Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

There's a linguistic affliction (been trying for ages to find the name for this – it's not  homonym  . . .) where a similarly-sounding word or phrase is written or spoken  incorrectly  - usually due to not-ever having seen it written down.

My ma-in-law was as sharp as a needle but left school at the age of 9 (nine) without being able to read. She had the  ability  to read people like a book (!) but couldn't use words. She knew which of our friends were having affairs long before anyone else caught on. But she came out with words like "hammer rack" instead of "anorak".  

It's partly ignorance and partly laziness and a bit of habitual-familiarity thrown in. (It wasn't until I was 19 that I heard the word "pamphlet" spoken. I always thought of it as, and said it as, "pamplet".)

I write professionally now (reviews mostly) and have been amazed at my colleagues coming out with these . . . whaddyucallems. Of late "hidden in the midst of time" springs to mind. (My wife recounted something similar in that at school (England) and reading Catcher in the Rye she read "sonofabitch" as so-nova-bitch - never having heard it spoken.)

This 'affliction' is widespread. But the thing is that it's all about communication. It might be  grammatically  incorrect but everyone understands what you're  saying. I citrd wtsye ary otd svht of sfetf asnd yiu wnmuyd udgsreawd wset it mrqrt. The brain picks up on it and fills out the gaps. The  blindingly  precise glistening shades of meaning of words . . .

. . . that's another thing altogether.

Neither can I, CheddarMelt.   I don't think it's you.

I think what robsamui is describing ("hammer rack" and"anorak") is the mondegreen phenomenon of near homophony - the brain converting something unknown or simply misunderstood into something familiar.

I think telemath decoded it:
I citrd wtsye ary otd svht of sfetf asnd yiu wnmuyd udgsreawd wset it mrqrt.
"I could write any old sort of stuff and you would understand what it meant."

I guess for some the declaration was true, but for me and others it was false.

I also don't think that the "decoded" sentence, as entertaining as it was,  has anything to do with the malaprops of this thread.   Most of those types of malaprops I've seen seem to come from people hearing words or phrases that they've never seen written - and then attempting to write them.   Like writing "could of" instead of "could've".

I have the opposite affliction.   I read a lot and do a lot of word puzzles.   From that, I pick up words that I only know a rough definition of, and that I do not know how to pronounce because I've never heard them in conversation.   So, I can read quite well, but when I speak, I come off as a complete yokel.

Will Freese said:

In my youth, I knew the words "puny" and "epitome" in the spoken language, but when I read them in books I pronounced them "pun-ee" and "eh-puh-tome." At some point, I realized that these four words were actually two words.

Will, I was right with you on both of these words, puny and epitome. Welcome from a kindred mind!