A History of English Spelling since 597ad: Where Did It All Go Wrong?

[@LetThemTalkTV]

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[@Howdy-y5i]

Hello Gideon

[@NoahSpurrier]

In High school in California my English teacher marked off a point on one of my papers because I spelled gray with an e, grey. I complained that it was a valid way to spell it. He said, “You’re only allowed to spell it that way if you’re English.” The next class I came in with my British birth certificate. He looks at me and says, “You win this round, Mr. Spurrier.” and he pulls out his chart and corrects my score.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Excellent!

[@helenamcginty4920]

This round? Its not a boxing match.

[@ordinarryalien]

@@helenamcginty4920 Sometimes it is. 😎

[@ianbynoe6515]

Very funny. Nice joke. We all know this didn't actually happen.😅

[@denyseleonard240]

Canadians also spell it grey

[@amherst88]

Even though I'm a 67 year old native speaker (and even have an M.A. in English) I feel like I'm in grade school again watching your videos Gideon (in a good way) -- I'm still learning about my language thanks to your entertaining (Bernard Herrmann!) and endlessly informative posts -- many thanks ❤

[@MaverickSeventySeven]

Is not the 'misplacement' of a comma sometimes dangerous? "Let's eat Garandma' " :-)

[@UNOwen-ll3gw]

My Dan Quayle moment was when I corrected a student who had written "he must", reminding him that the third person of singular required to add an "s".

[@LetThemTalkTV]

thanks for your confession.

[@yahouallavoix4512]

😂good one

[@PauloPereira-jj4jv]

Certainly VERY embarrasing...

[@baregildegomcesval]

Gideon has mastered a unique quaint way of teaching English and learning with him is always a fascinating experience. He is one of the very best!!!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

why "one of"?

[@baregildegomcesval]

@LetThemTalkTV I guess because there are some others which are also good, although to me you are the best. I am delighted when I hear you talking.

[@raboinca2990]

Very interesting as usual. I learn so much with your videos. Thanks.

[@JuanPabloSandoval-rc1zz]

I really like languages ​​and since I took a course in historical grammar of Spanish (my language) I have been interested in discovering the historical roots of the other languages ​​I know. I find your videos fascinating. Thank you very much for the interesting information and the examples. I don't know if it is pertinent to mention that what you point out as homonyms at the end of the video are actually homophones because they sound the same, but are written differently. Thank you very much again!!!

[@pierfrancescopeperoni]

Mate, your videos on such complex topics are so easy too follow. Grate teacher!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

You're very kind. Glad you like them.

[@nHans]

19:50 *"Don't worry, nobody will mispronounce **_ye_** as 'ye.'"* Famous last words 😁😂🤣

[@producedbypodcast]

Gideon never fails to teach me something new while tricking me with fun content!

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

For centuriez, dhear hav been moovments to refórm dhe spelling ov dhe Inglish languige. Such spelling refórm seeks to change Inglish orthografi so dhat it iz mor consístent, machiz pronunciátion better, and followz dhe alfabétic principel. Common motivz for spelling refórm inclúd making lerning quikker, making lerning cheeper, and making Inglish mor useful az an international auxiliari languige. Refórm propósalz vari in termz ov dhe depth ov dhe linguístic changiz and bi dhear implementátionz. In termz ov riting sistemz, most spelling refórm propósals ar moderat; dhei use dhe traditional Inglish alfabet, tri to manetéin dhe familiar shapes ov werdz, and tri to manetéin common convéntionz (such az silent e). Mor radical propósalz invólv adding or remóoving letterz or simbolz or even creáting neu alfabets. Som refórmerz prefér a gradual change ímplementid in stagiz, while odherz favor an imediat and total refórm for aul. Som exámpelz ov mi propósal: feer (fear); thru (through); dho (though); thaut (thought); thoro (thorough, /ˈθʌɹəʊ/); thora (thorough, /ˈθʌɹə/); tuf (tough); trof (trough, /tɹɒf/); trauf (trough, /tɹɔf/); plou (plough); bow (bow, /bəʊ/); bou (bow, /baʊ/); beri (bury); Lester (Leicester), heffer (heifer); hed (head); evri (every /ˈevɹi/); evveri /ˈevəɹi/); fone (phone); protest (noun); protést (verb); won (one); too (two); for (four); sevven (seven); eit (eight); ilévven (eleven); twelv (twelve); nite (night); nife (knife); gowst (ghost); nou (now); werk (work); lov (love); moov (move); dout (doubt); butiful (beautiful); pritti (pretty); Woostersher (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃə(ɹ)/); Woostershir (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃɪə(ɹ)/); suttel (subtle); littel (little); gowld (gold); guet (get); bild (build); desert (desert, /ˈdezə(ɹ)t/; desért (desert, /dɪˈzɜː(ɹ)t/); extasi (ecstasy); sicologi (psychology); bak (back); hart (heart); bool (bull), lam (lamb); luk (luc); guerl (girl); etc.

