Why is English so weird?

Question

I was just thinking of some words and it's funny how, for example, Knife and Kniving. They both start with K and N, yet when you say Knife, the K is silent, but if you say Kniving, the K isn't. Why is that?

Answer 1

On the specific words you mention, as one answer has already pointed out, the second word is "conniving" NOT "kniving" --and it is totally unrelated to "knife".

But it still is worth asking why we HAVE 'silent k' in words like knight and knife. For that matter, what about the silent "gh" in knight (and may other words), or even the pronunciation of "gh" as /f/ in tough, cough, etc. Or the many other silent letters (mostly consonants, though the final silent e is another conspicuous one).

Well, there are several factors that explain the spelling peculiarities of English. Foreign loan words are a piece of it, but hardly as much as is often suggested, since most loan words are changed to fit the sounds of the language borrowing them.

The continued relations with France and use of French in high society, and influence of sound changes and silent letters in French is also a piece (that's where all the British "-our" vs. American "or" words come from).

But probably the biggest key -- the one that explains a great many of the silent letters and the many ways of pronouncing "ough"-- is a major shift in the pronunciation of English that we might say was "very poorly timed"!

You see, one of the major forces in beginning to fix the spellings of modern English was the invention of the printing press. At the end of the 15th century, English texts were beginning to be printed (a central figure in this was William Caxton, though I don't think ALL issues ought to be laid at his feet!)
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=Caxton+spelling
http://www.historyhouse.com/in_history/spelling/

But it just so happens that, at the very same time -- which was actually the beginning of the shift from Middle English to early Modern English -- a MAJOR change in pronunciation was taking place in the language.

The central piece of this was what is called "the Great Vowel Shift", as a result of which most of what English calls "long vowels" no longer match the European equivalents (long i used to be pronounced /ee/, long e more like the 'ey' in 'they', etc.) This change, along with other shifts in the language, led to many sounds being lost/silenced. In other words, if you find the equivalent words in the Middle English writings of Chaucer you WOULD pronounce all those silent letters! Similarly, when many of these words were first PRINTED they corresponded to a pronunciation current at the time (or at least one current in SOME English dialects -- since the continued variety in English dialects is part of the larger problem... and that variety has ALWAYS been there, even in Old English).

Incidentally, such a major shift in a language never quite occurs overnight, nor do all dialects of the language share in it equally. And the fact, that some regions of England were still pronouncing these letters for some time (and Scots English kept them long after all the rest had lost them!) made everything the more confusing. In fact, there is evidence that some cases of silent-gh were NOT silent in Shakespeare's language, ca. 1600 (he rhymes "daughter" with "after").

So the real mystery that language historians continue to debate is -- WHY did this "Great Vowel Shift" and associated changes take place? There are many theories on this, largely related to important shifts in population from one region to another (causing mixing of populations). These shifts are often attributed to the upheavals caused by the LOSS of a large part of the population to the Black Plague.

Answer 2

That is just the thing, English has many silent letters which are used to spell a word but NOT to pronounce it.
Of course, English also has dipthongs just like Greek does.
Some languages are phonetic, in other words they are pronounced exactly the way you spell them. Some are phonetic but contain dipthongs which does make it harder to learn.
Dipthongs are TWO letters that make ONE sound.
I hate dipthongs.
Going back to English: knife spelled k n i f e but pronounced as
n i f e; make spelled as m a k e but pronounced as m a k with the "a" having a long sound versus mack where the "a" has a short sound.
Even more interesting is the fact that in America, the word Flashlight means Flashlight but in England the word Torch means Flashlight. The word Radio means radio in America but in England, the word Wireless means Radio. Since English is spoken in the UK, America, England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and others tha tdo NTO come to mind right now, there could be different words for the same object.
You might find these differences in America alone since the country spans four to five time zones:
Pop = Soda Pop
Pop = Father
Sack = Grocery Bag
Sack = Bed as in " Time to hit the sack."

Answer 3

English is a language that has built up over centuries and is a bastardization of , old french , latin, german . Nordic and Dutch and any other language going.

England throughout her history has been conquered by 1 or more of these initial langauge speakers .

As english people migrated their langauge was changed, twisted and bent to suit the locaL languages.

English is not wierd its is a developing language full of life and diversity

Answer 4

it's a mix of a whole lot of other languages, and it's still evolving today, so different words sound different.

try learning chinese. thousands of characters, no fixed rules. nothing is the same there =)

to: lor lor
by the way, the reason it's called a sandwich is because it was named after the guy who invented it, John Montagu, the Fourth Earl of Sandwich . the story goes, he was too busy gambling to stop for a proper meal. So he took two pieces of bread and roast beef and slapped them together to make a quick and non-greasy food item. =)

Answer 5

It's because it is a mixture of so many languages, and it has evolved over the years. Each word has its own history and the pronounciation of each word has changed over the years. Most of the silent letters came from letters that weren't silent, but shortcuts in pronouncing them caused them to change.

Answer 6

The second word is spelled "conniving," so it doesn't really start with a silent "k." The word "knife" however is still weird.

Answer 7

There was never an original language English. English was a barter language formed from various european languages. Hence various spellings from various parts cam in.

Answer 8

English is a mongrel language. It was kind of a collection of a whole bunch of languages that existed in Europe a while ago and probalby picked the worst part of each.

Answer 9

Our language is a mix of Latin, German, English, Spanish, and many others. A unique mixing bowl of alphabet soup.

Answer 10

yea i've thought about that alot too. like i mean who came up with the word sandwich??? it's turkey and cheese smushed between to pieces of bread. it has nothing to do with sand or witches! i agree, our language is weird.