Spelling Questions on ELU

Question

I haven't been around here for very long, however I've been around here long enough to see patterns and get a sense of people's quirks, pecadillos and idiosynchrosies.

I have noticed that questions concerning spelling have frequently received comments and even answers that amount to "Because it's English, that's why."

I'm not talking about questions such as "Should I write centre or center?" or "Is it OK to put a hyphen in to-morrow?" (although I feel that those questions could lead to thoughtful and educational answers that would help the site maintain an image as an authority.) I'm talking about questions such as Why is "build" spelt with a "u"?.

This question was answered. I'm not knowledgeable about spelling so I can't judge the answer. As of this moment the question has not been closed. (Maybe we should have a few bookies around here that can take bets on how fast questions are closed and by whom.)

That said, I have seen countless other questions of a similar nature either closed or denigrated with comments that are literally "It's English--get over it."

I'd like to make the case that questions about the history of English spelling (even the "dumbo" questions) are quite on topic, relevant, and can contribute to the quality of the site. Isn't spelling and pronunciation an integral part of etymology? Isn't it a fact that when looking up a word's history that there are spelling and pronunciation changes that are important or contribute to our current definition? Isn't it a fact that many of these questions can't be googled because they require specific knowledge and the ability to assemble that knowledge into a cohesive answer?

I'd also like to say that if you don't know anything about English spelling or don't have the credentials to intelligently comment on the subject, you shouldn't be answering / commenting "It's English, that's why." When I first started on this site, there were a few users who answered spelling questions with long, scholarly answers that were awe-inspiring and humbling. I couldn't understand a lot of them but I could definitely tell these people knew what they were talking about. They were standard bearers that made me think twice about posting my answers. I don't see them around.

I suspect that the answer I will receive is "The community decided these questions are off-topic." Ok, fine. But what are the credentials for these people saying that spelling questions can't be answered or that we will never know because English spelling is a mystery? If your credentials are "I studied it in college while majoring in English," or "I did a research paper on The Canterbury tales and allusions in it to Beowolf." ok, I would trust that person's opinion. But if your credentials are "Why do I need to tell you?" or "I like reading about it in my spare time." I'm not so sure that is good enough to be closing questions as "unanswerable." I'm not saying everyone that answers needs to be currently involved in a Shakespearean quarto research project at Cambridge with an emphasis on spelling variations between 1606 and 1607 but some authority or genuine knowledge might be good.

I say we should expand a bit and let these questions be welcomed and answered. I say, if you don't know anything about the subject don't answer / comment / close vote. We can all learn something by inviting more of these types of questions, and it can help the site be more authoritative and inviting.

Answer 1

Both spelling and etymology questions are officially on-topic, which from my point of view makes questions about the spelling history of a single word on-topic. I would certainly oppose it if the question you linked to got closed; fortunately, I don't see any signs that this is going to happen.

I do find it irritating when people leave comments just saying "because." But I can also see to some degree where this is coming from: "why" questions can sometimes seem to be based on false or naive premises, which is frustrating. The people who leave these comments are certainly not all ignorant: I've seen very educated people make comments like this. They are trying to be helpful by discouraging people from looking for not-very-useful historical "explanations" as a practical guide to spelling words.

However (I saw a comment making the following point somewhere but frustratingly can't find it): this is a site for "linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts." We should assume that people asking questions here either already understand that spelling doesn't correspond one-to-one with pronunciation. If you disagree with this assumption, please at least assume that while that they would benefit from learning this, they also want to learn the (often complicated and unclear) specific reasons underlying specific cases: not for practical reasons, but just out of curiosity or academic interest. And often there are real reasons and applicable general principles, not just idiosyncrasies. Even in cases where there aren't, where professional sources are stumped and have no answer, find a citation for this! "Just because" is definitely not a satisfactory answer. There is a whole site for English language learners where people can ask questions if they don't want to get complicated answers.

Answer 2

I was preparing for a similar question about punctuation questions which read more like a proof-reading request and answers are sometimes primarily-opinion-based. Good answers to punctuation questions quote some manuals, but there are no hard-and-fast rules on punctuation. I think questions on spelling has similar characteristics.

Questions about English spelling are tricky. Almost all the English words that we know at present time were spelled differently before Great Vowel Shift. If someone asks me "Why is that?", I would answer, "Because they were different in OE and ME in terms of pronunciation and sometimes their meanings. And those words have come to be the way they are now.

I fully understand why you are raising this issue and I would like to play the devil's advocate here.

I am not a linguist nor an etymologist. But if pressed to answer the linked question, I would say build is spelled that way to differentiate it from bild, biuld, buld or whatever form. "The major goal of the English writing system is not merely to ensure accurate pronunciation of the written word – it is to convey meaning". A quote from Importance of Spelling.

There could be millions of questions on spelling, i.e. Why does knight have K while night doesn't?, Why do guilt and quilt have u (very similar question to build)? Why is Mississippi so complicated? Why do ought, fought, sought, and caught, ect. have gh in them? I mean I could swamp this community with this kind of question if I make up my mind to sabotage (?) this community.

The key question is "Are they useful to users in this community?" I don't think every user would have the same opinion on this. Some might find this useful and some might not.

IMO, those questions that could interest as many current and future users as possible should be encouraged with upvotes.

It seems "Why is that?" type of question doesn't work very well in this community. If the question was asking about a specific trend of English spelling together with guilt, quilt or other similar words, it would have received more upvotes. But as it is, the question is about one specific word that looks like a few exceptions.

I upvoted the question and answer, but I am not sure if I would if someone asks a question about guilt in the future.