TolkEIn - misspelling or conspiracy?

[Thadlerian]

Tolkien is easy to misspell as Tolkein. But I'm seeing this far, far too often, everywhere, to believe that whenever it appears, it is by accident. I have seen numerous sites, articles and posts (on the Chronic as well; more than 250 hits) in which this writer's name is consequently spelled T O L K E I N all over. "tolkein" will give you almost 700 000 hits on google. A bit much for a misspelling, isn't it? Sometimes I even have to check that I'm not the one who's got it wrong.

Why does so many people misspell this name?

[tangaloomababe]

I was always taught "I" before "E" except after "C". So there is no "C" in Tolkien, therefore the "I" must go first!!!

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by tangaloomababe

I was always taught "I" before "E" except after "C". So there is no "C" in Tolkien, therefore the "I" must go first!!!

Ummm.... I don't really think that rule was mean to apply to proper names....

As for the misspelling... well, why the devil do so many people still pronounce it "nu-cu-ler" instead of nu-cle-ar?

[Briareus Delta]

As a huge Tolkien fan, I'm sure I may have been guilty of the odd typo but never a wanton misspelling. It was an annoyance to the great man himself, as well as mispronounciation of the name.

[Gav]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

As for the misspelling... well, why the devil do so many people still pronounce it "nu-cu-ler" instead of nu-cle-ar?

Mostly because they are retarded.

[Gav]

No idea why I've misspelled his name consistently wrong. Must've picked up the habit from somewhere. It's all the more interesting as my own name is consistently spelled incorrectly - not to mention pronounced any way except the correct way. So I know how annoying it is.

[Sirathiel]

Yeah, I too am gifted with a name people tend to misspell more often than not. As to why Tolkien's name is mispelled so often... Maybe it's because it's two vowels?
On another forum I frequent there's somebody with the nick of Tuecer and the poor person is spelled half the time Teucer. So, my guess is, it's a vowel thing.

~Sira.

[Lith]

It's right up with those people that talk with "real-it-ors" and go to "lib-aries". Still nothing compared to the constant mangling of my last name. I never knew a name could be spelled so many different ways.

[scalem X]

First: I fear that it has to do with typing and the right and left half of the brain. Since both the E and the I are in the same position, it is really easy to mistake. This pc dyslexia is a great cause for stuff like this.

Poeple: 1,7 million hits

I fear it's not really a Tolkien thing.

Think of "definately": 17 million hits
(I must confess that I used to write it wrong, but if you surf a lot on the net and English people make the mistake...)

[Thadlerian]

Consider the proportionality of the statistics:

People: 1.2 billion hits
Poeple: 1.7 million hits
This indicates one out of 706 typings of "people" is wrong.

Tolkien: 15.1 million hits
Tolkein: 671 000 hits
Poor Tolkien, on his side, gets his name misspelled every twentysecond time...

[scalem X]

Maybe, but I still fear that the answer can be found keyboardwise.

Because the K and the I are pressed with the same finger the typing of the two letters might be slower than originally anticipated. This means that you think that you have typed KI instead of only K and then you add the E and I at about the same time and poof there it is.

Or maybe it's a conspiracy, for all you know I might be part of it, trying to conceal it with keyboard nonsense.

[Arien]

umm ^^
I, as german haven´t got this problem. We speak it as "TolkIen"

[scalem X]

Same here in Belgium, but that doesn't mean you can't have typo's .
Unless 'die Deutsche Grundligkeit' solves that problem.

[Majimaune]

Its definitely TolkIEn because if you look at the name on all of his books that is how it is spelt.

[scalem X]

Lol, Maji!