Why is dyslexia so hard to spell?

Question

Why is dyslexia so hard to spell?

Answer 1

It's probably because the "y" is sounded like a short "i." Still, I've never had any trouble spelling dyslexia.

Answer 2

Is it?

Answer 3

It's always made me laugh that "lisp" has an "s" in it and that "rhotacism" (where people say w instead of r - like Jonathon Ross) has an "r" in it!  I think that someone, somewhere with a really cruel sense of humour is at work!

Answer 4

Dis  what ???

Answer 5

It's not really.  

Separate dys (meaning abnormal or impaired) from lex (meaning  related to words) and ia (a suffix that means this word is a noun)

dys-lex-ia

It means a disorder of reading.

Answer 6

Not sure

Answer 7

Dyslexia rules KO.

Answer 8

its only hard to spell if you're dyslexic. have you tried re-arranging the letters to see what you get? sexi lady - daily s*x. ha ha!

Answer 9

An interesting question and I have often wondered this myself.  After a bit of research I have discovered that the term 'dyslexia' was first coined in 1887 by Rudolf Berlin, an ophthalmologist practicing in Stuttgart, Germany. He used the term to refer to a case of a young boy who had a severe impairment in learning to read and write in spite of showing typical intellectual and physical abilities in all other respects.

The word dyslexia comes from the Greek words δυσ- dys- ("impaired") and λέξις lexis ("word"). People with dyslexia are called dyslexic or dyslectic.

So it is a German adaptation of a Greek word, it is a shame for dyslexics that an easier word was not bought into use when the condition became accepted in the English speaking world.

Answer 10

It's a funny one, but remember the condition existed before the medical field had a definition (it's first use only appears in 1961). They called the condition "dyslexia", because broken down it means "dysfunction" + "lexicon". Literally- dysfunctional language ability.

In spelling it, when you have dyslexia, i've found it's one of the words that comes more easily :) However when sounding out the word, it's difficult to spell, as it sounds like "DIS-LEKS-EE-AH"

Answer 11

jfucheiimw.

Answer 12

It's either because it's a medical term which are always hard to spell.

Also I think it's  just because the people who come up with words want to make it hard for people. Like stutter has a t in it when that is the letter that gets stuttered a lot. The same with lisp. If you have one s comes out as th

Answer 13

Same reason phonetic isn’t spelled phonetically.

Answer 14

For you? Take a wild guess.

Answer 15

it's that pesky x, it just throws the whole look of the word.

Answer 16

why is the word abbreviate so long?