[@Eddi.M.]

I found it always hilarious to correct Brits saying mouses. As a foreigner you really learn a language bit by bit and thoroughly so you do not make certain mistakes (not saying no mistakes at all, just different mistakes). As a native you do not learn a language but acquire it. At school, about a hundred years ago, I had only three years of English and two to three hours per week.That is not enough to learn speaking, but we certainly learned/learnt a bit of spelling. And irregular verbs. It makes me always cringe when I more and more often hear "he has chose" or "I have came" by American native speakers.

[@mamymimma]

It's kind of comforting for me to learn that so many important people made spelling mistakes 😅

[@LetThemTalkTV]

me too

[@gary.h.turner]

Speling misteaks. 😂

[@mamymimma]

@@gary.h.turner hehe ☺️

[@alibol2343]

Quite amazing that so many authors were not so good spellers. Would never have thought. Excellent video as always. So fascinating. Here is a little hack to differentiate stationary and stationery so you don't need to keep reaching for the dictionary. Think E for ENVELOPE for the word stationery. Can't remember who told me that. Also for the word accommodation think TWO CATS and TWO MICE. The other recipe for good spelling is reading a lot because I find that fixes the words in your mind and writing because of the movement between hand and brain. Not sure that typing on a computer has the same effect.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

E for envelope - I'll remember that.

[@anglaismoyen]

I second the reading idea. I personally spell words correctly the vast majority of the time simply because I know what they look like.

[@amherst88]

My HS English teacher gave me "robbers in Sing Sing" (2 R's & 2 S's) for embarrassed because I always missed that one :)

[@lav2dance]

For 'accommodation', our teacher told us- two children (cc), two mommies (mm), one daddy (d) :))))

[@hungsu9204]

For me, this is one of your most informative videos. Thank you for your superb scholarship and explanation of it.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

You're very kind. Glad you liked it.

[@greatstoneplanet]

Each video more informative, fun, and encouraging than the last.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

glad you liked it.

[@qpdb840]

As a Canadian I speak French and I always forget that there’s an extra letter in some English words. Objet in French and object in English and my professor always corrects me. But many times it does help. Subtle like subtil so I always know there’s a silent b in the word.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I think you can blame the classical scholars for those "errors". It's not your fault.

[@hcesarcastro]

What about English cognate words that have fewer letters like resource? I ask you this because when I moved to Germany, I found many people writing resource as ressource (when writing in English). And just after some time, I learned that German has the word Ressource, which is itself borrowed from French.

[@qpdb840]

@ yes it is a French. Res is a suffixe and source is a word. Resource would be like like rezource not ressource

[@hcesarcastro]

@@qpdb840 I don't know exactly how resource is pronounced in Canada, but I know that there are people who pronounce it with an /s/ and some with a /z/. I learned resource as /ɹɪˈsɔɹs/, so I could expect some misspelling potential. But if it is pronounced as /ɹɪˈzɔɹs/, so it makes sense for you to properly distinguish between the English and the French spellings.

[@qpdb840]

@ we do say it with an s. Reesource the e is long

[@felaperez6480]

Thank u Gideon for your interesting videos.

[@helenamcginty4920]

I'm a native English speaker of 76 yrs standing(😅) well read, have an English teaching qualification but still enjoy all his videos. I follow Robs words as well. Would love to find a similar video for Spanish to improve my grammar.

[@rddavies]

Was waiting for you to get to Webster which you did right at the end. Also I think it was he who did things like specialise to specialize and such like. Speaking personally I used to be a decent speller but spellcheck really puts the kibosh on that, now I'm pretty hopeless at it.

