | 5 |
[O] |
||
| obeisance | 5 | |
| ocelot, oceloid | osselot, osseloid | 5 |
| Om, Aum | ome, aum | 5 |
| opinion, opine | apinyon, apine | first vowel is pronounced differently in verb (long-O) and noun (schwa) |
[P] |
||
| penguin | penggwin [Jacke...] | Not doable. There is a second pronunciation without an NG-sound that cannot be accommodated in one spelling. "Pengwin" might be read as having ONLY an NG-sound, not also a hard-G following, with the new syllable beginning with the W, as in the familiar word "win". |
| peridot | 5 | |
| philistine | filisteen, filistin, filistine | 5 |
| piñata | peenyotta, pinyotta | 5 |
| pinochle, pinocle, penuchle, penuckle | 5 | |
| portiere | 5 | |
| portrait | 5 | |
[Q] |
||
| quaff | quof/f | 5 |
| Quechua, Quichua, Kechua | 5 | |
| quiescent | 5 | |
| quinoa, quinua | 5 | |
[R] |
||
| reconnoiter | 5 | |
| repartee | 5 | |
| risotto | 5 | |
[S] |
||
| satiety | 5 | |
| schism | 5 | |
| seigneur/y | 5 | |
| seignior/ial | 5 | |
| shiitake | 5 | |
| sobriquet, soubriquet | 5 | |
| staff | staf [Orange...] | Better to reserve "staf" for "staph" (short for "staphylococcus") |
[T] |
||
| table d'hote | tobladote [Firewall...] or, perhaps clearer, tobbladote (prescriptivist) | 5 (dictionary shows tób.al doet too) |
| tête-à-tête, tete-a-tete | tatatate, tetatet(t), tettatet(t) | 5 |
| tourmaline | toormaleen, turmaleen, toormalin, turmalin | 5 |
| travertine, travertin | 5 | |
| trebuchet, trebucket | trebushay | 5 |
| tripanosome | tripannosome, tripannosoam | 5 |
| trompe l'oeil | 5 | |
| troposphere | 5 | |
[U] |
||
| ululate | 5 | |
| unite | eunite [Cal...] | There's a n insuperable problem here: "united" as in "United States" would become "Eunited (States)", and people will be loath to change the oft-used abbreviation "U.S." to "E.S." |
[V] |
||
| vasoconstrictor, vasodilation, vasodilitation, vasomotor, etc. | vazo~ | 5 |
| vaudeville | 5 | |
| vermeil | 5 | |
| vertebrate | 5 | |
| vice versa | 5 | |
| vigor | viggor | 1 |
| voyageur | 5 | |
[W] |
||
| waistcoat | 5 | |
| wassail | wossal | 5 |
| water | 5 | |
| Worcestershire (sauce) | Woostersheer, -sher | 5 |
[X] |
||
[Y] |
||
| yeah | yai | 2 |
[Z] |
||
| zebra | 5 | |
| zenith | ||
| zweiback | 5 | |
Click
here for today's
suggestion.
Click here
to see the index of all words used so far.
Click here
for a statement of the principles that control the selection of
words.
Please send comments and suggestions to Fanetiks@aol.com.