Writing System Topics by Vivian Cook

General	Writing systems in different languages - some examples of scripts - figures for script users Direction of writing Signs and writing - odd public signs Differences between spoken and written language Street spelling mistakes Children's spelling - prewriting Linguistics and writing Spelling reform (ita, Shavian alphabet etc) - freespeling link (external link) - Twain speech - Shaw Preface Useful Quotations on Writing Some Definitions of terms Novelists' spelling of dialect - eye dialect Alphabets - shapes used as letters - animated development (external link) - alphabets of Europe (external link) Spelling data index page
Punctuation	Punctuation and graphic devices; typefaces and conventions - the Greengrocer's Apostrophe - missing apostrophes - Odd apostrophes - Hyphens - hyphens as links - its and it's - NASA manual link (external link) - Punctuation Project (external link) - omitting word spaces
Computer- Mediated Communication	- summary - e-mails - text messages - chatrooms
Novel spellings	- fish and chip shops - car number plates - pop groups - dogs' names - horses' names - Olde Tyme Spelling - house names - K spellings - shop signs - punctuation in names - numbers as words - businesses etc
English	Changes in the letters of English Samples of English 940-1749 Common patterns of English Letter frequencies for English Past tense rules in written and spoken English Letter to sound correspondences Consonant doubling Silent Letters Rules for English Surnames Unusual English Surnames I before E Linguists' accounts of English spelling: - Venezky - Albrow - Chomsky British and American styles of spelling Alternative sound spelling alphabets homographs (same spelling, different pronunciation): John Higgins' page (external link)
L1 users	English spelling mistakes on the web Native speaker mistakes until/till/'til Olde Tyme Spelling Spelling mistakes by famous writers
L2 users	Summaries of L2 articles 1400 L2 mistakes corpus Spelling mistakes by: - Greek users - Chinese users - Spanish users - Japanese users; Engrish.com (external link) - Bengali children - Koreans L2 experiments L2 learners acquiring spelling
Humorous	Spelling rhymes 1 Spelling rhymes 2 Spelling spoofs Spelling 'jokes' Cockney alphabet Speech Reform
On-line articles etc on spelling by Vivian Cook	Past tense spelling: implications for lexical spelling and dual process models Nu Spelin' 4 Old Getting in a Strop about Spelling Helping children with spelling Is spelling really hard? Hard Spell The Liter Cide to Spelling Can they Spell Your Name in Karachi? American and British Spelling
Books	Vivian Cook (2004),The English Writing System, Edward Arnold Vivian Cook (2004), Accomodating Brocoli in the Cemetary, Profile; paperback, 2005. North American edition, Simon and Schuster, 2005
Spelling Tests	Various tests on different aspects of English spelling are available on-line.
Resources	Booklists
Note: you may need SILDoulos for some of the IPA symbols to work on these pages. It can be downloaded from the Summer Institute of Linguistics.