[@nicksavini7225]

Thank you, professor, for this very informative video!

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

For centuriez, dhear hav been moovments to refórm dhe spelling ov dhe Inglish languige. Such spelling refórm seeks to change Inglish orthografi so dhat it iz mor consístent, machiz pronunciátion better, and followz dhe alfabétic principel. Common motivz for spelling refórm inclúd making lerning quikker, making lerning cheeper, and making Inglish mor useful az an international auxiliari languige. Refórm propósalz vari in termz ov dhe depth ov dhe linguístic changiz and bi dhear implementátionz. In termz ov riting sistemz, most spelling refórm propósals ar moderat; dhei use dhe traditional Inglish alfabet, tri to manetéin dhe familiar shapes ov werdz, and tri to manetéin common convéntionz (such az silent e). Mor radical propósalz invólv adding or remóoving letterz or simbolz or even creáting neu alfabets. Som refórmerz prefér a gradual change ímplementid in stagiz, while odherz favor an imediat and total refórm for aul. Som exámpelz ov mi propósal: feer (fear); thru (through); dho (though); thaut (thought); thoro (thorough, /ˈθʌɹəʊ/); thora (thorough, /ˈθʌɹə/); tuf (tough); trof (trough, /tɹɒf/); trauf (trough, /tɹɔf/); plou (plough); bow (bow, /bəʊ/); bou (bow, /baʊ/); beri (bury); Lester (Leicester), heffer (heifer); hed (head); evri (every /ˈevɹi/); evveri /ˈevəɹi/); fone (phone); protest (noun); protést (verb); won (one); too (two); for (four); sevven (seven); eit (eight); ilévven (eleven); twelv (twelve); nite (night); nife (knife); gowst (ghost); nou (now); werk (work); lov (love); moov (move); dout (doubt); butiful (beautiful); pritti (pretty); Woostersher (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃə(ɹ)/); Woostershir (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃɪə(ɹ)/); suttel (subtle); littel (little); gowld (gold); guet (get); bild (build); desert (desert, /ˈdezə(ɹ)t/; desért (desert, /dɪˈzɜː(ɹ)t/); extasi (ecstasy); sicologi (psychology); bak (back); hart (heart); bool (bull), lam (lamb); luk (luc); guerl (girl); etc.

[@AgnieszkaP21]

That's really funny. The other day I was sitting an English exam and during a writing paper I wrote "It is wildly known.." probably twice (if I remember correctly). It should have been written "widely". Great video, keep up the good work.

[@Scott_Forsell]

I grew up around grandparents and great-grandparents who often spoke Swedish at home. Every so often my mouth will spit out "tack" instead of "thanks" or "thank you". Sometimes "tack ska du ha".

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

For centuriez, dhear hav been moovments to refórm dhe spelling ov dhe Inglish languige. Such spelling refórm seeks to change Inglish orthografi so dhat it iz mor consístent, machiz pronunciátion better, and followz dhe alfabétic principel. Common motivz for spelling refórm inclúd making lerning quikker, making lerning cheeper, and making Inglish mor useful az an international auxiliari languige. Refórm propósalz vari in termz ov dhe depth ov dhe linguístic changiz and bi dhear implementátionz. In termz ov riting sistemz, most spelling refórm propósals ar moderat; dhei use dhe traditional Inglish alfabet, tri to manetéin dhe familiar shapes ov werdz, and tri to manetéin common convéntionz (such az silent e). Mor radical propósalz invólv adding or remóoving letterz or simbolz or even creáting neu alfabets. Som refórmerz prefér a gradual change ímplementid in stagiz, while odherz favor an imediat and total refórm for aul. Som exámpelz ov mi propósal: feer (fear); thru (through); dho (though); thaut (thought); thoro (thorough, /ˈθʌɹəʊ/); thora (thorough, /ˈθʌɹə/); tuf (tough); trof (trough, /tɹɒf/); trauf (trough, /tɹɔf/); plou (plough); bow (bow, /bəʊ/); bou (bow, /baʊ/); beri (bury); Lester (Leicester), heffer (heifer); hed (head); evri (every /ˈevɹi/); evveri /ˈevəɹi/); fone (phone); protest (noun); protést (verb); won (one); too (two); for (four); sevven (seven); eit (eight); ilévven (eleven); twelv (twelve); nite (night); nife (knife); gowst (ghost); nou (now); werk (work); lov (love); moov (move); dout (doubt); butiful (beautiful); pritti (pretty); Woostersher (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃə(ɹ)/); Woostershir (Worcestershire, /ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃɪə(ɹ)/); suttel (subtle); littel (little); gowld (gold); guet (get); bild (build); desert (desert, /ˈdezə(ɹ)t/; desért (desert, /dɪˈzɜː(ɹ)t/); extasi (ecstasy); sicologi (psychology); bak (back); hart (heart); bool (bull), lam (lamb); luk (luc); guerl (girl); etc.

