Post by t-bob on Jul 27, 2019 10:03:19 GMT -5
noun
1. the use of the same letter or combination of letters to represent different sounds, as, in English, the use of s in sit and easy.
Quotes
... the whole world lies in heresy or schism on the subject of orthography. All climates alike groan under heterography. -- Thomas De Quincey, "Orthographic Mutineers," Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 14, March 1847 Of course everybody recollects the great phonetic mania of some years ago,—and how Mr. Pitman and his followers denounced English spelling as heterography, and organized an orthography of their own ... -- "Visible Speech," Littell's Living Age, Vol. 83, October 15, 1864
Origin
Orthodoxy "correct belief" is to heterodoxy as orthography "correct writing" is to heterography. The combining form hetero- comes from the Greek adjective héteros “one of two, the other, different.” (Even in ancient authors, words prefixed with hetero- were ambiguous: heterodoxía could mean “difference of opinion” and “error in opinion.”) Heterography originally meant “misspelling, incorrect spelling, bad spelling” (like awsome, kat, miniscule), then “irregular or inconsistent spelling,” which is usual in English: consider the value of c in call and cell, or of -ough in bough, cough, rough, though, or through. Heterography entered English in the late 18th century.