Subject: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 04 Apr 01 - 05:05 PM I just had a (for me) brilliant idea. I noticed where someone had asked for certain lyrics by Donavan (sic). Well, naturally, if he had searched DigiTrad and Mudcat threads for "Donavan" he wouldn't have found what he wanted, because he misspelled "Donovan." Bad spelling must be a handicap for many Mudcat users. Certainly, I have seen many misspellings in these threads. HERE'S HOW WE CAN HELP: If you know of a certain word or name that is frequently misspelled, list it here. List both the wrong spelling and the right spelling. That way, if someone searches for the wrong spelling, they'll find THIS THREAD, which will tell them what the right spelling is.
Let me suggest a few rules: Here are a few to get us started:
CONFUSIBLES:
JIMMY or JIMMIE? |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Greyeyes Date: 04 Apr 01 - 05:46 PM What an inspired suggestion. Some typos I have made in my time: lonnie donnegan - should be Lonnie Donegan. jake thackeray - should be Jake Thackray. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Murray MacLeod Date: 04 Apr 01 - 05:54 PM I have a cassette tape (not bootleg) on which Side One is by Martyn Wyndham-Reade and Side Two is by Martin Wyndham-Reade. Murray |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Sorcha Date: 04 Apr 01 - 05:59 PM Not a bad idea, but the problem is that "creative" spellers can get very creative!! |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Murray MacLeod Date: 04 Apr 01 - 06:00 PM I should have said that he is of course Martyn Wyndham-Reade Murray |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 04 Apr 01 - 06:00 PM Another possibility: In posting a song for the DT, check if the title/key phrase which someone might be expected to search for is spelling-sensitive. Maybe what you're posting is a phonetic version of the ordinary English, or maybe vice-versa. Maybe a song is called (fictional) Singin' Sword. If you find that kind of trap built in, somewhere in your post say something like "Singin' Sword is sometimes spelled Singing Sword," so that you're using any likely variant a searcher might look for. DAve Oesterreich |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,Bruce O. Date: 04 Apr 01 - 06:03 PM Just stay away from my website, because I stick to the original spelling (when I don't make an error that is). |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Helen Date: 04 Apr 01 - 06:52 PM Thanks for this clever idea, Jim. Long overdue! The one I can never find is the song I know as Welia Welia Walia, or something like that. We had a whole thread on it with heaps of spelling variations: Weila, Walla, Weelia, Wallia, Welia, Walia, Weela, Wela, Wolla, 'Weila Waile' Almost a mathematician's exercise in probability: how many different combinations of these letters can you make - like calculating heads and tails with 2 or more coins. Anyway the threads are here http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=13555#112037 http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=6876
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=29209#367736 I don't know what the correct spelling is, or if there actually is a correct spelling since it is just nonsense words. I thought it was in DT but now I'm not so sure of that either. It does need to be in there and maybe it needs to be searchable with any of these spellings. Helen |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Blackcatter Date: 05 Apr 01 - 01:30 AM It all just makes me glad my name is Thom, I mean, Tom Cuk, I mean Cook or somethin' like that. pax yall |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Krause Date: 05 Apr 01 - 04:11 PM You oughtta see the kreeativ spelin uv my naim sumthyme. And I ain't relaited to Allison, er Allyson, er aw heck, that countree/blewgrass fiddler and singer--yew know the won. Jim, or is it Gym? Crackers! I can't remember. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: SINSULL Date: 05 Apr 01 - 04:20 PM Staggerle Stagger Lee Stacker Lee Maybe Max should do a radio show to demonstrate the variations. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,Rana Date: 05 Apr 01 - 04:46 PM Actually Murray, It is Martyn Wyndham-Read (and not Reade) Rhana oops Rana (Apologies if this has come up a second time, something didn't happen when I submitted |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bert Date: 05 Apr 01 - 04:52 PM SINS, it's STACKALEE! And hey that would be a good theme for a show;-) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Geoff the Duck Date: 05 Apr 01 - 04:55 PM The performer misspelt several times during this thread claimed to have once been billed as Marilyn Winding-Road. Quack? GtD |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 05 Apr 01 - 05:09 PM hey, my father's name was Audley....you can guess how THAT was screwed up all his life...he took to signing stuff A.W. when he could. People simply would NOT listen when he told them...they would stare blankly at him and write down 'Aubrey' or even 'Oddley'...if THEY hadn't heard it before, it must not exist. