Today's car ride home thoughts...
'Warn' is a weird word. It's very difficult to say. Well, maybe not difficult, but a little awkward. "Wawrn"...if I were going to make up a word, this is not the collection of letters and sound I'd settle upon.
'Warn' and 'Worn' are the exact same sounds, but are spelled differently. Why is that? Why not just make them homonyms? "He went to worn them that the troops were coming." Works just fine.
Is there a special name for words that sound the same, but have different meanings?
Later that evening (and by later, I mean 15 minutes ago)...
Yes, there is a word for that: Homophone. Duh, similar sounds, but that's not what I was looking for. 'Bear' and 'Bare', yeah yeah, I get it- same sounds. But there must be something for words that sound the same AND have different meanings.
Jackpot. Heterographs. According to "The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems", a heterograph is "A differentiation in spelling that distinguishes different meanings of homophonous words or phrases." Yes! Was this something I learned back in the day but have since forgotten? Hmmm...it doesn't ring a bell. I remember homonyms. And homophones. And technically speaking they're (their, there!) all under the same umbrella; part of the same family. It's possible, I just don't remember.
The Spelling Society. A society for spelling. A smidge dorky, but they must have some thoughts...a ha! (kind of an interesting read)
"The misused word is heterograph. Many dictionaries seem to be unsure of its use, so they omit this word. These are: Thorndike-Barnhart, Murray's Shorter Oxford, 1955, Winston, Century, Collier's. Most of those that do list the word, give only a definition similar to that of the American College Dict.: "Heterography. a spelling different from current usage." Only 3 give the complete (albeit partly erroneous) definition: Webster's Collegiate says (and Webster's New International slavishly copies it). "Heterography. a spelling differing from standard current usage. b. spelling in which the same letters represent different sounds in different words or syllables, as in current English orthography, g as in get, and in ginger." Funk & Wagnals says: "Heterography. 1. orthography in which the same letter represents different sounds in different words or syllables, as c in camp and cent. 2. spelling varying from the standard. 3. heterophemy. a. relating to or characterized by heterography." Apparently none of these three tried to analyze the word "heterograph" to see if it was intended to mean what they say it does. Even a rudimentary knowledge of Latin should tell a person: "different writing," not "different sound." If so many dictionaries are confused, omissive or incomplete, how can the general public be expected to have a clear conception of the meaning of these words? Who should be considered responsible for these words being confused or deceitful? - the dictionary makers?, the teachers?"
Maybe I didn't learn this word back in the day. If the dictionaries struggle to grasp its meaning, I probably missed it somewhere along the way as well. I claim ignorance.
But after reading that article I'm still a little confused by one line: "[Heterographs] are not considered to be homophones." I'm struggling with this. I read both definitions for heterographs and homophones given by the article...and I understand why homophones are not heterographs...but why can't heterographs be considered homophones? I mean, "The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems" uses homophones (okay, "homophoneous") in its definition for heterographs.
And then there's still the matter heteronyms and heterophones...
Ah!!!!
Any help getting my mind around all this would be greatly appreciated. I'm actually very impressed you're still reading this post.
'Warn' and 'worn'...stupid words that are consuming my Friday evening.
~Mikey D
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14 comments:
I probably only understand about 25% of what I just read, but it seems to me that heterographs are words that have different pronounciations of the same letter. (the letter 'g' in 'get' and 'ginger')
So from that definition, 'warn' and 'worn' would not be hetrographs.
The spelling society website offers an inverse definition, namely that different letters are pronounced the same. ('g' in 'gin' and 'j' in 'jinn')
So from that definition, 'warn' and 'worn' would indeed be hetrographs.
However, i'm disinclined to believe the spelling society on this one, as they claim hetrographs are not homophones, yet use the same example for both hetrographs and homophones ('bear' and 'bare')
So I'm going to say that 'warn' and 'worn' are homophones, not hetrographs.
I think I may have a conclusion.
First, the Spelling Society does indeed consider 'worn' and 'warn' heterographs. (http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/j4/heterografs2.php)
I'm not sure I quite agree with your definition that you gave. Of all the examples listed by the Spelling Society, not one seemed to fit the "different pronounciations of the same letter" mold. It was more along the lines of different spelling, same pronounciation, different meanings...
...I think I found my definition. Hetrographs are words with the same pronounciation, but different spellings and meanings. This is similar to the "Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems" definition, but with the intentional omission of the word 'homophones'.
I think I'm okay with heterographs not being homophones, although I think that's being slightly picky. If a word meets the above the criteria I listed in my definition, it is a heterograph first and foremost; it's the best description for a word like that. Could a broader term, like homophone, be used to describe it as well? Sure, but it's not the most specific. It's like going, "Oh, there's a 1970 Ford Mustang". Yeah, well, it's also a car. Both descriptions are right, one's just, uhhh, more right.
The first definition I used came from your post (which I think came from Spelling Society) It cites Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for the "same letter, different pronounciation" definition.
Perhaps that was only included to show that even dictionaries disagree on the meaning of the term?
I agree that the spelling society believes that 'worn' and 'warn' are hetrographs, I'm just not sure I trust their definition of hetrograph.
In any case, I'm ok with defining hetrographs as "words with the same pronounciation, but different spellings and meanings."
How is that different than a homophone though? My definition for homophone has always been "sounds the same, spelled different"
Yea, the Spelling Society was just stating that definition to show that there isn't a consensous "true" definition of heterograph.
