The Misspelling <*clenleness>

Reason for misspelling

This misspelling is due to the young British writer using sound rather than structure to determine the spelling. The writer is no stranger to real spelling and usually follows a systematic and analytical process to the writing of words. This word was the only misspelling in a page of text which for this dyslexic boy is a huge achievement in itself.

Proving the Correct Spelling

To help this writer get to the structure of this word, we needed to find the base element.

This can be done by first identifying any prefixes or suffixes and then establishing the base element for the word. There are two suffixes in this case: <-ness> and <-ly>. Identifying these suffixes enabled the writer to determine the correct spelling of the junction between the stem and the final suffix. It also identified the base element as the free base <clean>.

The next question then was:

How do you determine which graphemes can be used to represent the vowel phoneme / i: / in this word?

After collecting a list of possible options we looked at the various circumstances for each. Only the grapheme < e > and the digraph < ea > had the flexibility to represent the phonemes / i: / as in <tea> and / ε / as in <them>.

The problem with the single grapheme < e > is that it needed a final, silent < e > to indicate that it was representing the phoneme / i: / as in <theme>. This left < ea > as the only possibility.

A look at the phonology of each word identified why it was necessary to use a grapheme that had this flexibility. The words <clean> and <cleanliness> are pronounced differently even though they are spelt with the same base element.

Understanding the circumstances that control the use of key graphemes makes it a lot easier to determine which you can use in the spelling of certain words.

Misspelling:

*clenleness

Stem:

*cl?nly

Word sum:

clean + ly ⁱ + ness

Suffixes:

< ly > + < ness >

Graphemes used to represent phoneme / i: /

Word sum:

*cl?nly ⁱ + ness

If you would like to find out more about the circumstances in which you would use each of these graphemes refer to Kit K, Theme F of the Real Spelling Toolkit

clean

cleanliness

Phonology of each word:

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