This what fascinates me learning about languages. They have their own characters and quirks. Languages are the embodiment of the people’s culture and history. That said, the English language shows how messed up it is.
English moment
Submitted 5 months ago by noodles@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/0c1383e1-d489-44ef-ab4c-415001cc8c40.jpeg
Comments
TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world 5 months ago
skisnow@lemmy.ca 5 months ago
That said, the English language shows how messed up its history is.
The irony is that Britain is, to the best of my knowledge, the only country other than Sweden whose mainland hasn’t been occupied by a foreign invader in over 950 years.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 5 months ago
The irony is that Britain is, to the best of my knowledge, the only country other than Sweden whose mainland hasn’t been occupied by a foreign invader in over 950 years.
i mean other than the british
Nikls94@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I was like “reed” and “led”, went back to “red” and “led”, continued to “red” and “lead” and was like OMG I’m such a basic white bitch LOL and took a sip of my pumpkin spice luh-theh.
elvith@feddit.org 5 months ago
Our Strange Lingo
When the English tongue we speak.
Why is break not rhymed with freak?
Will you tell me why it’s true
We say sew but likewise few?
And the maker of the verse,
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard
Cord is different from word.
Cow is cow but low is low
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose, dose,and lose
And think of goose and yet with choose
Think of comb, tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll or home and some.
Since pay is rhymed with say
Why not paid with said I pray?
Think of blood, food and good.
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Wherefore done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum up all, it seems to me
Sound and letters don’t agree.- Lord Cromer
Pringles@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
Beautiful, but is there really a difference in pronunciation of hose and dose? I always pronounce them similarly…
TeddE@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Hose is pronounced /hōz/ and dose is pronounced /dōs/ in “Standard English” (which is a specific and deliberately invented dialect taught to news anchors to try to smooth out all the regional differences), actual english varies so much over time and space that both words have numerous variations - www.howtopronounce.com/hose, plus we change our inflection on words depending on where they are in a sentence - and plenty of context can change if the emphasis is on the vowel or the ending consonant: All my hoes know a hose is a hose.
Simply put - as long as people understand the ideas you’re conveying, don’t worry too much about precise spelling and punctuation - it’s literally all made up.
elvith@feddit.org 5 months ago
Treczoks@lemmy.world 5 months ago
See also “The Chaos”: ncf.idallen.com/english.html
original_reader@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
If anyone wants to know, such words are called heteronyms.
Had to look up other examplea. Turns out there’s a few of those. For example: tear, wind, row, sow, bound.
Class is over.
vateso5074@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Wait how else would you pronounce ‘bound’?
original_reader@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
You don’t. But it still has double meaning.
Good catch. It might not perfectly fit this list.
mittyta@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Bound vs bound
Inaminate_Carbon_Rod@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Sean Bean has a lot to answer for!
EndOfLine@lemmy.world 5 months ago
kibiz0r@midwest.social 5 months ago
My stream of consciousness: “What? Reed isn’t pronounced like led. Oh there’s more here… Ohhh, red is pronounced like leed. Er, reed is pronounced like… uhhh… anyway, I get it.”
Nurse_Robot@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Anyone else pronounce it as reed and leed first?
Flying_Dutch_Rudder@lemmy.world 5 months ago
I read it as red and led first. I wonder where this will lead us?
polydactyl@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yes.
CubitOom@infosec.pub 5 months ago
Read and lead don’t even rhyme… Same is true for read and lead.
WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Which witch went which way?
Mr_Fish@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Yes, English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though.
shalafi@lemmy.world 5 months ago
So thankful I could parse that without thinking on it. Can you imagine learning that shit from scratch?!
Vintor@retrolemmy.com 5 months ago
English is a pretty simple language to learn, but the pronunciation isn’t part of that simplicity. It’s especially tough to unlearn wrong pronunciations you’ve cultivated for years. In my case (for instance), sword (which I pronounced like “word”) and realm (re-alm).
mechoman444@lemmy.world 5 months ago
English is a terrible language and I really need to get gooder at it.
werty@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
*better
Little8Lost@lemmy.world 5 months ago
*gooderer