Typoglycemia

ironmike · Jun 15, 2005

Typoglycemia is not a spelling eorrr

Typoglycemia: It looks weird. Believe it or not you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

I spent all the money on fancy spelling software for not!
Iron Mike

James D. Macdonald · Jun 15, 2005

This was discussed here.

Jamesaritchie · Jun 15, 2005

Typo

ironmike said:
Typoglycemia is not a spelling eorrr

Typoglycemia: It looks weird. Believe it or not you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

I spent all the money on fancy spelling software for not!
Iron Mike

I've seen this. The research never took place, and the words in the paragraph are very carefully chosen to be readable with typos.

This is a case of don't believe everything you read, especially if you find it on the internet.

maestrowork · Jun 15, 2005

It's also about context. We read within context. The words themselves should be recognizable as well, but when you read them in context, it's easy to decipher them. For example:

phaonmneal

By itself we may not not what it is. But in context, it's crystal clear:

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid.

Sharon Mock · Jun 15, 2005

Typoglycemia? And here I thought this was going to be a thread about glurge...

Vomaxx · Jun 15, 2005

Sllpenig is not iotrpmnat? I dsergaie. Sinepllg mterats a lot.

debraji · Jun 16, 2005

I could read it, but it hurt, like walking on nails. Not the smooth glide of correct spelling and grammar.

jules · Jun 16, 2005

, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae

Yeah, right.

The paaoennmhl peowr of the haumn mnid. Aoidccnrg to a racrseeh at Cdgbmiae Uvtsnreiiy

Not quite so easy in that order, is it?

maestrowork · Jun 16, 2005

What does this have to do with novel writing?

scribbler1382 · Jun 16, 2005

maestrowork said:
What does this have to do with novel writing?

Ever read a Kathe Koja novel? This topic actually gives me hope that that book had some secret sense buried in it.

ironmike · Jun 16, 2005

Everything

maestrowork said:
What does this have to do with novel writing?

Novel writing has more leeway than almost any other form. Screenwriting, structure and more structure. Short stories, no time to wander off the track. Poems, never never land. Non-fiction, only the facts mam. Novel writing kicks ***, all roads lead to Rome.

Iron Mike

arainsb123 · Jun 16, 2005

Reading that is painful.

KimJo · Jun 16, 2005

It could give useful insight to anyone who's writing a novel about someone with dyslexia.

Meaney · Jun 17, 2005

"The tsssrroaeingn of the ulbnnnsccaooie phrtnccaeyioin edvead the owriteshe ilgbtfdniaaee ssrtcpnieo."

is clearly

"The transgression of the unconscionable pyrotechnician evaded the otherwise indefatigable inspectors."

Jamesaritchie · Jun 17, 2005

Right

Meaney said:
"The tsssrroaeingn of the ulbnnnsccaooie phrtnccaeyioin edvead the owriteshe ilgbtfdniaaee ssrtcpnieo."

is clearly

"The transgression of the unconscionable pyrotechnician evaded the otherwise indefatigable inspectors."

Uh, yeah, that's what I thought it said.

maestrowork · Jun 17, 2005

Meaney said:
"The tsssrroaeingn of the ulbnnnsccaooie phrtnccaeyioin edvead the owriteshe ilgbtfdniaaee ssrtcpnieo."

is clearly

"The transgression of the unconscionable pyrotechnician evaded the otherwise indefatigable inspectors."

You spelled "inspectors" wrong -- it didnt' start with an "i" and end with an "s."

azbikergirl · Jun 17, 2005

I've seen a similar claim that we can remove the vowels and still mostly make sense of what we're reading. Fact or fiction? An excerpt from my novel, sans vowels:

Tw lng dsply rcks tk p mst f th spc n th shp, nd smll, scrtchd-p dsk std n crnr, scrps f lthr lttrng ts tp.

Can you tell what it says? (highlight below for the original)

Two long display racks took up most of the space in the shop, and a small, scratched-up desk stood in a corner, scraps of leather littering its top.

reph · Jun 17, 2005

azbikergirl said:
Tw lng dsply rcks tk p mst f th spc n th shp, nd smll, scrtchd-p dsk std n crnr, scrps f lthr lttrng ts tp.

Can you tell what it says? (highlight below for the original)

I could tell what it said, but I didn't know how to highlight. The answer appeared in the Reply window.

Among other homemade shorthand tricks, I often omit vowels when taking notes or writing memos to myself.

------------------

Oh, that's what you meant by "highlight."

Jamesaritchie · Jun 17, 2005

azbikergirl said:
I've seen a similar claim that we can remove the vowels and still mostly make sense of what we're reading. Fact or fiction? An excerpt from my novel, sans vowels:

Tw lng dsply rcks tk p mst f th spc n th shp, nd smll, scrtchd-p dsk std n crnr, scrps f lthr lttrng ts tp.

Can you tell what it says? (highlight below for the original)

Two long display racks took up most of the space in the shop, and a small, scratched-up desk stood in a corner, scraps of leather littering its top.

I could read it easily enough.

James D. Macdonald · Jun 17, 2005

No problem reading it. This is because written English has a lot of redundancy. You've have more trouble with a single word than with a sentence.

Some languages don't customarily use vowels at all in their written forms.

Sharon Mock · Jun 17, 2005

azbikergirl said:
Tw lng dsply rcks tk p mst f th spc n th shp, nd smll, scrtchd-p dsk std n crnr, scrps f lthr lttrng ts tp.

I could read it reasonably quickly, but not nearly as easily as I would have with the vowels. It took me three passes and I had to subvocalize. (For example, once I hit 'std' I had to go back and recast the entire sentence in the past tense.)

Typoglycemia

ironmike

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Jamesaritchie

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Sharon Mock

Wing nut

Vomaxx

debraji

jules

Bored fanatic

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

scribbler1382

Write For You, Edit For The Reader

ironmike

arainsb123

Learning!

KimJo

Outside the box, with the werewolves

Meaney

Socialist. Humanist. Solipsist.

Jamesaritchie

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

azbikergirl

I really do look like this.

reph

Fig of authority

Jamesaritchie

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

Sharon Mock

Wing nut