Funny Phonetics

The look of amazement ,on my Italians students' faces ,when they discovered how to spell "daughter", was  almost comical. "But why ?", they asked. I had no explanation.
Another time, teaching a class of unruly 8 year olds, I told them to spell"earthquake", the ones that got it right would get a prize.Even the ones full of bravado got in a panic. After that, they were putty in my hands.

Italian is a much more phonetic Language. Italian children start school in September in the year of their Sixth birthday, and by Christmas can spell almost any word.
Not so In Britain. We had dictations up till the age of 15. I struggled with "separate" and "independent" for a long time.
George Bernard Shaw, the Irish writer, wanted to reform English spelling to make it more logical. He use the following word to prove his point. "Ghoti", he said this could be pronounced as "fish",
gh-as in rough, o as in women, ti as in nation.
When he died in 1950 he left money to develop a new phonemic alphabet. It is yet to happen.
When I do the spell check on my computer, it's mainly to make sure I didn't make mistakes, due to typing errors. I like to think my spelling is fine.
We always had spelling tests and dictations at school, but in America they made it sound more fun, by having "Spelling Bees".
The United States National Spelling Bee was started way back in 1925, but only in 2009, was one started for schools in Britain. It is run by The Times newspaper.
I know of two lovely films about Spelling Bees. One is called, Akeelah and the Bee, from 2006, it's called "Una parola per un sogno" in Italian. The other, Spellbound (<= click for trailer on YouTube - 2:22) from 2002.

Often, the spelling check on the computer, corrects words with "S", "c" or "z",
I have just discovered why.
In some words, in British English, the noun has a "c" and the verb has an "s".
For example, The doctor is going to practise at his Practice.
Oscar Wilde advised to pass on good advice, it's the only thing worth doing with it.
For Americans, it is often the other way round.
In 1828, Noah Webster published "An American Dictionary of the English Language".
He didn't like the way lots of words were spelled.
Among others he changed, centre to center, theatre to theater, honour to honor, humour to humor.

Webster was the man, mostly responsible for the differences  between American and British spelling.

Last week when the Polar Vortex was making America freeze, the coldest town was called "Embarrass", I wonder how it got it's name, but I'm sure that was one of my challenges in Spelling tests.