"The Flying McCoys"

As people have begun to read my blog, many have asked me about the title Scribe Write. I have mentioned before my passion is understanding the written word in both English and Spanish.

The other day a group of first-grade teachers and I were talking about homophones in English. I mentioned the Homophonic Principle I have learned from linguistics. The principle states that homophones are words with two different spellings but identical pronunciations USUALLY have different meanings. Spelling differences enable English speakers to see that spelling is governed by meaning. As a result of our conversation, the team of teachers launched into a word investigation with their first graders. The first graders made a list of homophones and delighted in discussing <but> and <butt>. What 7-year-old wouldn’t?

In our initial discussion about homophones, I emphasized that meaning is the most important part of the written word not sound. The teachers asked for examples. I shared that we have <no> and <know>. Why are they spelled differently? The word <know> is spelled with the initial <kn> in order to connect the meaning of other related words such as <knowledge>, <known> and <unbeknownst> along with many others. We also talked about <here> and <hear>. As a student, I was always told that <hear> was spelled that way to represent the <ear> in hearing. While interesting, it is far more exciting to note that <here> is spelled this way to show its relation to <there> and where> which are often misspelled and misunderstood.

However, the best one came when a first grader, who was writing a story about a lion asked her first-grade teacher, “Do I spell <prey> with an <ay> or an <ey>”? In order to show the relationship between <prey> and <predator>, the answer seems to be obvious to me. English is marvelous, logical and predictable.

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