Avoiding spelling mistakes
New Haven
When we are writing theses or academic research projects, it is expected that we will not know the correct spellings of every place name in the world. Often when we must write full publication information for a book, we include the names of cities that we are not familiar with. In such cases, it always helps to take a moment to Google the name of the city to make sure that we have spelled it correctly.
Even if we are almost certain that we have got it right, it is a good policy to check, to be 100 percent sure. That way, we will avoid unintentionally offending university ajarns and students from that place by spelling it wrong. We show respect for the place by taking the trouble to spell its name correctly. Even if the wrong spelling is entertaining and amusing, it does not reflect well on us if we get this kind of detail wrong.
Readers of our thesis or research may wonder if we are careless, when we spell something simple like this wrong. They may suspect that other details in our research are wrong too. In Thai English writing, we sometimes see the name of the city New Haven written wrongly as New Heaven.
New Haven is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is mainly important in world publishing as the base of the Yale University Press. The Thammasat University Library owns many books published by the Yale University Press.
Typical Koha entries follow:
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- 1688 : the first modern revolution / Steve Pincus.
by Pincus, Steven C. A.
Material type: book Book; Format: print; Literary form: Not fiction
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2009
- 95 theses on politics, culture, and method / Anne Norton.
by Norton, Anne.
Material type: book Book; Format: print
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2004
- Absence of mind : the dispelling of inwardness from the modern myth of the self / Marilynne Robinson.
by Robinson, Marilynne | Dwight Harrington Terry Foundation.
Material type: book Book; Format: print; Literary form: Not fiction
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, 2010
- Advanced Russian through history : [dela davno minuvshikh dneµi] / Benjamin Rifkin, Olga Kagan, with Anna Yatsenko.
by Rifkin, Benjamin, 1960- | Kagan, Olga | Yatsenko, Anna Anatolevna.
Material type: book Book; Format: print
Publisher: New Haven [Conn.] : Yale University Press, c2007
- After Buddhism : rethinking the Dharma for a secular age / Stephen Batchelor.
by Batchelor, Stephen.
Material type: book Book; Format: print regular print; Literary form: Not fiction
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2015
- After the circus / a novel by Patrick Modiano ; translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti.
by Modiano, Patrick, 1945- | Polizzotti, Mark.
Material type: book Book; Format: print regular print; Literary form: Novels
Publisher: New Haven : Yale University Press, c2015
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These are just a few of the books from Yale University Press in the TU Library collection with titles that begin with the letter A. Clearly any thesis or academic research project is likely to mention New Haven, Connecticut. Spelling any place name is a challenge for writers of Thai English. Googling the names is the best way to avoid issues.
There is a further difficulty with spelling the city of New Haven correctly. With other cities, if we spell the name wrong, sometimes our Word document spell check program will automatically inform us if we have made a mistake. But the most common wrong spelling for New Haven, New Heaven, will not be caught by spell check because the words Haven and Heaven are both valid English words.
The noun haven means a place of safety or refuge, a retreat, shelter, or sanctuary. It derives from an old German word meaning harbor. So if we are in a haven, we are like a ship that is in a harbor, rather than out on the dangerous open sea.
The noun Heaven usually applies to a place where God and angels live, above the sky. It is a form of paradise or nirvana. Heaven is a very old concept, and the English language word derives from a German term, also meaning heaven. The word heaven appears in a number of idiomatic expressions, such as in seventh heaven. This refers to religious doctrine of Islam and the Kabbalah, both of which state that the seventh heaven is the highest heaven of all.
Starting in the 1800s, if people were described as in seventh heaven, it meant that they were very happy and felt very fortunate. A less pleasant idiomatic expression is when something is described as smelling to high heaven. This suggests that the odor of something rises high into the sky, and is quite prominent. The odor may be a real odor, or the phrase may just suggest that something wrong has occurred.
A similar reference appears in the play Hamlet (1601) by William Shakespeare, where a character regrets killing someone:
Claudius: O, my offense is rank! It smells to heaven. It hath the primal eldest curse upon’t. A brother’s murder.
The best way for writers of Thai English to avoid writing Heaven when they mean Haven is to keep in mind that Haven is also a valid word. We might also remember the sentence:
New Haven is not heaven.
Here are some usage examples:
- The strong Thai baht is still a big problem for Thailand’s industries, exports and tourism, key drivers of the Thai economy. The baht’s strength has been partly driven by Thailand’s high current account surplus of US$17 billion this year, attracting investment in the currency as a ‘safe haven’.
- The Maiiam Contemporary Art Museum, located in Baan Ton Pao, a 15-minutes drive from central Chiang Mai, won the “Best New Museum in Asia Pacific” award at the Leading Cultural Destination (LCD) Awards. Judges of this prize are cultural experts from around the world, recipients are the most visionary art institutions of their respective regions. This awards puts Chiang Mai, a haven of traditional arts and handicrafts, on the global map of Modern Art destinations.
- Time to punish countries that harbour fugitives. Judging by news reports in recent years, Dubai appears to be the preferred safe haven for wealthy fugitives from justice.
- Thai fugitives and safe havens. It seems like local economic fugitives find and get a safe haven in Dubai.
- Industry minister offers Thai haven for China’s trade war victims.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)