Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Can Randomly Placed Letters Form an Intelligible Word?

According to an e-mail that has been around for several years (and is supposedly based on Cambridge University research), as long as the first and last letters of a word are positioned accurately, the order of the internal letters should not interfere with a reader's ability to interpret the word.

This past December, a new video debunking this claim made the rounds.

In case you missed it on The Spelling Blog, Language Hat, Mighty Red Pen or anywhere else it may have appeared, here it is:



Excellent analysis from What You Ought to Know.

3 comments:

Susan M. Ebbers said...

Interesting. I always doubted that old myth, but nice to see a tidy explanation. Question: Who is the speaker? Another question: Was there any research at all that formed the basis for the original myth?

Anywho....thank you for posting. I will share it.

Laura Payne said...

Hi Susan,
The speaker is either Brett or Jedd Winn. They are known as The Brothers Winn. Here is a link to their site. http://www.whatyououghttoknow.com/show/
Unfortunately, I cannot find any information that specifies which brother is the speaker and I do not know the basis of the original myth.

Susan M. Ebbers said...

Thanks, Laura. I have shared the link to your post. Love your blog, by the way.
Susan

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