Why do so many people spell "Joffery" instead of "Joffrey"?

[Ebrose]

Hi everyone, and sorry for the extremely stupid question, but does anyone know why Joffrey's name is so often misspelled as "Joffery"? Is there any edition/translation in which it is written like that?

Cheers!

[HoodedCrow]

The spellchecker likes to correct proper nouns? Sometimes it’s hard to recall words that you may not have heard out loud, or the way it is pronounced tricks you.:)

[Mister Smikes]

44 minutes ago, Ebrose said:

Hi everyone, and sorry for the extremely stupid question, but does anyone know why Joffrey's name is so often misspelled as "Joffery"? Is there any edition/translation in which it is written like that?

I was not aware of any such pattern.  But people mis-spell things sometimes.  Or you can also choose to regard it as a variant spelling of what is essentially the same name.  Standardized spelling, including standardized spelling of names, is a relatively modern idea.  No-one in the middle ages would have gotten too hung up on this sort of thing.

The World of Ice and Fire mentions a Ser Joffery Lydden.  I would guess, at least in that case, it is a variant spelling, rather than a misspelling, rather like Willam and Willem.

In the real world, Jeffery is a variant spelling of Jeffrey.

[Mister Smikes]

46 minutes ago, HoodedCrow said:

Sometimes it’s hard to recall words that you may not have heard out loud, or the way it is pronounced tricks you.:)

In most accents/dialects of English the difference in pronunciation between "Joffrey" and "Joffery" would be virtually inaudible.  Many (most?) English speakers use a guttural "r" that does not trip easily off the tongue, and can easily be taken for  its own syllable when it follows a consonant.  Hence, certain Romance languages terms, such as "metre", "tigre", "nitre", etc. become in English (or American English as the case may be) "meter", "tiger". "niter", etc.

[Universal Sword Donor]

Lot of people suck at spelling. A lot of people don't care about typos or incorrect "autocorrects." Some people just like to watch the world burn so I will now be spelling it Joffery.

[LynnS]

1 hour ago, Ebrose said:

Hi everyone, and sorry for the extremely stupid question, but does anyone know why Joffrey's name is so often misspelled as "Joffery"? Is there any edition/translation in which it is written like that?

Cheers!

This should go to Small Questions.

[HoodedCrow]

There is Geoffrey, too. I just gave up on color/colour after a few years.

There is your visual memory of other similar words, there are auditory differences between dialects and English spelling was standardized leaving a lot of difficult word origins intact. We are more forgiving about names. If someone spelled their name Joffery, they could! Imagine correcting your name each time. 

[Universal Sword Donor]

1 minute ago, HoodedCrow said:

There is Geoffrey, too. I just gave up on color/colour after a few years.

There is your visual memory of other similar words, there are auditory differences between dialects and English spelling was standardized leaving a lot of difficult word origins intact. We are more forgiving about names. If someone spelled their name Joffery, they could! Imagine correcting your name each time. 

Unless I am getting an email generated by my hand entered information, people usually spell my name wrong and it's really really not hard to spell.

[Jaenara Belarys]

48 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

I was not aware of any such pattern.  But people mis-spell things sometimes.  Or you can also choose to regard it as a variant spelling of what is essentially the same name.  Standardized spelling, including standardized spelling of names, is a relatively modern idea.  No-one in the middle ages would have gotten too hung up on this sort of thing.

 

If you read fanfic on AO3, you'll see plenty of places where that happens. 

33 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

In most accents/dialects of English the difference in pronunciation between "Joffrey" and "Joffery" would be virtually inaudible.  Many (most?) English speakers use a guttural "r" that does not trip easily off the tongue, and can easily be taken for  its own syllable when it follows a consonant.  Hence, certain Romance languages terms, such as "metre", "tigre", "nitre", etc. become in English (or American English as the case may be) "meter", "tiger". "niter", etc.

I don't know....I pronounce it Joff-ree, not Joff-eree. 

[Mister Smikes]

7 minutes ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

I don't know....I pronounce it Joff-ree, not Joff-eree. 

Well, maybe you're more high-class than I am, and your "r"s are less guttural.

[Hugorfonics]

1 hour ago, Universal Sword Donor said:

Some people just like to watch the world burn so I will now be spelling it Joffery.

Lmao

1 hour ago, Mister Smikes said:

Well, maybe you're more high-class than I am, and your "r"s are less guttural.

Lol, its not a high class thing. Its a two syllable name, not three. 

 

Shout out to our worlds favorite mother;

Quote

"I . . . I used to go away inside sometimes," he confessed, "when Joffy . . ."

"Joffrey." Cersei stood over them, the wind whipping her skirts around her legs. "Your brother's name was Joffrey. He would never have shamed me so."

 

[Mister Smikes]

1 hour ago, Hugorfonics said:

Lol, its not a high class thing. Its a two syllable name, not three. 

Whether a specific string of sounds gets perceived as two syllables or one syllable can be subjective.  It is not always absolutely and objectively unambiguous.   This is especially likely to be true when a guttural "R" is being used.

[Jaenara Belarys]

2 hours ago, Mister Smikes said:

Well, maybe you're more high-class than I am, and your "r"s are less guttural.

"high class" stuff is bull****. Don't bring it up. I just pronounce it right. 

[Jaenara Belarys]

1 hour ago, Hugorfonics said:

Shout out to our worlds favorite mother;

 

"World's favorite mother".......lmao

1 hour ago, Hugorfonics said:

Lol, its not a high class thing. Its a two syllable name, not three. 

 

Thank you. 

 

[Lord Lannister]

Same reason Margery and Jamie are totally people in ASoIaF. Some people just don't know/care about the right spelling. Autocorrect can be brutal when I post here from my phone.

[Mister Smikes]

3 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

"high class" stuff is bull****. Don't bring it up. I just pronounce it right. 

Sure.  You pronounce correctly.  Other people pronounce wrongly.  But the fact remains that you usually cannot tell, in the real world, whether someone is saying "Jeffery" or "Jeffrey".

[Hugorfonics]

3 hours ago, Mister Smikes said:

Whether a specific string of sounds gets perceived as two syllables or one syllable can be subjective.  It is not always absolutely and objectively unambiguous.   This is especially likely to be true when a guttural "R" is being used.

Im trying to say it with two syllables and I cant. Joff-e-ry. Kinda sounds Japanese

[Mister Smikes]

2 minutes ago, Hugorfonics said:

Im trying to say it with two syllables and I cant. Joff-e-ry. Kinda sounds Japanese

Do you mean that you're trying to say it with three syllables and can't?  

 

 

[Hugorfonics]

16 minutes ago, Mister Smikes said:

Do you mean that you're trying to say it with three syllables and can't?  

 

 

Lol yea. My fault, too much smoke

[Mister Smikes]

4 minutes ago, Hugorfonics said:

Lol yea. My fault, too much smoke

Funny you should have mentioned Japanese, because that's a language without the guttural "R".

Anyhow, those who think that "Jeffery" or "Joffery" would or should necessarily be pronounced differently from "Jeffrey" or "Joffrey", should check out the Cosby skit "Jeffery".