Blame the French!
Other than “loan words,” Spanish and German: If you see it, you say it. And the vowels have set sounds.
Not so the French. In fact, it seems as if half the letters in a word are silent (but you’ll still be marked wrong if you miss them while writing).
I’ve even seen sentences where whole words are silent.
We had a Germanic language when the Anglos came from Saxony.
But along came the Normans in 1100, who brought French with them.
So, our language is half German, half French, with another two halves worth of “loan words” from the world over.
No wonder our language is a mess.
Michael Fry
June 23, 2017
June 25, 2017
July 23, 2017
October 20, 2017
November 14, 2017
Blame the French!
Other than “loan words,” Spanish and German: If you see it, you say it. And the vowels have set sounds.
Not so the French. In fact, it seems as if half the letters in a word are silent (but you’ll still be marked wrong if you miss them while writing).
I’ve even seen sentences where whole words are silent.
We had a Germanic language when the Anglos came from Saxony.
But along came the Normans in 1100, who brought French with them.
So, our language is half German, half French, with another two halves worth of “loan words” from the world over.
No wonder our language is a mess.