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What Thyme Is It?

Saturday, September 18, 2011
... where is the rhyme and rhythm with spelling...
I
struggle to spell any number of words in the English language and all of the ones in Greek, Spanish and Russian. I think it has something to do with the funny alphabets. But that aside, let’s face it, English is not easy on the mind or spirit when it comes to spelling and pronunciation. It doesn’t help that certain folks took it on themselves to fix the discrepancies, but only made it worse.
Two of my trouble words are: Rhyme and Rhythm.
It’s troubling because I am a student of the Theory of Music, I write songs and most songs have rhyme and rhythm. Fortunately you don’t have to be able to spell these words to be a songwriter or musician. At least, so I thought, when I signed up for Music Theory 101 in university.
I think I have rhyme down because if I can spell thyme without any problem I should be able to spell rhyme. Just switch T with R. Bingo. Until a moment of self-doubt kicks in. Such an odd looking word.
Rhythm is even worse. I’m still working on a fix. If I start with rhyme and drop the E I have rhym. That’s close, but I need a TH in there. So, rhym becomes rhythm, but I always seem to forget where to insert it and have to look it up. Pass me a dictionary.
I prefer these spellings: Rime and Rethem. Those ones I don’t have to look up.
Posted 2011/09/18 at 13h22ET in Words.
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