Consonant dubbling rules

Eve   Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:24 am GMT
Don't get your knickers in a knot, Adam. Americans use both spellings. Regardless, "kidnaped" causes no confusion.
Adam   Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:28 am GMT
To make it easier to understand the point I'm getting at, look at this example.

Two words - stripe and strip.

What are the past tenses? They are striped and stripped.

Now see how the double-P changes the pronounciation of the letter "i"?

If you take the word "stripped" and took away a P, the letter "i" would change pronounciation.

So that's why when Brits see the American word "worshiped" we sometimes think that it rhymes with the word "striped."

So in British English, we say "worshipped", with a double-P, to make it rhyme with "stripped."
Eve   Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:40 am GMT
But there's no such confusion to be had with "kidnapped" and "kidnaped" nor "worshipped" and "worshiped". For each case, both spelling variations represent one and the same thing. They cannot be confused for different ideas the way "stripped" and "striped" would be.
Eve   Wed Oct 19, 2005 9:42 am GMT
And if you're worried about pronunciation then you just have to look at English generally for its inconsistent orthography.
eito(jpn)   Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:02 pm GMT
How about "waggon" and "wagon"?
eito(jpn)   Mon Nov 28, 2005 9:24 pm GMT
Guest   Mon Nov 28, 2005 11:20 pm GMT
lern (Japanese)
Wild Pegasus   Wed Nov 30, 2005 9:31 pm GMT
Most Americans would spell "worshipped" and "kidnapped". An American would look at "worshiped" and say "wer-SHIPD?".
eito(jpn)   Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:21 pm GMT
As for "worshiped" and "worshipped", there is no confusion in terms of pronunciation, I beleeve. And "kidnap" has the short-A in the second sillable, so "p" can be dubbled.
eito(jpn)   Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:23 pm GMT
..., so "p" can be dubbled like "kidnapped".
eito(jpn)   Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:27 pm GMT
eito(jpn) Thu Oct 20, 2005 5:02 pm GMT
>>How about "waggon" and "wagon"?<<

Then, do we have to spell "waggon", "draggon", and "flaggon"?
Travis   Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:12 pm GMT
The whole matter here is that there is little point in trying to rationalize the current English orthography if one does not plan on completely rebuilding it from the ground up in a systematic fashion, even if the result of such may superficially look like the current orthography. Trying to do so will only end up adding more "exceptions" and more new inconsistencies in practice, and will only get one back to where one started.
Tiffany   Thu Dec 01, 2005 5:49 pm GMT
As an American I spell both past tense of "worship" and "kidnap" -

Worshipped
Kidnapped

This is the way I've spelled them all my life and though I would certainly understand "worshiped" and "kidnaped" (really, is it that difficult?), I would think they were spelled strangely.

It also:
cancel - cancelling - cancelled
label - labelled or labeled
level - levelled or leveled
travel - travelling - traveling

I wonder if this is because my Dad who was a stay at home dad when I was learning to spell is Canadian. He definitely helped me with my homework... but no one ever told me I was wrong spelling it my own way (whichever I chose at the moment).
Terry   Thu Dec 01, 2005 7:24 pm GMT
What about skilful and skillful? Which is correct? US English uses both but I think British English uses the former.
Tiffany   Thu Dec 01, 2005 7:32 pm GMT
Skillful for me.