As far as homophones go, there are some homophones that are spelled the same. Wikipedia gives the example of 'bear' (the animal, as well as the verb).
When spelled differently, that's when you get the heterographs, which I think are far more common.
But now I have a new question: Why even use the term homophone? Why not classify everything as either a heterograph, or a homograph? It's more specific. Seems like ultimately it would eliminate a lot of confusion. Of course since all we know (or were taught) is homophone, it probably would make things more confusing for most now...but schools should change their ways! I want homophone reform!
I always thought the name for words that are spelled the same but mean different things(as in 'bear' the animal and 'bear' the verb) was homonym.
What's a homonym?
Correct. All homonyms are both homographs and homophones. Same spelling, same sound, but different meanings.
To me they are all the same. If you look at the literal meanings, I suppose you could make a case for "different". Homonym- same name. Homograph- same spelling. And homophone- same sound.
Also, hetronyms are both heterographs and heterophones.
Doesn't it feel like we are making this harder than it has to be??? Shouldn't we make our lives easier and use just a couple of these words?
It doesn't work to use a straight translantion from the etemology though.
homo = same
hetro = different
-nym = name (which could be either spelling or sound)
-graph = spelling
-phone = sound
If that's correct, then it is correct to say that 'worn' and 'warn' are:
a) Homophones (words that sound the same)
b) Hetrographs (words than are spelled differently)
If that's correct, and all homophones are homonyms and all hetrographs are hetronyms, then 'worn' and 'warn' are homonyms and hetronyms at the same time. That shouldn't happen. (sort of like an RAA proof...)
We are definitely making this harder than it has to be. To me, homophone means "same sound, different spellings," and homonym means "same spelling, different meaning"
That's what I learned in elementary school, and that's what I'm sticking with.
Okay, let's clarify/summarize:
1)All homonyms are homophones and homographs. When we say this, we are including words that are spelled the same and sound the same. 'Bear', 'stalk', etc.
2)Not all homophones are homonyms (this is a correction from what I previously wrote). 'Worn' and 'Warn' are same sounds, but not same name, therefore they cannot be homonyms.
3)Some homophones can be heterographs, but not all. Again, 'worn' and 'warn' would qualify as both. 'Bear' would not, as it does not have a different spelling ('bear' and 'bare'...then we're in business).
4) All heterographs are homophones. Same sound.
5) Heterographs cannot be homonyms. Different spelling and same name- these are contradictory. In your "proof" you're are assuming ALL homophones are homonyms (which I did as well), but it's the other way around. And because of that, heterographs fall under the heteronyms branch only.
***
We good with that?
That only made things worse!
I guess I'm still confused by your definition of homonym. What does it mean to "have the same name?" How is that different than having the same spelling?
Why are all heterographs homophones? If heterograph only refers to words that are spelled differently, than it can refer to any two words that are spelled the same, not just ones that have the same sound.
If we are going to add things into the definition of heterograph that aren't in the etemology of the word (such as "sounds the same") than we could just as easily define homophone as "words that sound the same, but are spelled differently."
I think you had it right a few comments back. We should just refer to words as homographs and heterographs (using your definitions) or homophones and homonyms (using my definitions)
This is what makes heterographs so confusing! There is no set definition. Whomever came up with the word itself obviously was looking for something beyond the etemology, but while still trying to keep it in the homophone/homonym/etc relatable realm.
I'm pretty comfortable in saying not all homophones are homonyms, but all homonyms are homophones. I would rather go with all words are either heterographs or homographs. That's seems to be an all-encompassing way to go...I think.
To answer the homograph/homonym question...homographs have same spellings, but have different meanings. So 'bear' is a homograph and a homonym. Same spelling. But not all homographs are homonyms because of words like 'bow', which has same spelling, but can have two different sounds. Then the homograph is a heteronym- different sounds, different meanings...same spelling.
Make sense? I just get so confused with the back and forth. One word can be another, but not the other way around. Or one is sometimes the other, and so on and so on. Throw in the fact they all sound the same...
After thinking about during my sleep, I suppose each word (homonym/homophone/homograph)does have its place. There are cases where a word is one, but not the other two. So calling all words either heterographs or homographs would be incorrect. It definitely would cover MOST word pairs, but not all.
But thinking about it from an education perspective, there is a lot of confusion between the homo- and hetero- terms (I mean, we've been commenting for a week and still haven't gotten things 100% straight!). Why is that? I'm supposing when we were taught it was easier to give us a few of these terms instead of all. Lessen the confusion. Make everything nicer.
So is that the right way to do it? Ultimately a greater confusion (or altogether cluelessness) will be achieved down the road when these terms are encountered. But we are also talking about a set of terms that are rarely used, so I understand that, because of their lack of importance, it's easier to gloss over some.
Just something to think about. At least I know what a heterograph is now!
OK, so let me try out these definitions:
Heterograph: Same sound, different spelling
Homograph: Different sound, same spelling
Homophone: Same sound, spelling doesn't matter
Heterophone: Different sound, spelling doesn't matter
Homonym: Same sound AND same spelling.
Heteronym: Different sound AND same spelling
Is that correct?
fuckthisonym: rhymes AND spelled differently, but must be anagrams AND spelled with an even number of letters AND NOT starting either word with a vowel
Haha, never heard of the fuckthisonym. I'm learning so much!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. We are in complete agreement. Case closed.
Now let's see if we remember all those in a couple months.
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