how did we spell before the dictionary was made?

Answer 1

Mi familee ave ad our owen langwidge anded downe, goin bak to befoor a dickonaree wus faught ov. Weee ave maid doo.

Answer 2

In English, spelling was sort of free form before the dictionary. Educated people, who had gone to school, maybe even to college, could spell. But remember, before the dictionary was first made, not that many people went to school. So not that many people knew how to write.

Answer 3

By word of mouth and example. People in the earliest of times would write not only to provide information, but to preserve their written language. Others then could refer to the material written for a source on how to spell a word. It acted as a dictionary, but of course it was difficult to find a word you needed because one would have to skim the article to find the word they needed. And maybe several articles at that. truly the dictionary was a blessing for all those who wanted to write accurately what they were trying to express

Answer 4

Dictionary was made only after the language developed and people started writing.,not the other way

Answer 5

Are you talking about English?

In Old English, the words were spelled phonetically (how they sounded). So, people would spell differently according to their accent. It was uncommon for people in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages to know how to read or write anyway.

I have no idea about other languages, but I assume that it would be similar.

Answer 6

Very badly I suspect. Thank you Dr Johnson. However, most 'ordinary' people were illiterate until universal schooling, so spelling wasn't an issue.

Answer 7

Hmm that's a baffling question hah! Gunna keep me wandering for ages now! lol

Answer 8

We didn't - words had a lot of different spellings.

Answer 9

Much better than the average person on this site! u no wot eye meeen?

Answer 10

By comparison to other works.