[@leticiacantarelamatheus3450]

I feel much better now. Thank you for this honest video.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thanks for your honest comment.

[@eyronlady7072]

I’ve loved every minute of your wonderful and entertaining explanation.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I've loved every word of you comment. Thanks

As someone who speaks both Portuguese and Italian, I've always felt the English spelling a little confusing. But now I know the blame's on France! Thanks for letting me know who's the real culprit! 😆

[@LetThemTalkTV]

When in doubt, blame the French!

[@jean-claudewallard9309]

​@@LetThemTalkTVHey! So what? I'm reading you! 😉

[@thecozyconstellation]

I started teaching English (as a foreign language) when I was 16 and I've always been very good at spelling. But the first time I had adult students I was so nervous I wrote THEACHER on the board and it took me a few (eternal) moments to figure out what was wrong LOL which made me even more nervous 🤣🤣🤣🤣 then for whatever reason I mentioned Jimi Hendrix and I wrote Jimmy Hendricks nerves killed my good spelling LMAO

[@AndreiBerezin]

I'm a Russian who learned English since 2nd grade. There's a word that not a single English teacher in my school could write perfectly, and it's CONSCIENTIOUS

[@Mike-lb1hx]

I was taught English using the Initial Teaching Alphabet a phonetic alphabet with around 43 letters. I then had to relearn using standard English. My spelling is impacted to this day

[@nHans]

_“English was still the language of the peasants at that time. French landowners might learn English to speak with their peasants.”_ And today, English dominates the world. As an elite C++ and Java programmer who grudgingly learnt JavaScript to validate input data in HTML forms, I completely empathize with the French landowners!

[@mikaeljakobsson8288]

There was a BC comic strip at the time where a bird says "I'm a quayle". He then gets the reply that it's spelt quaile. When the other person has left the quail says to the reader. "Well I got by with and extra e" (like Dan Quayle in potatoe).

[@acatiilg]

Astounding! I knew this burden only partially, thank you for the whole story.

[@MaverickSeventySeven]

Why is 'Sean Bean" not 'Seen Been" or "Shaun Baun"?

[@hcesarcastro]

As a native speaker of a Romance language, I usually do not mistake the spellings of words like "stationary," but there was this time in which I was surprised to see the spell checker flag "responsable" as a misspelling.

[@SnarkNSass]

I can't spell Necessary without the redline 😂😂😂😂

[@LetThemTalkTV]

that's a common mistake. I used to do it too.

[@jakeeschen7868]

I have that issue with "occasion."

[@timparks1098]

It has become very common in California to see "a part of" spelled as "apart of" which has the opposite meaning. Yes, I've seen it spelled that way by educators.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Interesting

[@danielbriggs991]

We may all have had our Dan Quayle moments, but fact is he still gets his name attached to our mistakes!

[@ungaghllalek6361]

Very interesting, thank you for this video. Languages with a history of writing always show a tendency to favor older spellings. That’s why English spelling is hardly more predictive than Chinese spelling. This was a very informative video.

[@jakegarvin7634]

One thing positive about our fossilized spelling is that I can understand what a rural village English man or an broad Australian are saying with just a pen and paper

[@klaatoris]

As a non-native - but reasonably good - English speaker, it took me 40+ years to realise that "indict" and "indite" (my phonetic spelling) were the same word.

[@Epiph5]

"Stationary", with an "a", is the adjective. Think "a" for "adjective". "Stationery", with an "e", is the noun (the name of all those bits & pieces used in an office).

