Regularising the irregular

<Isn't this just an alternative to the more usual "special". >

A non-English alternative.

Funny that non-English words are found in English dictionaries....

es·pe·cial (ĭ-spĕsh'əl) pronunciation
adj.

1. Of special importance or significance; exceptional: an occasion of especial joy.
2. Relating to or directed toward a particular person, group, or purpose: called his father with especial birthday wishes; gave especial attention to the decorations.
3. Peculiar to the individual; characteristic: She has an especial fondness for mushrooms.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin speciālis, of a kind, from speciēs, species.]

I suppose "especial" could have been a typo, in this case.

<<I suppose "especial" could have been a typo, in this case. >>

Spanglish, in that case, I'd say.

In the BNC (http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/x.asp) special + verb comes out at 284 times per 1m words. "Especial + verb" comes out at only 1 time per 1m words.

Results 1 - 10 of about 241,000 for ”especial attention". (0.25 seconds)

Results 1 - 100 of about 2,040,000 English pages for "special attention". (0.38 seconds)