#1048 Spelling Spiel

Writing and reading a lot as I do, I often encounter spelling mistakes and mysteries. Like I opened an e-invitation the other day and it said, “your invited.” Y-o-u-r. I wanted to send back a reply that said, “Your invitation was wrong. It should have said y-o-u- apostrophe r-e-. As in, you are invited, not as in your invitation.”
I saw another website written by a purported Marketing VP which said they were passing savings onto the public. Onto was one word. Um, no. Not unless the savings were solid glumps they were passing out of their digestive system. Money savings they would be passing “on”—separate word—“to” the public.
But then again our language is tricky. I use the word “spiel,” for instance, and sometimes I pronounce it like it’s spelled, s-p-i-e-l- but 90% of the time I pronounce it like most folks, schpiel, adding some Germanic or possibly Yiddish “sch” to the whole schpiel deal.
And what would a foreigner make of the following five words? Sold, solder, soldier, should and shoulder. Add the letters e-r- to the end of “sold” and you suddenly have a totally different sound, solder. Now it’s not the person who sold something, it’s a piece of metal that melts easily. Add an “i” between the “d” and the “e” and you get the “sold” sound back. Now you have soldier, who may be a do-it-yourself mechanic, so he would occasionally be sold some solder at the PX.
Should he buy such solder and get a bad deal he may turn to his wife for a shoulder to cry on. Adding those mysteriously magical two letters “e” and “r” at the end of should suddenly changes the pronunciation again. “Should,” formerly with a silent “L” now decides to reveal the glory of its “L” sound and become “shoulder.”
Of course “should” should be spelled liked wood—w-o-o-d-. But then again, how would we spell the would in “how would we spell the would” if we didn’t chuck wood—w-o-o-d-?
Sold, soldier, should, shoulder—the thought makes me shudder.
America, ya gotta love it.