custody

2. What is the Structure?

At times we get hung up on the “sound” of a word and forget to associate it with meaning. The challenge of proving why <custard> could not be part of <custody> was a task I was invited to explain at a recent Real Spelling Residential Week in France (May 2006). We were analysing misspellings made by 13-year-old entrants to a British public school and we needed to determine what the cause of the misspelling was and how we would prove the correct spelling.

Why there is no custard in ‘Custody’

The first thing I noticed about <*custardy> and <custody> was that they shared the same phonology. I have transcribed on the right the phonology of both <custard> and <custody>.

The stress falls on the first syllable of each word, unstressing the second vowel—hence the shewa.

This indicated that the student had composed the spelling based on a presumption that because the pronunciation of <custard> was the same as the first part of <custody> that they would be spelled the same as well. I also wondered if the child had known what <custody> meant.

1. Analysing the Phonology

The phonology of <custard> →

The phonology of <custody> →

I know that before I can determine the structure of a word I need to know what it means. I knew that <custody> had to do with guardianship or ’the act of keeping safe or guarding…’ and not ‘the thick sweet egg mixture that is often eaten as a dessert’. After a little dictionary investigation, I determined that <custody> comes from the Latin root custōd(ia) from custōs meaning ‘guard’ or ‘defender’.

To prove the spelling, I needed to collect other words that shared this same meaning; there were only two that I knew of: <custodial> and <custodian>. I noticed that in the pronunciation of both these words the stress had shifted to the second syllable and so, by matching graphemes to the phonemes, I was able to reveal the letter needed in the place of the shewa in <custody> and so prove that the letter string <ar> was not a possible option for this family of words.

I could now build my word sums confident that the base element was the bound <custod> and not <custard>.

Oh by the way, one of the wonderful things about English is its flexibility. It is possible to use the spelling <custardy> as an adjective as in:

custodian →

custodial →

the shewa^†

custod + y → custody

custod + y ⁱ + al → custodial

custod + ian → custodian

Phonology of Family Members

Matching Graphemes to Phonemes

Word Sums

3. My Orthographic Analysis

If you want to find out more about how you can use orthographic analysis to assist you in spelling, writing and reading, call Lesley on:

+41 (0)22 960 01 11

or email her at:

wordsliteracy@bluewin.ch

^†The shewa (or schwa) is the most common vowel phoneme in the English language and represents a neutral or collapsed vowel. If you are unaware of this important little phoneme, why not come to a club session and find out all about it?

Phonemes:

Graphemes:

“Oh dear, I think I have made this flan a little too custardy.” or maybe “This is the most custardy dessert I have ever tasted.” or perhaps “This mixture is all thick and custardy.”

What a positively delicious language we have!