Word Play: Illiteration
This one is from Gram. In the continued spirit of playing with words and all the many things that can go wrong in the English language, I want to share a word from the Urban Dictionary. A few examples follow the definition. I hope you enjoy 😀
Illiteration –
1. The repetition of spelling mistakes in the consonant sounds of words.
“Sychologists pstudy sychology” is an example of illiteration.
2. The use of illiteracy and general lack of knowledge of the english language to embarrass oneself.
“I don’t have a car. Your going to half to take me their.”
“That was a horrifying display 0f illiteration. I hope you cry yourself to sleep tonight.”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=illiteration
My first thought was, “Hmmm, I think I can find a few examples on Facebook, so I went trolling and . . .
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
►”Your suppose to take me to the store…”(You’re; supposed)
►”Someone was surly watching over me.” (surely)
►”I have a sprang wrist.” (sprained)
►”…ur body know what u need.” (You’re; you)
►”…you are to nice…” (too)
►”…thinks she’s getting a call tomorrow she’s got another thing commin” (think coming)
►”…my internet is off rite now.” (right)
►”…messages you mite have sent…” (might)
►”…looks like my ___ maybe born today…” (may be)
And in other places:
►”at a lost for words?” (loss)
►”…and further going on to ….” (OK, this one is just redundant, but I like it 🙂
►”pas” (past) ►”I have an ideal (or idear).” (idea) ►”suppose to” (supposed)
►”warsh” (wash) . . .
I’m going to leave some of the fun to you. Do you know someone who uses illiteration? Do you have any examples? Would you like to share? Um, I mean share the illiteration, not the person 🙂
I have to admit I have about 5 words that I always misspell the first time I write them. Aware of my problem, I go back and check these words out. I often know how to spell them correctly but still misspell them every time! Maybe you share this failing? One word is judgement (actually spelled judgment). Another is definately (actually spelled definitely). Come on, confess; you have issues too, don’t you?
I also want to offer an apology to anyone recognizing him/herself in this post. No disrespect was meant (and it may not have come from you). I love these types of errors and the people who execute them. (pun intended). So, hang in there with me and laugh. You might as well 😀
Have an illiterate free day!
Related articles
- Why knowing how to spell is important (sticklersforsyntax.wordpress.com)
- 10 Words People Still Can’t Spell (scepticalprophet.wordpress.com)
- Intentional Spelling – #1 Know the rules (teacherlingo.com)
- Posted in: Challenge ♦ Creative writing ♦ Language Play ♦ Laughter ♦ Writing
- Tagged: Dictionaries, English language, Facebook, illiteration, Language, language play, Linguistic, Literacy, spelling, Urban Dictionary
ansuyo
writing with both sides of my brain 
Well, I was thinking you read my blog…now I really know fore sure! 🙂
Ha ha ha ha. Pretty sure I didn’t get anything from your blog 🙂
uh oh…..guess I better go back to school… ;0
Wow! a like-minded person out there! Nice blog.
Thank you and thanks for dropping by!
Illiteration not to be confused with alliteration.
I saw a billboard once which had you’re instead of your. Ouch. My teeth hurt when I saw that one.
Lol. You would think the majority of people (especially those creating billboards…) would get that one before they get out of elementary school. I guess not! 🙂 Angie
I remember from linguistics class back in my uni days that there is a school of thought where mistakes are regarded as learning windows. Yes mistakes can be beautiful but we have to learn from them, not continually commit the same ones. I can understand why people shorten words like ‘you’ to ‘u’ in the case of text messages because they want to maximise their message using limited characters. But errors like ‘your’ instead of ‘you’re’ in its right sense make me cringe every single time. Really makes me wonder what is going on in English classes these days. Oh and I tend to spell ‘definitely’ as ‘definately’ too….haha…
In my research, I found that many people tend to misspell definitely. It’s how we pronounce it that causes the problem. The English learned today is definately not what I was taught! I make plenty of mistakes, but they are errors and not a lack of knowledge. I hope people keep doing it, however, because it’s hilarious at times. The real fun is when people have no idea. Thanks for dropping in. 🙂 Angie
I got a text message from my niece and ended up asking my nephew to translate it for me.
That aside, this was a great post.
Thanks Mike! The sad thing is that kids come up with this stuff to keep us from knowing what they’re talking about (or is that there/their 🙂 That’s a good reason to try to keep up with it if you have kids/grandkids. 🙂 Angie