why aint it iland.
not iSland.
2007-01-14 13:02:08 · 15 answers · asked by pyrokid000 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Civic Participation
The word island comes from Old English igland. However, the spelling of the word was modified in the 15th century by association with the Old French loanword isle.
2007-01-14 14:25:59 · answer #1 · answered by daizzddre 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
You're actually correct it is "iland" as well.. Let me explain...
It may seem hard to believe, but Latin aqua, "water," is related to island, which originally meant "watery land." Aqua comes almost unchanged from Indo-European *akwÄ-, "water." *AkwÄ- became *ahwÅ- in Germanic by Grimm's Law and other sound changes. To this was built the adjective *ahwjÅ-, "watery." This then evolved to *awwjÅ- or *auwi-, which in pre-English became *Äaj-, and finally Äg or Ä«eg in Old English. Island, spelled iland, first appears in Old English in King Alfred's translation of Boethius about A.D. 888; the spellings igland and ealond appear in contemporary documents. The s in island is due to a mistaken etymology, confusing the etymologically correct English iland with French isle. Isle comes ultimately from Latin Ä«nsula "island," a component of paenÄ«nsula, "almost-island," where we get our peninsula.
Its kind of hard to understand at first but read it a few times and you'll get it. Basicly the short answer is: Someone combined the English "iland" with "Isle" to get Island.
2007-01-14 23:57:03 · answer #2 · answered by Adreeene 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
English is filled with words where letters just seem to be visiting and have no pronunciation aspect. For example:
muscle is pronounced "mussel "
comfortable is pronounced "comf ter bul "
night (and a passel of 'ight' type words) is pronounced "nite "
two is 2 and also to and too, too.
read is red when it is past tense but present tense it is reed
phlegm is flem.
This stuff is why English pronunciation and spelling are only slightly related. Often it seems that it is random in nature but the historical reason is often in the Latin or Greek English is predominately made of. It is a horror for non native speakers to figure this stuff out.
2007-01-14 21:13:48 · answer #3 · answered by iwasnotanazipolka 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Well maybe the English word Island comes from the French word "île". In French in a lot of words we have the " ^ " on a vowel, the adjective takes an "s" and sometimes more and lose the " ^ ". For instance "île" 's adjective is "insulaire".
Other words :
- Hôpital ( hospital in English ), adjective : hospitalier
- Vêtement ( clothes in English ), adjective : vestimentaire.
That's all I could think of.
2007-01-14 21:22:40 · answer #4 · answered by kl55000 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think the word island is probably derived from the word "isle", as in British Isles.
A lot of American words are spelled the way they are because they originate from different word, in this case, "isle".
2007-01-15 19:26:31 · answer #5 · answered by tychobrahe 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
At one time, the sea was called "isnotland". Eventually people started calling that which is not sea "island".
2007-01-14 22:43:47 · answer #6 · answered by rcpass 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
island looks more interesting
2007-01-14 21:09:30 · answer #7 · answered by Ashley 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Had an (S) left over had to put it some where couldn't just leave it lying around.
2007-01-14 21:45:15 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 3⤋
Never try to make sense of language. And please pick a more appropriate category to ask a question like this.
2007-01-14 21:14:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
I guess the same reason why scissors has a "c" in it. or gnu has a "g" in it...
2007-01-15 20:16:13 · answer #10 · answered by Khandee K 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