English spelling: Beyond the rules of spelling shun-words

Abstract

As is well known, English spelling is a major problem even to native speakers. In Achiri-Taboh (2018a), I present arguments for a synchronic base-word-based rule for the spelling of shun-words, given the notoriously troubling variation in the spelling of their ending as underlined here in words like fraction, dictation, equation, and persuasion (with a t-form) and extension, collision, and expression (with an s-form). My (2018a) rule is summarized as follows: (1)The Base-Word-Based (BWB) rule for spelling ‘shun’:Use -tion everywhere except when X (X = any of the 7 conditions)See Achiri-Taboh (2018a) for the 7 conditions.