2006-09-07 06:03:39 · 15 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
It's all about what the origin of the word is.
English is a mishmash of many other languages; French, Latin, Norse, Germanic, etc, etc.
How a word is pronounced is dependent on which language it came from. It is then changed over time by local dialects to give us the word we use today.
It's still happening now, of course. How is the word "schedule" pronounced? Skedyool, right? Wrong! It should be shedyool, but the yanks pronounce it skedyool and we have started copying them. That's exactly why we have so many words that are pronounced differently to how they appear to be spelt (and no jsweit8573, there's nothing wrong with the word "spelt" in British English).
2006-09-07 06:39:23 · answer #1 · answered by amancalledchuda 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because many words from the English language originate from languages where the words was pronounced differently and it's pronunciation has changed over time but the spelling did not. Also, spelling rules were different in these countries, but the rules were not adapted over time. Spoken language changes but the spelling rules haven't always changed as quickly. As countries conquered others and introduced their language, the language may have experienced subtle changes as the conquered people learned the language. Also, many peasants and poor could not read or write so language was learned orally. As written language was introduced, people spelled what they had learned even if it wasn't pronounced that way anymore.
So, the English language is a bastardized conglomeration of many archaic spelling rules, many of which no longer fit the language use.
2006-09-07 06:25:50 · answer #2 · answered by Missy A 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
A high percentage of words in the English language are not spelt ('spelled' is standard in America but it varies in England, jsweit8573) phonetically.
It's just the way the English language is, as it descends from many European languages (mainly German, Dutch and French).
2006-09-07 06:43:20 · answer #3 · answered by Judi 1 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The gist of the communicate accessible (sorry, there are too many pages to offer each and all the links) is that wands help to concentration the magic resident interior the witch or wizard, yet wandless magic continues to be achieveable, particularly for extremely gifted human beings like Snape and Dumbledore. some examples ... Apparition Assuming one's Animagus form (or Metamorphpagus) Accio (the Summoning allure) Elves can do magic without using wands Lumos
2016-12-12 04:17:22 · answer #4 · answered by marianna 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because the English want to make it difficult for foreigners to learn their language lol
2006-09-07 06:09:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
i always wondered that myself? why do we need a knife and not just a nife. well it all go's back to the punctuation questions doesn't it? punctu8, we don't make the dictionary and we didn't make the game chess we just play by the rules
2006-09-10 21:19:25 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
because the english want to make it hard for others to learn our language
2006-09-10 01:54:32 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
pronounce the word could and youll find that if you are pronouncing it correctly then you are actually speaking every single letter in the word....we just speak so fast that you dont always here it
2006-09-07 06:09:46 · answer #8 · answered by cookiesmom 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I dont know but apparently you think that the word SPELLED should be pronounced that way too
It is SPELLED not SPELT
2006-09-07 06:09:45 · answer #9 · answered by jsweit8573 6 · 0⤊ 4⤋
Thay is actually -they
2006-09-10 09:57:57 · answer #10 · answered by tildypops 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