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 05 Apr 01 - 05:15 PM or... how's about this... get a GOOD search engine that will allow FUZZY searches... |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Murray MacLeod Date: 05 Apr 01 - 05:54 PM Yeah Rana, I screwed up. I entered "Martyn Wyndham-Reade" in the search box at Google,just to check, and up it came, five hits ! So I am not the only illiterate .... But of course it is Read, not Reade. Actually I was more concerned with "Martyn" v "Martin". Murray |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Murray MacLeod Date: 05 Apr 01 - 06:28 PM Two others that have come to mind, are Paddie Bell, (of Corrie Folk Trio fame) frequently misspelt as Pattie or Paddy , and the Breton guitar ace Soig Siberil, who is frequently misspelt as Siog Siberil (though not by me any longer, thanks to Matt_R) Murray |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Mrrzy Date: 05 Apr 01 - 06:31 PM Great idea. Does snog fall here? |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Sorcha Date: 05 Apr 01 - 09:56 PM I believe I noticed Joe Offer saying on the Help forum the other day that Tennessee is consitently spelled Tenessee in the DT.......(creep--our name is Wise. We live in an area with a large "German" population, and it everyone tries to spell it Weise, or Weiss) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,#1 Date: 06 Apr 01 - 12:05 AM Clinton, where do you find fuzzy tunes for those fuzzy songs? |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Sorcha Date: 06 Apr 01 - 12:07 AM Hoka Hey, #1, I play "fuzzy" tunes all the time--it's called faking it and Follow the Leader......quite common, actually! |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Mrs.Duck Date: 06 Apr 01 - 04:18 PM Unfortunately Clinton whilst my search engine is not so sensitive digital tradition is and that is the problem many of us have if looking for an artist if we or the original poster misspell or should that be mispell? |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,Judy Predmore (at work) Date: 06 Apr 01 - 08:03 PM I'm not surprised to see Martyn Wyndham-Read show up so early on this thread. His is the most misspelled name I know of, even on several of his recordings. I'm pretty sure it's spelled correctly throughout his web site, though the hyphen is not in the site name: martynwyndhamread.com I've seen most of the below: Martyn Wyndham-Reid Martyn Wyndham-Reed Martyn Wyndham-Reade Martin Wyndham-Reid Martin Wyndham-Reed Martin Wyndham-Reade Martin Wyndham-Read Martyn Windham-Reid Martyn Windham-Reed Martyn Windham-Reade Martyn Windham-Read Martyn Wyndham Reid Martyn Wyndham Reed Martyn Wyndham Reade Martyn Wyndham Read Martin Wyndham Reid Martin Wyndham Reed Martin Wyndham Reade Martin Wyndham Read Martyn Windham Reid Martyn Windham Reed Martyn Windham Reade Martyn Windham Read And I'll bet there's more...
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Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 06 Apr 01 - 10:08 PM I'm regularly astonished that so many people seem unable to spell my name, even when they are replying to a post from me and have it spelt out for them in front of their very eyes! Malcolm (NOT Malcom...) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Geoff the Duck Date: 09 Apr 01 - 09:37 PM How about other regularly misspelt words - or should this one go in Catspaw's free American Bashing thread? REMEMBER !
Grey is spelt with an E
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Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: fat B****rd Date: 10 Apr 01 - 04:19 AM I recall on the sidewinder lp by lee morgan that the bass player was bob crenshaw,cronshaw and cranshaw ! but it was the sixties. on the subject of mis-spellings ;stenger,stanger,stengar,steinger,spangler,spengleman, and my personal favourite, strangler. somewher in there is my correct surname. great thread. love fB |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Krause Date: 10 Apr 01 - 01:08 PM Bill D, You think YOUR father's name was (uh geez, can't resist) odd, my Dad's name was Menno. No one names their kid that. You should have seen the stuff that came in the mail. It was hilarious.
Brief history lesson: There was a 16th century Dutch preacher named Menno Simons for whom my Dad was named, but I doubt even the Dutch remember that Menno nowadays.
