Avoiding spelling mistakes.

University    

For anyone who works, teaches, or studies in or near a university library, the word university is obviously important. The Thammasat University Libraries own many books published by the world’s leading university presses. In Thai English, the word university is sometimes spelled wrong at least six ways, as univeristy, univerity, universty, univesity, unversity, and unviersity. We all know that a university is an institution of higher learning where teaching and research occur and which grants academic degrees. So why is this familiar word spelled wrong so often? Perhaps because it is familiar, we pay less attention when typing it than with unfamiliar words. If we keep in mind where the word originated, it may be easier to spell it right. A thousand years ago or so, when universities were first founded in Europe, the idea was to have a corporation or collectivity of learning. People would join together, assembling in order to learn better. The Latin word universus, meaning whole or entire – as in the word universe – seemed appropriate. It described the idea of bringing people together in relatively large groups, instead of everyone studying alone. In Latin, the term for a community of masters and scholars, universitas magistrorum et scholarium, became popular. Over the years, the French word université or universality, the Spanish word universidad, the German word universität, and others echoed this meaning of everybody studying together. You do not have to remember these words origins, but they may help when you think about how to spell university. In some countries, people use the slang abbreviation uni for university. This is a reminder of the first three letters that begin the word. If you keep this in mind, you will never try to spell university as unversity or unviersity by mistake. If you think about the relationship to the word universe, then other wrong spellings of university should also seem less likely.

In Thai English, we sometimes see the plural form universities spelled wrong as universites, universties, and unviersities. Thinking about the universe and universal things should also help us to avoid such errors.

Cambridge    

An old and famous university in the UK is found in the city of Cambridge. The TU Libraries own many books published by the Cambridge University Press. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are located in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. So this is a place name which often needs to be spelled correctly. In Thai English, it is sometimes spelled wrong as Cambride. This may because non-native writers of English think of the letters bride as a valid way to end a word, since they do in fact form an English word. Unfortunately, they do not form the correct word, since the name Cambridge originally had something to do with a bridge. Around 1500 years ago, the city’s name was Grontabricc or bridge on the river Granta. Over the centuries, the river’s name was adapted to Cam, meaning crooked. The name Cambridge still refers to a bridge over a crooked river. If we remember the bridge, we will spell the place name wrong as Cambride less often.

Kingdom    

As everyone knows, Thailand is a Kingdom along with Belgium, Bhutan, Cambodia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and many other countries. In Thai English the word Kingdom is sometimes spelled wrong as Kingdon. This may be because some people hear the word as ending with the sound of the letter n instead of the letter m. It can help to remember that Kingdom is one of the many words in English that end in the letters dom. The letters dom can refer to a condition or quality, such as in the words boredom, freedom, martyrdom, and wisdom. The same three letters can also refer to a place that is owned or ruled over by a person or group, such as Christendom – meaning parts of the world where Christianity is influential – computerdom, or dukedom. The world of fans of almost anything may be called fandom, just as the world of movies can be referred to as filmdom.

Tobacco

Another work that is not spelled the way some Thai speakers of English say it is tobacco, which in Thai English is sometimes spelled wrong as tabacco. It is confusing that in many other languages, the word for the name substance is not spelled as it is in English. In Spanish and Portuguese, the word is tabaco. The term may originate in an Arabic word for herbs, tabbaq, from almost 1500 years ago. Yet for almost 600 years the word has been spelled tobacco in English and not tabacco. One way to remember the correct spelling is to make up a little phrase to remember, such as

It is not easy to spell tobacco.

The presence of the word to just before the word tobacco may remind you that the word starts with the letters to and not ta. You may also wish to remember that in standard English, the word tobacco sounds more like the way it is spelled than tabacco. Some people may pronounce it more like tabacco, but  in standard English that is not correct.

Technical, Technology

When writing about institutions of learning, the words technical and technology are especially useful. In Thai English, they are sometimes spelled wrong as techncal or Techincal; or technolgy or tecnology. The English word originally derives from an Ancient Greek term for skill, so we must use special skill to write in correctly. Even for native English speakers, the spelling may seem odd or unusual. Yet many familiar English words start with the letters techn, in addition to technical and technology:

technique

techno music

technocracy   

technocrat

technophile    

technophobe

All these useful words relate to the original meaning of the word technical. The more such words you know, the more likely you will avoid leaving out letters or putting them in the wrong order when you must spell the words technical or technology.

Proceedings  

This word in English refers to things that happen according to a series of rules, or customs. In the world of law, legal action may be referred to as criminal proceedings. Less formally, we may call what happens at a gathering proceedings if they follow a certain pattern, such as at academic conferences. The TU Libraries owns many examples of scholarly proceedings, or published reports of conferences and other academic gatherings. It may confuse some people that although we are referring to a single book, it should nevertheless be titled Proceedings and never just Proceeding. This is because a collection of proceedings from a conference always contains many different scholarly writings, and never just a single one. So we consider the single book as a kind of plural.

All court proceedings are required to be conducted in Thai language.

The judgment creditor will have to start new civil proceedings in Thailand.

ThaiTESOL Conference Proceedings 2014

Proceedings of the 2014 SIAM International Conference on Data Mining

Proceedings of the 13th AITVM Conference Bangkok 23-26 August 2010.

Proceedings of the members’ assembly, World Conservation Congress, Bangkok, Thailand, 17-25 November 2004.

A petition to start the proceedings may be lodged by any person who believes that his/her human rights or fundamental freedoms have been violated.

Khun Arunprapa tells the crowd that she would like to start the proceedings and asks if anyone is missing.

Khun Natchaya headed toward the lectern to start the proceedings.

He asked his photographer friend to start the proceedings by clicking some pictures of the three friends.

There were three specific actions to start the proceedings of a cricket match.

(all images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).