Ferns of wall and rock
cheilanthes
say ky-LAN-theez
Cheilanthes lanosa
The lip ferns, small and often furry, holding out on hot dry rock. The name puts three Greek spelling conventions in a row and is the hardest word on this site to write down from the sound.
What it is
The plant
Cheilanthes lanosa is the hairy lip fern of dry rocky slopes in eastern North America. The fronds are narrow, twice divided and covered in rusty hairs, and they curl up in drought and open again after rain.
Why
Why the letters and the sound disagree
Greek cheilos, a lip, plus anthos, a flower. The frond margin rolls back over the spore clusters along the edge like a lip closing over them, and the name describes that. Three separate Greek letters in the word are written with two English letters each: chi as ch, the diphthong as ei, theta as th. None of the three pairs says what an English reader expects.
Recorded
Spellings people arrive at
- chailanthesan unstressed vowelchei.
- cheillanthesa doubled consonantOne l.
- cheilanthusan unstressed vowelNot in this genus. Cheilanthes ends -anthes.
- cheelantestwo changes at onceBoth a vowel and a consonant are off: it is cheilanthes.
- chaylantestwo changes at onceNo. The word is cheilanthes.
- keilantestwo changes at onceTwo Greek letters have gone missing at once: ch and th.
- keelanthestwo changes at oncecheilanthes.
- cheelanthestwo letters, one vowelThe vowel is written ei, not ee.
- keilantheshard cThe k sound is written ch because the letter behind it is Greek chi.
- cheilantesthe thYes. The th is one Greek letter, theta, and it does not shed its h.
- sheilanthesch heard as shIt never is. Cheilanthes opens with a hard k.
- sheelanthestwo changes at oncecheilanthes: hard k, and ei rather than ee.
- sheilantestwo changes at onceThe opening is ch, the middle keeps its h, and the word is cheilanthes.
- chaylanthestwo letters, one vowelNeither. The letters are ei, whatever the vowel sounds like.
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