Why is English so strange? Topic is solved

[PastelPusheen77]

I mean, there are so many words that either look wrong or sound wrong, and then there's words that are both! For example:

Receipt looks like it should be pronounced "receept" or "recaept".

Wednesday looks like it should be pronounced "wednezday".

And, (sorry to those who are afraid of long words!) why the heck does hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, the fear of long words, have to be a long word?!

[Deleted User 19088]

You can thank French, Latin & Greek for most of that...

[John Little]

And early printers' errors that, once in print, became standard. I believe the "h" in "ghost" is one example of a type setting typo that stuck.

[Basler Biker]

Receipt looks like it should be pronounced "receept" or "recaept".
Wednesday looks like it should be pronounced "wednezday".

it's more like "receet" (no p to be heard)
and "wenzdei" (no d to be heard)

Leicester => lester
Worcester => wooster

Real well spoken, English is fast, and may drop complete syllabes.
Also the overall sentence pitch is very much up and down. Not "dull" at all, British English

[John Little]

Harwick (town in Scotland) pronounced "Hoik"
Trottiscliffe ,(village in Kent with an ancient burial mound) pronounced "Trotsley"

Been to both. And got my head bitten off by a woman in a Scottish border tea shop who asked where we we going. I said "Har-Wick". She said "You're going to Hoik". I made the mistake of correcting her and insisting "no, we're going to "Har-Wick"......

[Davey944676]

...and "wenzdei" (no d to be heard)...

The Joy of Scouse - various parts of Liverpool actually use the two twisted "d" s - "Wedensdee"...in a weirdly carefully and deliberately pronounced way. (It is usually "Wenszdee" around most Liverpool parts when spoken casually)

[Linda7Italian]

And the "....le" is gradually disappearing, eg "little" is often heard now as "littow". Last week we had a littow bit of rain although with the inevitable dropping of the "t" it becomes more of a hmm, don't quite know how to write it. Different strokes for different dialects;-)

[HeyMarlana]

In line with Linda's example of "little", I have noticed a lack of (and accepted) pronunciation for words like "important". I really don't hear people pronounce the t's in "important", and if I did, I would think it sounds strange. If one says it fast enough, and in a natural way, it tends to sound like "impor'n".

Even though English will show a letter T in a lot of words, so often we soften it to the point of not being impor'n.

[PastelPusheen77]

You can thank French, Latin & Greek for most of that...

rofl I should have known

becomes depressed

[LICA98]

In line with Linda's example of "little", I have noticed a lack of (and accepted) pronunciation for words like "important". I really don't hear people pronounce the t's in "important", and if I did, I would think it sounds strange. If one says it fast enough, and in a natural way, it tends to sound like "impor'n".

Even though English will show a letter T in a lot of words, so often we soften it to the point of not being impor'n.

it's because they're actually glottal stops in that word (and the n is a syllabic consonant)
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/important#English
/ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt/, [ɪmˈpʰɔɹʔn̩t], [ɪmˈpʰɔɹʔn̩ʔ]

[Linda7Italian]

This is one of my favourites ...

[Basler Biker]

This is one of my favourites ...

This one is even a bit longer but indeed funny how complicated things can be "made".
And Chinese a.o. complaining about an "r" they can't pronounce well
it's not that impoltant, light?

Indeed, compared to that, all of a sudden Dutch is straightforward now I realize !!
(I'll go reassure my students right now)
Except for the many English loanwords we have, which complicates it again.

[Ian768564]

And the "....le" is gradually disappearing, eg "little" is often heard now as "littow". Last week we had a littow bit of rain although with the inevitable dropping of the "t" it becomes more of a hmm, don't quite know how to write it. Different strokes for different dialects;-)

Pity you didn't tell us where you heard little without the -ul at the end. Actually in my experience in London and the South East and spreading ever wider, the tendency amongst those who don't use received pronunciation or King's English is to omit the T sounds. So what I hear is 'li'ul' with a glottal stop in the middle.

[Linda7Italian]

Ian, you've got it, spot on, or should I say "spo on":-)

[Ian768564]

Yes, Linda7Italian, and that form of pronunciation is called Estuary, as it originated in the Thames estuary area. Water is also pronounced replacing the T by a glottal stop.

[Gon4Olya]

Maybe it’ll help a bit — I’m learning English with Duolingo too, and I also use Word Merge. Combining lessons with a little game makes it feel easier and more fun.

[Davey944676]

A bit of exaggerated Estuary English...

[Linda7Italian]

I wonder if you might enjoy this? It's a little fast here and there but so true.

[MoniqueMaRie]

I wonder if you might enjoy this? It's a little fast here and there but so true.

When he started I didn't know that he was talking about "hour" instead of "our". But: English has many words pronounced the same and written differently (homophones). https://www.thedailyjagran.com/trending ... s-10263162

First I heard witnessday when he said We"d"nesday. Must have something to do with a tribunal on a day in autum-n.