[@gary.h.turner]

...and stationery is sold by a stationer.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

thanks

[@bkark0935]

@@LetThemTalkTVhere’s a better way, stationAry is a person or object “HALTed” or “ARResTed.”🛑 StationEry has to do with “EnvELopEs! ✉️📩

[@Epiph5]

Same with "effect" and "affect".... an "effect", with an "e", is a noun, but when you describe how one thing "affects" another, you are describing the influence of the first thing on the second thing... again... think "a" for adjective/adverb/description.

[@nHans]

So … what’s the answer to the monk’s question? How come Saint Augustine was wearing glasses when they hadn’t been invented yet? Are we implying time loops and jinn particles?

[@chrisk5651]

When I student taught I was being observed by my professor and I had written Spheres of Influence as Spheres of Influence. Luckily none of the students noticed or at least they didn’t point it out. After class, my professor pointed it out - he wasn’t impressed.

[@ImCalebRosengard]

This is one of the most interesting videos I've seen in a while, and I almost missed it because the original title didn't catch my eye

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thanks glad you like it.

[@keviny1936]

I have read with Caxton that the printers he employed were from Belgium which led to ghost and similar words.

[@oiartsun]

I once stopped myself in the middle of writing "school" and quizzed myself as to whether I had completely lost my memory of how to spell the word. "Ess cee aitch... no way, it can't be!" But of course I double-checked the spelling to assuage my doubt. Fortunately, I was alone, so suffered no embarrassment, but the experience has stuck with me.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

very good!

[@MRB-19]

"feasibility" misspelt (misspelled?) as "pheasibility" ... on my CV, too

[@baregildegomcesval]

Dear Gideon, English language spelling can be tricky and intuitively deceiving, but this is so mainly for native English speakers, yet not so much for those that have learned English as a second language, mainly because we learn the pronunciation having in front of us the written word, and so we learn to pair and associate both forms.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, rule number one for English pronunciation: Don't look at the written word but rather listen to it being said by a native or fluent speaker.

[@MiguelFernandezIglesias]

If I haven't misunderstood, the old letter ð sounded /θ/, but in the International Phonetic Alphabet the symbol /ð/ is used for the sound /ð/. This "sounds" a little strange to me.

[@gary.h.turner]

Yes, I think he got the pronunciations of thorn and eth the wrong way round there!

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Ah, Sorry. Maybe I did. Anglo-Saxon is not my strong point.

[@nederlanditis8154]

Aah, correct me if I'm wrong, a video with roleplay's not been on for quite a while, and no inserted ready made video annoyance also. We especially liked the introduction of the Great Vowel Shift with the famous score from Psycho - the moment the real horror started. (File it under back to form.)

[@MANFREDNEILMANN]

I think you mistakenly switched "eth" and. "thorn", the former pronounced VOICED, and the latter VOICELESS.

[@Muzer0]

Though also that convention only really applied to later systems such as Icelandic I believe; in their time writing English they were used interchangeably (and also ð is adapted from Latin d rather than being from a rune). Which makes sense bearing in mind it was only in Middle English (from French influence) that the fricatives even gained a non-allophonic voiced/voiceless distinction anyway!

[@hglundahl]

27:23 I feel the same about Fridtjuv Bergh in Swedish. I was taught a non-Webster English spelling, so, I taught myself a non-Bergh Swedish spelling.

[@flumpaustin1994]

"Stationery": E = envelope. 😊

[@LetThemTalkTV]

yes, I'll remember that.

[@kaipepper8017]

I remember it as 'cArs are stationAry'.

[@lesterstone8595]

StationERy is papER is the way I was taught.

[@reluginbuhl]

Good fun! Make the spelling more consistent? YES PLEASE! I can't spell to save my life.

[@helenamcginty4920]

From age 5, back in 1953, I have struggled with ee / ea. And was an adult when my next down sister told me that full on the end of another word loses an l when the word bumps into it. Eg bashful.

[@margaretfriederich9731]

Stationery has an e like envelope! Just one of the many things my mum taught me.

[@Antonia-t3p]

I was top of the class in english in Primary school in comprehension (tion ?) And composition , the best handwrighting and then desaster, disaster , desastar .. marks were taken away fror bad spelling . From there onward my grades fell and i joined the CSE class (for those who remember ) Anyway my conclution of this is that spelling should be taught in class , not left for homework . And anyone who uses the phrase ' sound it out' needs to understand that this simply doesnt work .

