Homophones are two or more words that sound the same but are spelled differently. Homo- is the Greek root for ‘same’, and phon- is the Greek root for ‘sound’, so homophone means ‘same sound’. These are words that can sometimes be confusing for writers. In English, as in other languages, there is an abundance of homophones.
Social Media
When I first started to encounter homophones on the Internet I cringed. I thought to myself don’t these people know the difference? Then I decided that English probably wasn’t their first language. If that’s the case, then it’s more important to get the message across than spelling correctly. Then I saw mistakes again, again and again. The biggest culprits are ‘there’, ‘their’ and ‘they’re’, ‘to’, ‘too’ and ‘two’ along with ‘your’ and ‘you’re’. I’ve even seen ‘no’ and ‘know’ mixed up. I also realized that not all people who make these mistakes are people with English as a second language. More often than not, they are Americans. Ouch.
Very recently a friend of mine posted this picture on her FaceBook page. I’ve written about ‘y’all’ in connection with Swiss German before. This picture translates southern expressions into American English, pretty well. That is, until you come to ‘Bless your Heart’ under which they translate it to ‘Your an idiot’? Really? All I can say to that is ‘Bless there hearts’.
Another time someone paraphrased a song title as a post title: ‘Torn between to lovers, feeling like a fool’. I had to reread that a couple of times before I believed what she wrote.
One very prominent person who ‘tweets’ quite often, has taken homophone mistakes to a completely new level. Even publishers of the American dictionary, Merriam-Webster, couldn’t stifle a comment. This person tweeted something about a ‘White House council’ but meant White House lawyers which would be ‘counsel’. This is what Merriam-Webster wrote:
While still on the same culprit, another tweet went like this: ‘… if not, there [their] blood, sweat and tears was a total waist [waste] of time.’ Merriam-Webster was right, sheesh.
Okay, just because there are so many to choose from, one more. This person wrote about an ‘unpresidented’ [unprecedented] act. I don’t know if that really qualifies as a homophone because ‘unpresidented’ is not a bona fide word. But it does bring up a visual. Wait. Unpresidented. Wouldn’t that be impeachment?
Do Homophones Make a Person?
Like I said, I have no problems when people whose first language isn’t English, make mistakes. Being able to express your thoughts overrides any grammatical or spelling errors. I know that firsthand.
After seeing so many homophone mistakes my thinking has evolved about people with English as their mother tongue. I have come to the conclusion that these people are certainly not dumb. Possibly they simply didn’t read enough well written material when they were young. The other possibility is that these people do not think visually. When they read they don’t associate what the words look like with what they mean. They hear it pronounced the same way and trust context will define the meaning as it does verbally. Either way, it makes for lighter moments seeing words where they don’t belong.
Here’s a cute joke that only works when you see it written. What’s my dog’s favorite button on a DVD remote?
Paws.
The Bear Dance Mix-up
When visiting America a few years ago I watched a show about Appalachian clogging. That’s a regional type of tap dance, similar to Irish dancing but without star allure. The commentator went to the backwoods of the mountains and interviewed people and their dancing. One fellow did a dance he called the bear dance where he imitated a bear. It wasn’t very rhythmic but fascinating to watch.
At dinner that evening I was talking about the different types of dances I had seen. I mentioned the bear dance which caught both my parents full and undivided attention. What kind of show was I watching? The context of what I had said hadn’t defined the meaning. They had understood ‘bare dance’ which produces a completely different image of what was happening. We cleared up the misunderstanding.
But it makes you think, how much can a bare bear bear?
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