Spelling has been one of the main targets for deviations from the standard norm of the Portuguese language, since writing correctly implies having a good knowledge of the relationships between sounds and letters. A good example of a misspelling involves the word for the action of eliminating pests in a given space. You know the correct way: to detect or detect?
Before removing this doubt, let us make a brief study to better understand the reason for these deviations.
In alphabetical writing, there are cases where there is a certain kind of correspondence between sounds and letters, that is, when the same sound is reproduced by more than one letter, which does not mean, however, that the writing must transcribe the orality. Some very common deviations that occur as a result of this correspondence are those involving the letters: s, ss, c, ç, z, sc, sç, and xc (head/head, cancel/to hunt, to grow/grow up, precedent/andxctooth, discussion/discussão, etc.). There is this confusion because several letters represent the same phoneme.
Still in this perspective of the relationship between sounds and lyrics, we have another factor that contributes to the exchange of phonemes to occur and cause the speaker is in doubt at the time of writing: the similarity of vocalization (sound formation process: vibration, or not, of the strings vocals). This is the factor that explains the doubt about the use of the terms deetize and detect, for example, given the similarity between the phonemes /t/ and /d/. Note that here we have a resemblance in one of the phonemes formation points, without total symmetry between them.
The exchange of phonemes does not always result in an error, as a new word may be formed, constituting something we know as minimum pair. This linguistic phenomenon consists in exchanging one phoneme for another, which provides the formation of another word that already integrates the lexicon of our mother tongue.
Examples:
Minimum pairs /p/ and /b/
Pok and Bok, Pingo and Bingo, Pwent and Bgo, Pompom and Bgood, Pwalk and Bcome on, Bote and Poh, Phello and Bhello, leavePhello and saBno, etc.
Min pairs /k/ and /g/
gHello and çHi, ggold and çgold, çordad and gordeal, çhello and gHello, çpotter and gpotter etc.
Minimum pairs /t/ and /d/
twent and dgo, tThetthe and dThedo, mortand it's deaddand, rota and rodoh gatwhat's updthe colortthe and colordthe, wedtro and whatdro etc.
What, after all, is the correct way: To Dedetize or Detetize?
Minimal pairs show changes in the spelling of the word, but this is not a problem spelling, since the change will form a new word, whose existence in the vocabulary of our language already it's a fact. This, however, does not happen with to detect and detect. In this case, the similarity of vocalization misleads us, since the correct name to indicate the pest fighting action is: Dedetize (detect does not appear officially in our language).
Now that we already know some roots that underlie some spelling deviations and we have resolved our doubts regarding the word dedetize, take note of a curiosity regarding this name. The word fumigation appeared when the substance Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (popularly called DDT) began to be used against insects during World War II. As it is a very toxic pesticide, the DDT was prohibited, but the name fumigation it is still the most common way to call the action of combating pests and insects.
Because other combat practices have emerged and the prohibition of the use of the DDT substance, today we have other names that refer to the practice of eliminating insects and other animals, such as disinsectization. Therefore, the appropriate forms, both in orality and in spelling, are: fumigation or disinsectization.
by Mariana Pacheco
Graduated in Letters
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/gramatica/dedetizar-ou-detetizar.htm