Abstract: 57 English undergraduate students studying in London consistently misspelled "Gandhi" as "Ghandi" despite intensive exposure to the correct spelling of the name. This is seen as an exemplary misspelling in a number of ways, and these are outlined in the paper. It is shown that statistical similarity to English predicts the misspelling but that statistical similarity to English cannot override "rule-making" pressures in spelling pseudo-Indian names, for "Ghandi" spellers also spelled the pseudo-name "Ghalgi," while "Gandhi" spellers did not, and this spelling is not predicted by statistical similarity alone. It is concluded that even with minuscule lexical knowledge of "Indian" words and names, English readers use "rules" in such tasks. This suggests that once a correct spelling has been achieved it will be maintained, for new rules (presumably) replace old ones. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Copyright 1985 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved).
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