If home and comb are pronounced the same, why not spelled the same?

Question

Just 1 of lifes many mysteries.

Answer 1

Comb is actually derived from an Old High German word that existed only in verb form (kamb) and the "b" was only pronounced when conjugated I comb (Ich kambe) You comb (Du kambest) . . . . and so on. When it became a noun, the plural was made by adding an "e" and not an "s". During those days, all words ending in consonants had no breath released after they were pronounced, and as "b" is a vocalized consonant, it is impossible to pronounce a b when followed by an m if it is the last consonant of a word. Scholars believe that the word was introduced to the Germans when Greek members of the Roman armies entered Germany, as the greek word for "pin" is gamphos.

Home comes from the Old German (heim) which is actually derived from an adverb. This concept survives today as we say "I am going home" rather than "I am going to home".

So the answer actually has to do with both parts of speech and with the way the pronunciation of the English language has changed over the centuries.

Answer 2

Home and comb aren't pronounced the same. One starts with and "h" with the "hoe" sound. The other starts with a "c" and has the "ka" or "k" sound. The only thing the same in these words are the "ome" where the "e" makes the "o" sound long "o" as in "oh" or the letter "o" followed by "m" and the "e" is silent..

Answer 3

It's a good way to distinguish between "come" and "comb" - but you're right, there's no intuition involved. In Latin languages, you have to also know the gender of a noun - and you just have to know, there's not much logic to what makes a noun masculine, feminine, or neuter. There are many examples in English that do not follow common sense. For example, shake, shook, and shaken is correct, but rake, rook, and raken is all wrong. It's just the way the language evolved.

Answer 4

You didn't mention "slough," "rough," "trough," which are all spelled the same but pronounced differently.

The Pitman Initial teaching alphabet would solve all that, by using a unique letter for each sound in English. It's simpler, more sensible, and easier to learn than the standard alphabet.

As a consequence, of course, it is opposed by just about everybody but a few old cranks of no consequence whatsoever, and has no chance whatsoever of being adopted.

Answer 5

Yes, the English language has many quirks. Cough and rough are spelled the same, but pronounced differently. Perhaps now you can see why English is so hard for a foreigner to learn. (Learn rhymes with burn but are spelled differently.)

Answer 6

Ask those old English ancestors - who probably did pronoune the B in comb

If you try to pronounce the B you cannot anyway unless you fold you lips and make a dig deal of it - hence the silent B

Answer 7

They are pronounced the same just because the "b" was too difficult to keep saying, so they stopped.

Here is where COMB comes from: OLD ENGLISH. camb "comb," lit. "toothed object," from W.Gmc. *kambaz, from PIE *gombhos, from base *gembh- "to bite, tooth" (cf. Gk. gomphos "a molar tooth," Skt. gambha-s "tooth"). As a verb, replaced O.E. cemban, which survives in unkempt.

and HOME is from: Old English. ham "dwelling, house, estate, village," from P.Gmc. *khaim- (cf. O.Fris. hem "home, village," O.N. heimr "residence, world," heima "home," Ger. heim "home," Goth. haims "village"), from PIE base *kei- "to lie, settle down" (cf. Gk. kome, Lith. kaimas "village;" O.C.S. semija "domestic servants").

The "b" in comb just fell off because it must have been too difficult to say, so it dropped off after many years (literally, that's how languages change).

Answer 8

b/c if you spelled comb the same as home it would be come.

Answer 9

And if comb and tomb are spelled the same why don't they rhyme?

Answer 10

I take it you don't say the b on the end of comb or do you say homb.