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WHY IS ENGLISH SPELT LIKE THAT?: A thread
So this is a topic I see misrepresented and misconceived CONSTANTLY but itâs one Iâm very interested in so Iâm gonna tackle it as interestingly and concisely but also informatively as I can
When people ask this, it can normally mean one of two things:
(1) Why does English not always have consistent sound-to-letter correspondence? (e.g. bear/beat/break, tough/though/through/trough, etc)
(2) Why do certain words like colonel, queue, island, etc not fit ANY of the other spelling conventions we are taught?
(2) Why do certain words like colonel, queue, island, etc not fit ANY of the other spelling conventions we are taught?
So Iâm gonna give the most condensed rundown possible to answer (1) bc itâs a complex topic, and then Iâm gonna give individual stories about those exceptional words in (2).
PART 1
>For most of the existence of English writing, it wasnât standardised very much at all
>Most people couldnât write, so there was no need for a standard, and the ones that COULD write spoke much more divergent dialects than there are are today
>For most of the existence of English writing, it wasnât standardised very much at all
>Most people couldnât write, so there was no need for a standard, and the ones that COULD write spoke much more divergent dialects than there are are today
>For this reason, literate groups in different parts of England could have different ways of spelling the same words
>Think of it like how your group chats probably have certain abbreviations or spellings of words or phrases that wouldnât make sense to outsiders
>Think of it like how your group chats probably have certain abbreviations or spellings of words or phrases that wouldnât make sense to outsiders
>When printing press was invented in the 1400s, there was more need to agree on certain spelling so you could distribute your newpapers and books more widely
>Because the printing press was centred in London, south-eastern English conventions started to become standard
>Because the printing press was centred in London, south-eastern English conventions started to become standard
>For a short time, English spelling was somewhat consistent with London dialect, BUT p much as soon as the spelling started to be agreed upon, English speech started changing...
>Known as the ~Great Vowel Shift~, southern English vowels started moving around between 1400-1700
>Known as the ~Great Vowel Shift~, southern English vowels started moving around between 1400-1700
>Itâs a hugely complicated shift, but basically by the end of it words like meet and meat now sound the same when they didnât before, and words like bead and bread no longer rhyme when they used to
>some spellings like read, lead, bow even have multiple pronunciations depending on the meaning when they only had one pronunciation before lmao
>The other part of English spelling people always point out is silent letters like in knight, lamb, debt, island
>The other part of English spelling people always point out is silent letters like in knight, lamb, debt, island
>The answer to this one is a two-parter
>some silent letters are fossils from former pronunciations (eg the k and the gh in knight used to be pronounced)
>some silent letters are fossils from former pronunciations (eg the k and the gh in knight used to be pronounced)
>others were put in by fancy pants old men who thought Latin looking words were better than English looking ones (eg the b in debt, which never had a b sound in English but is a nod to its Latin root of debitum)
>In 1755, a guy called Samuel Johnson made the first English dictionary, keeping all the weird spellings, and from then on the spellings were p much set in stone
>In 1828 in USA a guy called Noah Webster did the same with American spellings, which is why UK and US have some different spellings like colour/color, cheque/check, etc
>itâs worth noting that English dictionaries are not and have never been the authority on how words SHOULD be spelt, but rather a document on the most accepted spelling that is already used, and any time someone tries to correct your spelling or grammar you can tell them as much
So thatâs part one done as briefly as I could 
The other half is coming shortly
The other half is coming shortly
And here it is! https://twitter.com/wegottheflow/status/1351560884301295623
