balakrishnanijk
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- Jul 24, 2007
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- Malayalam
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Which would be more appropriate ? Titicaca or Titikaka?
No, that's not a vagary of English spelling. It's a vagary of Spanish spelling. Even if it was originally Titikaka, we use Titicaca because that's the way the Spanish have transliterated the word.I must confess to you that my post merits a little attention because I am reading Stuart Redman's English Vocabulary in Use for pre-intermediate and intermediate learners and the thing that you find there is 'Lake Titikaka'. So it is clear that it can also be spelled like that. Just one of the vagaries of English spelling!!!
If a person like him has used the spelling three times in a book on English vocabulary, you cannot help asking why he prefers it to the accepted spelling.
I am not suggesting or insisting that Titikaka is the only correct spelling or that Titicaca is incorrect. I only posted it because that is what you see in the book on English vocabulary by Stuart Redman mentioned above. According to Oxford University Press, Mr Redman has been involved in English language teaching for over twenty-five years and has taught both in the UK and overseas and I am well aware that his title is one of the most widely used books on English vocabulary here. (Whenever you visit a bookstore and look for titles on English grammar and vocabulary,you are left with not much choice because everyone is heavily into learning vocabulary and grammar and such books sell like hot cakes.) If a person like him has used the spelling three times in a book on English vocabulary, you cannot help asking why he prefers it to the accepted spelling.