Jewellery

[sandmaster]

Am I the last person in the UK to spell and pronounce this word as jewellery? Instead of jewellry?

[angel21]

No, I have always spelt jewellery like this. I pronounce it jewellry though. I get a bit confused as I thought jewellery was the correct way to spell it but some people spell it jewellry and jewelry

[ummmm]

No. I spell and say it same as you.

[cazzz1975]

I spell and pronounce it the same way as you sandmaster

[sandmaster]

The reason I ask is that I know jewellry or jewelry is becoming the norm, but that does not prevent us using the correct form if we wish. But the last I pronounced J e w e l l e r y the person asked me three times to repeat it and looked at me pityingly!!

[dot.hawkes]

if the common pronunciation is Jewlry, which as far as i know it is, then that is the norm. jewellery then is the abnormal way to pronounce it. i would ask the BBC, they have everything like that covered

[LoftyLottie2]

Both Jewellery and jewellry(or jewlry) and correct as far as spelling goes nowadays. Pronounced jewlry though (well I think so).

Same with judgment and judgement. Both correct and acceptable.

[LoftyLottie2]

'are correct'

[sandmaster]

It is the way it was spelt when I went to school and is in my old dictionaries. English is fluid and changes, I accept that, but jewellery was the original spelling. In the copy of the Oxford Dictionary in front of me it is under ' (jewellery (also jewelry) ' so both are recognised as correct these days but jewellery is not wrong, that is what I am getting at. It seems that words in English often alter because of laziness.

[sandmaster]

Why is it not the correct form when it has the principle listing in the Oxford Dictionary and the shorter form follows in brackets?

[LoftyLottie2]

I don't think it's laziness sandmaster. Being in your agegroup I spell jewellery as you do. However spellings change for quite sensible reasons too. There is no need for the second 'e', so it has become adapted. Language is constantly changing, otherwise our spellings would be the same as they were a couple of hundred years ago.

Eventually 'jewellery' will die out completely. I actually remember when you could spell'show' as 'shew'!

[Octavius]

Jewellery is a jewel made by a jeweller.
So in English it is joo-wall-ery, jool-ry is a bit American for my patois.

Do you also say Feb-you-uary or Feb-rew-ary?

Having said all this I wouldn�t spend too much time thinking about who is right and who is wrong.

[ummmm]

People from Kettering say 'Kettring'

[angel21]

Feb-bru-ary I say. I spell Jewellery and I am 21. My english teacher at school was only in her late 20's early 30's too.