Don't you just love non-standard spelling?

In all my work for my thesis, I developed a new appreciation for penmanship and spelling classes of my elementary years. One has to admit that one can become accustomed to anyone's handwriting when reading an entire semester's diary straight through. Even so, I look forward to reading documents by persons with legible handwriting.

I've learned that reading letters aloud can be very helpful, particularly if the writer is that well educated. If people are not that familiar with the spelling of the English language (which, albeit, is fairly tricky), they tend to spell phonetically. Here are a few examples:

- "You will not be a tol surprised if I tell you I have been to school my last day."
- "... except* my love also dear Mary"
- The Statutes of Emory College, and the bye-laws of the faculty [1839]

Reading through diaries and letters, you never know what people will talk about. I suppose that's why Hattie writes this to Katie:

Kate I am writing this letter for your eye alone. I am taking it for granted no one else will ever see it or else I wouldn't put so much foolishness in it.

If George had realized that his diary would become the main voice for the antebellum Emory student, perhaps he would have explained this entry further:

I attended recitations this morning but gitting my ankle sprained by jumping out of the Chapel this morning so I did not go to recitation this evening.

___
*This should read accept.