back-spelling

• backspelling

From back +‎ spelling.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbækˌspɛlɪŋ/

back-spelling

1. A specific spelling of a word representing a phonetic feature never present in it, but was present in other words in the same phonetic environment (and was later lost), or the practice of making such spellings.
   • 1996, Eric Gerald Stanley, “Late Copies of Anglo-Saxon Charters”, in Studies in English Language & Literature: "doubt Wisely" : Papers in Honour of E.G. Stanley, page 55:

     For example, in D and w, e is a possible reflex for OE y: (29) cysan, presumably a back-spelling for cesen < ceosen, and (40) hylle, a back-spelling for helle.

   • 1997, Roger Lass, Historical Linguistics and Language Change‎, page 63:

     Another very important type is hypercorrect or inverse spelling (Rückschreibung, backspelling). Here a segment that has been lost or altered is spelled in the 'wrong' environment, suggesting that the writer knows that some words have it by convention, but not precisely which.

   • 2016, Benjamin Z. Kedar, Jonathan Phillips, Jonathan Riley-Smith, “Languages in Contact in the Latin East”, in Crusades‎, volume 1, page 173:

     The absence of the epenthetic consonant in ⲖⲈⲬⲞⲨⲬⲞⲨⲘⲈⲢⲈ lekhukhumere seems to reflect a phenomenon of backspelling.

• inverse spelling