Another is simply that pronunciations are always shifting, albeit gradually. English, American, Irish, Scottish and other accents differ widely-no new arrangement could possibly reflect them all. Other arguments for inertia are more compelling. No one would propose respelling them as “hole” and “holth” to advertise the association. Most people do not know that the English words whole and health come from the same Germanic root (roughly meaning “undamaged”) as holy. Interesting as etymology can be, however, it is hardly so crucial as to require painfully counterintuitive spellings unto eternity. That “p” also usefully links the word to receptive and recipient, which “reseet” would not. Early English scribes put a “p” into receipt to make clear its connection to Latin’s receptus, even though the letter was silent. But a counter-argument made by traditionalists is that, by reflecting etymology, spelling reveals important information.
SPELLING ALPHABET APRL UPDATE
Scribal errors muddied things further.Īn update seems sensible. As spelling norms were still settling, the English vowel system underwent a major change called the Great Vowel Shift. The Latin alphabet was pressed into service for a Germanic language then the Normans conquered England and brought French spelling customs.
For instance, English’s messy spelling came from a confluence of factors. Memorise a few squiggles and you can write any word you can say, and say any word that you read, accurately.īut the IPA is a modern invention prior writing systems arose in chaotic circumstances.
Any given language uses just a subset of these, usually several dozen or so. Every language’s sounds can be described with the International Phonetic Alphabet ( IPA), a collection of symbols that covers the phonemes-basic units of sound-in every known tongue.
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