I always liked "knife" pronounced the German way like the German verb "kneifen". I will take "knickers" into the same list. The German word "Knickerbocker" describes a special kind of knickers (and is surely spoken with the "k").

I still have tears in my eyes from laughing now.
Please dear English-speaking people: introduce the silent letters day as a special day of year. I will try to come and visit the festivals of this day in your country.

[Linda7Italian]

With all the political whoo-haa and GMOTG currently gracing our UK TV screens, I still cannot believe that reasonably educated ppl still cannot get the hang of "is" and "are" ie "The first pair to leave the Jungle are ...." or "The first thing necessary to help our economy are to increase this and that".

Feel sure I've mentioned this before, in which case my apologies but it does help to say it all again. The repetition of various aggros are certainly appreciated!

[MoniqueMaRie]

This is one of my favourites ...

Today I was in an Indian restaurant ordering "Gin sour". My pronunciation was like sour (second word in the video, quite easy for me because the pronunciation of the German "sauer" is very similar.)

Both waiters repeated my order as something like "Gin soar". Is that the name of the drink that I simply don't know because I rarely drink it?

[Vlot Vlaams]

And early printers' errors that, once in print, became standard. I believe the "h" in "ghost" is one example of a type setting typo that stuck.

It's an interesting case, but the "h" in words like ghost isn't a typo that stuck. It's a deliberate typographical convention that originated in Latin.

Latin used the digraphs ph, ch, th, rh (and later gh) to represent the aspirated Greek consonants φ (phi), χ (chi), θ (theta), and ῥ (rho). This system was passed down through scholarly and religious texts.

English inherited these spellings primarily via Latin and French after the Norman Conquest. The "h" in ghost specifically comes from the Middle Dutch/Flemish gheest, as early English printers often employed compositors from the Low Countries who used their own spelling habits. This reinforced the "gh-" pattern in English for that guttural sound.

As for "th" in words like think: that's a different story with a similar printing-related cause. English originally had a letter for the "th" sound: the thorn (þ). However, when printing arrived, the standard typefaces (designed for Latin) did not include the thorn. Printers substituted it with "y" (hence the archaic "ye" for "the") or, more lastingly, with the digraph "th", which was already familiar from Greek/Latin loanwords.

You're right that once printed, these spellings became standardized. Other languages, like Swedish, later modernized their spelling. English never underwent a major, official spelling reform, which is why we're left with these historical layers.

But the Swedes did, and they use f, k, t, r, ..hard letters if they are spoken "hard", and keep only the "+h" spelling in proper names, loanwords from French ... but no longer they kept them as a reminder or a mnemonic link to the original word.

Swedish simplifications
Greek → Latin English Swedish simplified Notes
φ → ph philosophy filosofi Swedish uses f
χ → ch chaos kaos Swedish uses k
θ → th theatre teater Swedish uses t
ῥ → rh rhythm rytm Swedish uses r

Swedish retains foreign spelling only when:

• The word is a direct international loan (e.g., chef from French)
• It’s a proper name (e.g., Philadelphia, Chicago)
• Scientific Latin names must remain unchanged
• It came through French, not Greek → Latin → Swedish (e.g., champagne, choklad, charlatan)

[Davey944676]

... ie "The first pair to leave the Jungle are ....

Morphing from singular to plural, mid-sentence, when using words/phrases like "pair" or "the public" has to be one of the most common grammatical errors you will hear on TV...and even, the gods help us all, on Radio 4.

Everybody knows it's technically wrong, but it has become generally more acceptable because it often sounds more natural, and (I am guessing now) might even make things more clear to people when they are just catching snatches of a news report, etc, when driving or generally only half-listening to something.

[Linda7Italian]

"... the gods help us all, on Radio 4" I'm a Talksport listener in the mornings so must venture to Radio 4 for the "experience"

[Vlot Vlaams]

Not about English, my reply here, but such "changes", errors becoming grammar-ish, happen in all languages.

I saw on a TV ad "Is je huid droog? verzorg het"... 2 errors in a single slogan.

Dutch "huid" (skin) is female, not neutral, so it's to be "Verzorg ze". Some people would even try "Verzorg haar", but that's the possessive female pronoun, so wrong also.

And "je huid" (your skin) is meanwhile almost a recommended form, by pseudo-authorities, where in fact the only real possessive for the 3nd person singular is "jouw".
Because "je/ge" (unstressed) and "jij/gij" (stressed) are the personal pronouns, and "jou" is de "normal" Dutch form in Holland, not in Belgian Flanders.

So only correct would be sth like "Ik hou van jou/je en van jouw blauwe augen" ;.. funny because we say "augen" as a joke, since it's to be "ogen" (eyes), but that's a less nice vocal-alliteration

PS: Also note that "ou/ouw/au/auw" are all pronounced the same, so for learners it's hard to know whether to write "ou" or "au", and natives have no explanation for it either, neither ethymologically can it be explained, I think;