I’m having a debate with my southern hemisphere evil twin at the moment, about the merits of spelling reform. No conclusions to be expected, of course, but it’s leading to all sorts of delightful Wikipedia discoveries.

Spontson glaber1 discovered in the OED the spelling “thrwch” for “through”, which put me in mind of Welsh. (By the way, Sponts, I’ve been reading Reading the OED and it’s rather fun. Much shorter also.) The Wikipedia page on Welsh, in turn, points to an essay by Tolkien, “English and Welsh,” which contains many a gem.

For instance, here’s an argument for spelling reform you don’t see too often these days: “C for K, because the printers have not so many as the Welsh requireth.”

But there’s more! The essay is notable enough to have its own page (Tolkien’s magical influence, no doubt), with “See also: cellar door.” What on Earth could that be about?

Apparently the Donnie Darko line “A famous linguist once said that of all the phrases in the English language […] ‘cellar door’ is the most beautiful” is a reference to this essay of Tolkien’s! But, the plot thickens further: the director attributed it rather to Poe… On the talk page we find evidence that Mencken got there first, discussing poetry — as well as complaints that the article represents original research, a shoutout by some guy on the internet with the handle “Celardore”, a request to discuss the existence of real cellar doors, and the observation that French c’est l’adore is just as beautiful in sound and somewhat more so in sense. And, though its relevance is disputed on the talk page, the article ends by linking to the transcript of the Monty Python sketch “Woody and tinny words.”

A friend of mine ended his dissertation acknowledgements by thanking all those people without whom he would have been finished much quicker. Wikipedia seems to be playing a similar role for me, for which I am of course most grateful.

Notes:

  1. The smooth Spontson. I’m S. pilosus, the hairy Spontson. It’s a long story. [↪]