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What was this German six-year old trying to spell, and how did he come up with this spelling?
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This German six-year-old attempted to spell the word “Stacheln”. Unknowingly, he applied techniques of assimilation (partial or total homogenisation of sounds during connected speech so as to facilitate pronunciation) to spell a word he knows the pronunciation but not the standardised spelling of: The German <r> [ʁ] is similar to the <ch> [x] in that both are fricatives that are produced in the back of the mouth, the former being unvoiced and uvular while the latter is voiced and velar. The <d> [d] and <t> [t] are even more alike: both are alveolar plosives, the former is merely voiced while the latter is unvoiced.
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<p class=”MsoNormal”><span lang=”EN-GB” style=”font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;”>Interestingly, we are still able to read and understand the word, despite the wrong spelling. This proves once again that speaking (and therefore also pronunciation) are primary aspects of language. This 6-year-old intuitively chose a spelling that ‘made sense’. For example, he/she began the word with < sch >, to imitate the sound [</span><span lang=”EN-GB” style=”font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’; color: #202122; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;”></span><span style=”font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’;”><span lang=”EN-GB” style=”font-size: 12.5pt; line-height: 115%; color: #0b0080; background: white; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;”>ʃ</span></span><span lang=”EN-GB” style=”font-family: ‘Arial’,’sans-serif’; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;”>]. <span style=”color: #333333; background: white;”>For someone not acquainted yet with German orthography, that is a logical solution. </span> </span></p>
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