Creative Spelling

I used to pride myself on being an excellent speller. I was that annoying kid in elementary school who got 100% on nearly every spelling test without studying too hard.

But bilingualism has sure shaken me up, guys. My serious study of the Spanish language began five years ago, and I love Spanish because just about everything is phonetic. My biggest struggles come when I mix up "b" and "v," and occasionally I flub up with "j" and "g," but for the most part my spelling is spot on, even when I've never seen the word written down.

But then comes English again. And phonetics gets the better of me every time.

Today I accidentally spelled "sour" as "sower" in a text. I stared at the word "yellow" for a solid thirty seconds last school year and was totally dumbfounded by that w on the end--it's totally unnecessary! And that uncomfortable moment when I've reverted to spelling "pterodactyl" without the P and an A instead of an O. And this last one isn't phonetic at all, it's just embarrassing--I've spelled "banana" with too few "an"s and too many "an"s before.

One of my mom's teachers in grade school said to her in a gentle euphemism, "You're my most creative speller." I've joined her ranks in creative spelling, and with her and with many of you, we continue to fight phonetics and "sounding it out" our entire lives.

English spelling, I love you. Because you give me words. But you confuse me.

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