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There is a viral internet videoabout spelling the word <eyes>. The video shows people who are unable to identify the spelling of <eyes>, and it is stirring a discussion about language. The comments about the video are meant to prove that the English language is “crazy.” The script is set up to make you think English is weird but, like many magic tricks, there is more to it than meets the eye.

I want to explain about why this “trick” works and why so many people cannot “see” the word <eyes>. Here is the script: “Y.E.S. spells <yes>. What does E.Y.E.S. spell?” The answers vary, but the videos that are getting the most hits are those in which the person cannot figure out the word that <e.y.e.s.> is spelling. Why is this oral spelling stumping so many people? Morphology.

When the person starts with spelling <yes>, it is priming the brain to think that the next word will be built off of <yes>, that the base of the next word is <yes.>. When the person spells <eyes>, the brain is thinking morphologically <e> +<yes>. Many people start pronouncing the word as if there is a prefix before the free base <yes>. Is the word “e-yes,” /iːjɛs/ as if the “e” is short for “electronic.” Is it an electronic yes? Does the word have an assimilated <ex-> prefix, like a former “yes”? The brain is trying to make sense of what this word could possibly be with this prefix before this base of <yes>. A person who is thinking in this way is focused on the concept of morphology.

The other element that makes this “trick” work is the lack of pauses between morphemic boundaries. When we spell, we tend to pause between morphemes. We might spell <working> as “w. or. k.” pause “ing.” The pause is between the free base of <work> and the suffix <-ing> ( i.e., the morphemes). It happens with prefixes as well. We might spell <react> as “r.e.” pause “a.c.t.” In fact, when teaching about morphemes, we teach students to pause between morphemes to help them conceptualize morphemes if they are struggling with spelling. In the example in the video, the person asking the question is heard either stating each letter in <eyes> with equal cadence, or with a pause after the first <e>. Without any pauses, it is difficult for the brain to process the morphemes (especially with with <yes> priming), and the brain may consider it as all one base, or leave the brain to figure out the morphemes on its own. With a pause after the first <e>, it gives the impression that the morphemic boundary is between the <e> and the <yes>, when really it is before the <s>: <eye>+<s>. When <eyes> is spelled with the pause before the <s>, it is rarely missed.

While this video is meant to poke fun at our language, there is an important “spelling out loud” concept in all of this. It is critical to pause between morphemic boundaries. Sometimes those morphemic boundaries are easy to assess, such as in <working>, but other times morphemic analysis is necessary and needs to be written down for full comprehension, such as with words like <completion> or <psychology>. Word sums are the analytic representation that allow us to analyze a word, showing the morphemes. It is important for parents and teachers to consider the importance of “the pause” when spelling out loud.

One of the multi-sensory tools in spelling is this auditory component. Spelling out loud is not just announcing letters in a sequence, but also pausing between morphemes, as well as explaining base or suffixing changes that occur when morphemes are put together. Auditory reinforcement of morphemes helps to solidify bases, prefixes, connecting vowel letter, and suffixes, which will help with the spelling of related words.

So, while we all may laugh at the absurdity of these videos, remember the important “trick” that is being played. Understand that this is a video about morphemic sleight of hand, not of proof that English spelling is crazy. Speaking of spelling, I could not end this post without a word study about <eye>.

Let me start with the English word <eye>. My hypothesis regarding the graphemes in <eye> are <e.ye>. The <ye> grapheme is a less commonly encountered grapheme that is seen in <bye> or <dye>. So, if the <ye> grapheme is being pronounced as /aɪ/ what is going on with the initial <e>? I’ve learned from linguist, Gina Cooke, of LEX, that the initial <e> appears to be a marker. What is it marking? Why is it there? If <ye> is the final grapheme, why don’t we just spell <eye> as <ye>? The first reason is that <eye> is a lexical or content word that requires three letters, so it cannot be left with only two. The most common marker to create a three-letter word is to use the letter <e>, which is typically seen at the end of words, such as <please> to distinguish it from the plural <pleas>. The hypothesis is that the initial <e> is the marker. Looking at it any other way does not make sense. Despite <ey> being a more common grapheme, it does not write the phoneme /aɪ/ in any other word I could find. So, conceptualizing it as the graphemes *<ey.e> does not work.

Now, let’s look at bases that are related to eye. What word or base comes to mind when you think of eye? I think of the person I go to to get my eyes checked—my optometrist. Let me start with Greek ὀπ- which means “eye.” We gain a lot of bases from this. The Greek ὀπτός‚ “seen, visible” gives us the base <opt> that is seen in <optics> or <optometry>. Although it relates to sight, it does not necessarily mean the eye itself but what the eye is doing. An optometrist is measuring your eye vision as their primary role. The English base <ops> meaning the eye itself can be found in <cyclops> and is the final morpheme in <triceratops>. In cyclops, the two bases are <cycl> and <ops>, which relates to the circular eye the cyclops is known for, while <triceratops> has three morphemes: <tri> (three), <cerat> (horn), <ops> (eye, which is on the face). Another word that has an unproductive base derived from this eye Greek root is the eye physician himself, the ophthalmologist. The base comes from ὀϕθαλμός  “eye,” giving the English base of <ophthalm>. The ophthalmologist can treat extensive issues related to the function of the eye. When I first discovered this base, I realized how different our pronunciation is from what I would expect with a <ph> grapheme and that the first <l> has zero pronunciation. Until this study, I never realized that optometrist and ophthalmologist have such different spellings. Our eyes are so important; it makes sense that the Greeks developed many ways to describe them and their function. I hope that you have gotten both a laugh from the video, and an understanding about eyes and morphemes.

References

Bartlett, Michelle. “Y E S Spells Yes. What Does E Y E S Spell?” YouTube, YouTube, 21 June 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ramoioWnw&feature=youtu.be.

Cook, Gina. 2018. Grapheme Cards, 3rd edition. LEX.

“ophthalmo-, comb. form.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/131838. Accessed 25 February 2019.

“opto-, comb. form.” OED Online, Oxford University Press, December 2018, www.oed.com/view/Entry/132091. Accessed 25 February 2019.

“triceratops” Etymonline, https://www.etymonline.com/word/triceratops#etymonline_v_24798. Accessed 25 February 2019.