Appy Nu Year!

It’s a new year off course. Twenty thirteen! We’re living the future. And nothing spells future better than SPELLING DEVIATION.

Appy Feet shop at Meadowhall in Sheffield

Now, when SMS (Short Message Service), email, and Facebook are part of our daily lives, when we are constantly communicating with others using a computer keyboard or mobile keypad (virtual or not), spelling deviation is an undeniable trend. Actually, this is the most ordinary type of deviation one may find in English. 'Sox' - Stall at Doncaster Market 'YULE' - Sign in Front of The Library pub at Headingley Ln_Leeds To explore spelling deviation in English properly I’d have to start a blog exclusively on the topic. So, within the limitations of a single post, I invite you to observe pics of signs with spelling deviations that, perhaps, reveal tendencies for a new Standard. Stalls just a few metres from each other at Doncaster Market These two stalls, at Doncaster Market, sit just a few metres from each other. In the left ice cream and dough nut are spelt as two separate words each, whereas in the right ice cream is spelled as one word, and the spelling of dough nut is simplified to donut. Standard spell is a question of convention and formalisation for reasonable use of writing in society.  OK Comics: Livraria no Thorton's Arcade (Briggate_Leeds  Spelling deviation is generally an issue of practicality and economy – i.e. communicate a word with less effort, omitting the spell of unheard consonant or vowels sounds.  Example of this is the spelling of Daughter as Dotter in the title of Mary Talbot's book.  'Quiz Nite' The Centurion pub at Vicar Cross_Chester  Nite is a word that has its own entry in the Concise OED, under the label ‘informal’, as “a non-standard spelling of night”.   'Midnite' & 'Coffee 'n' cake' - Café at Headingley Lane_Leeds  And Nite seems to be quite favoured in signs - at least, this is the evidence I've got in the North.

Shop at Sunbridge Road_Bradford

’n’ or ’n, is another example that has a formalised entry in the Concise OED as a contraction of and.

Naturally, there are types of spelling deviation which actually points to a different type of linguistic deviation. 

LEASAGNE is a perfect example.

Outdoor em Bradford Interchange_2011

But this is topic for a future post.