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Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 10 Apr 01 - 04:19 PM Jim Krause: Aren't the Mennonites named after somebody named Menno? Was it Menno Simons? (Thread creep, but I can't resist.) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Krause Date: 10 Apr 01 - 04:36 PM Jim Dixon, bless your pointed little head. You got it! Howboutthat! Jim |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bert Date: 10 Apr 01 - 05:41 PM Yesterday, inspired by the 'ego' thread, I did a Google search on "Plastic Flower Seeds". I found it had received some airplay on a couple of local radio stations. Unfortunately they had it sung by "Burt Hansel". So THAT's why I never got any phone calls.*BG* Bert (Hansell) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Jun 01 - 04:47 PM Mrs. Duck... That's my point... rather than going to all the work of creating threads that lead from misspellings to actually spellings and from hither to yon... we should be addressing the actually problem... That is that the digitrad search engine bites... any search engine anywhere these days allows for wild cards, and/or's, and will return fuzzy results... So a search for Erik eventually returns Eric as well... Hell, I'm shocked and stunned that the digitrad appears to be CASE SENSITIVE?!?!?!?!?! Why the hell is that?!?!?!? People are gonna misspell... we're not gonna change that... may as well fix it to compensate as best we can... ;-) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Jun 01 - 05:52 PM Clinton: It appears to me that a DigiTrad search is NOT case sensitive. At least not when you use the searches available on this web site. If you use the downloaded version, I'm not sure ... |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Jun 01 - 06:00 PM I might be thinking of an older, downloaded version... But at any rate, my point that the current search could be a lot fuzzier stands... ;-) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 13 Jun 01 - 06:07 PM "may as well fix it to compensate as best we can... " ...no, that just encourages and proliferates mis-spellings. If bad spellers (many of whom have genuine problems, though some are just careless) learn that an internet search ONLY gets good results when spelling is correct, maybe they will at least learn to try alternate spellings or use a spell-checker, rather than post sad requests begging someone else to find it for them! The very same search engines and spell checking software is available to everyone, and the guy who answers the request only did what the 'spelling challenged' SHOULD have done. As my ol' daddy used to say, "you shore ain't gonna learn it any younger" |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Jun 01 - 06:18 PM Sure bill, you go right ahead and change the whole human race and make them better spellers... I'm more on your side than you might think... But I'm also less concerned with improving thier lot anymore... So rather than trying to change the world... ;-) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 13 Jun 01 - 07:06 PM I don't expect to solve it...but ANY imporvement is better than catering to those who won't even type 'you' in a chat (u no wht I mn?) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Jun 01 - 07:17 PM 'imporvement'? LOL!! I do know what you mean... and people like that, I simply ignore... |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 13 Jun 01 - 07:28 PM *sigh*...I do 'imporve' with time ...(the money for typing lessons? I spent it on resords, why?) |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Clinton Hammond Date: 13 Jun 01 - 07:31 PM I'm just ribbin' ya Bill... like I've never made a "tpyo" in my time! LOL!!!! |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Jun 01 - 07:41 PM Spell-checkers aren't going to help you spell "Martyn Wyndham-Read" correctly. Anyway, regardless of how much you rail against bad spellers, they will always be with us. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 13 Jun 01 - 08:01 PM hmmm....a standard spell-checker won't help one with that name the FIRST time, but you can add it, once you know it.... and, a good WWW search engine is one gigantic spell checker! If you enter several versions of a word, of combination of words, you are VERY likely to discover the most commonly accepted version! This does require a bit of creative effort with Martyn's name, I admit I got no hits with Martin Windham-Reed and Martin Wyndam-Reed....but 2 with Martin Wyndham-Read (leading me to think that I am close, but there should be more...) but one of the mis-spelled ones at FocalPoint gives links to the performer's websites, and LO! a list with the correct spelling total time..3 minutes... yep...that's a lot of trouble, easier to just post randomly and wait for corrections from pedants like me..*grin* |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Bill D Date: 13 Jun 01 - 08:24 PM Martyn said to everyone, "fie, folk, fie" Martyn said to everyone, "who's the fool now?" Martyn said to everyone, "my name's not an easy one" "But searching Google gets it done... Thou hast learned something new...who's the fool now?" |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 13 Jun 01 - 09:35 PM Always envied the Spanish. Fotographie, etc., all ph rendered as f. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Jun 01 - 10:36 PM Dicho: Wouldn't that be "fotografía"? |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Jun 01 - 10:38 PM Something here reminds me of my son: In the time he spends arguing about whether he ought to have to do his homework, he could have done it. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,Scabby Doug at work Date: 14 Jun 01 - 05:39 AM Can I just check on the Eric Bogel/Bogle thing? Jim Dixon was saying his name was Bogel? ermm I could be wrong here, but I have never ever seen Eric's name spelled as Bogel, and the site on the web that claims to be official has Bogle, and every album cover I've ever seen has Bogle. Was Jim just being ironic and I missed it? Cheers
SD |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: GUEST,Scabby Doug at work Date: 14 Jun 01 - 05:41 AM And "Ewen" MacColl - I think it's "Ewan"... Error corrected in Jim's posting above. Thanks, Scabby Doug. -JoeClone, 14-Jun-01. |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: IanC Date: 14 Jun 01 - 05:53 AM There's a fairly simple technical solution to most of these problems. Allowing an optional SOUNDEX search on our search engines would get over 95% of the names-misspelt problems (at least for English names). It's a very simple algorithm (with a publicly available spec.) developed years ago for genealogy, where different spellings are frequent. I've implemented it once or twice in text searches, but it does obviously need someone to do it.
Cheers! |
Subject: RE: Frequently misspelled/confused names. From: pavane Date: 14 Jun 01 - 07:08 AM Good idea. I just searched for plughole and got nothing - the song is actually present as "Dahn the plug'ole" !!!! |
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