Saturday, 23 July 2005

Wrod Odrer & Cmophernosin

My blog stokes the flames of my self-importance, but I'm never mentioned by the good folks at Snopes.  The same can not be said for the loyal reader of this blog and generally interesting person who masquerades as Mr. Language Hat.  You should read his blog daily because I've listed it in my blogroll, but if that's not motivation enough, I bumped into a link to his site while tracking down the "Can You Raed Tihs Or Cotnempalte Taht Aynnoe Wtih Kownlegde Of Lnagauge Or Wahtont Can?" meme.  Read his original post on the subject and then work through a few sentences on your own. 

I think you'll find, as I have, that it isn't simply a matter of first and last letters, but is related to syllabic units.  For example, I doubt you can parse "wahtont" with the same ease with which you parse "raed." (Or maybe this is another example of the unusual way the deaf relate to language.  I'm not sure.  But the more I think about it, the more I wonder whether abandoning linguistics for purely practical reasons was a truly terrible idea.)  The longer the word, the less likely you are to parse it quickly.  Take, for example, that exemplar of long words

antidisestablishmentarianism

I'd wager that I can rearrange the word order of antidisestablishmentarianism such that it becomes impossible to parse quickly (which is the point of the study in question).  In fact, I bet I can begin it with an "a" and conclude it with an "m" and stick pretty much any letters inbetween and you'll be as flumoxed as you would be if I inserted the actual letters.  You probably couldn't even tell the difference.  To wit:

asinitareabishemnartiandtnm
aartiantemenhsilbatesdistism

 

Jul 23, 2005 9:35:25 PM | Literature

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Scott Eric Kaufman

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