[@helenamcginty4920]

When I started my RC grammar school in 1959 it was run by a teaching order of nuns. We had to write in our best books using a dip pen and in italic. One teacher wrote all her lessons (English, history and religion) on the blackboard in italic and we spent the lessons copying her lesson into our books. (An example of someone with a degree but no teacher training and no rapport with children). The reason being that a previous Reverend Mother with bad hand writing discovered Italic as an adult and thought it made her writing more legible so decreed that we all had to use it. 😮😮😮

[@AlterverseX]

I've studied ancient koine Greek and what it has helped me see is English words of Greek origin went through the Latin sausage grinder before going through the English sausage grinder.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Excellent analysis

[@Scott_Forsell]

My pronunciation embarrassment was "anathema" - I'd never heard it said aloud once, and I said it the way my brain interpreted it as "anna theema".

[@LetThemTalkTV]

interesting

[@anglaismoyen]

I'm glad you've avoided the embarrassment of book and candle excommunication your whole life.

[@raylewis395]

I find that my students are much better at spotting spelling mistakes that I am. This is particularly the case when we have a word with a schwa, and I cannot remember if it's written with an "a" an "e" or an "I". Dependent/dependant/definite/definate...

[@WaterShowsProd]

This is a subject I always enjoy, and no matter how well I know the topic I love hearing it. I quite like Rob Words's suggestion of returning to Runes to write English as it's more suited to English phonemes. He's been on a Bring Back Thorn kick, which I can stand behind. Incidentally: surely the Y was to replace Eth, no? Anyroad, I often cite this situation when foreigners bemoan learning written Thai, which also retains etymology of loanwords from Sanskrit, Pali, and Khmer in the modern form of the language. In particular, the use of several letters derived from Brahmic Script that represented different sounds in Sanskrit, but take on the same sounds in Thai. Since many of the learners have grown up with English's eccentricity, they often fail to see the comparison. Loved the "Feta" gag, by the way.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Thanks. Yes, let's bring back thorn. I might be learning a bit of Thai so it's interesting to read what you say.

[@WaterShowsProd]

@@LetThemTalkTV I'll be curious to hear how you get on with it. While most people realise there are some new phonemes to learn, and that it's a tonal language, something people often aren't prepared for is that a longer duration vowel and a shorter duration vowel, while having the same phonetic sound, is considered a different vowel, so it becomes important to pay attention to the vowel length as well. Burmese is the same. Recently someone was explaining to me how "Nagaa" are the mythical serpents, while "Naaga" are an ethnic group in Northwestern Myanmar.

[@joseantoniodavila2752]

So Chicago is French. Thank you. I've learned and laughed a lot.

[@bkark0935]

Even worse, the Chicago River is “Sheekagwa” named after the word for “Skunk” in a dialect of the Algonquin languages. Thus, the “City of Skunk River!”

[@LetThemTalkTV]

I just did some research the internet says: “Chicago” is the French version of the Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa (“Stinky Onion”)"

[@angreagach]

As you are probably aware, "figure" does not rhyme with "trigger" in American English. Could there have been a difference in pronunciation (or at least some variability) even in Middle English?

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Actually, I didn't know. Thanks for pointing it out. I think in Middle English they rhymed, perhaps American English was influenced by the differences in spelling.

[@KertPerteson]

They do rhyme... yod dropping is a wide spread characteristic of American English so figure is said as f(igger), which rhymes with tr(igger).

[@angreagach]

@@KertPerteson I beg to differ. In American English, figure is usually pronounced "fig-yer."

[@Bayerwaldler]

2:29 Even the Disney people made fun of the spelling bare/bear in the song „The bare [bear] necessities“

[@maetzchenmusik]

What the English language has to offer in terms of grammatical simplicity, it easily compensates for in its orthographic and pronunciation salad. It's true: the Latin alphabet is much better adapted to the needs of the Romance languages. For example, in the Italian language, after just a few instructions, there is no room for error.

[@raoulmichels3109]

Could you do a follow-up on how pidgin/creole languages actually do reinvent spelling for English words?

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, I mightr

[@AutoReport1]

Things like center aren't so much French spelling as French pronunciation. The spelling comes from Latin and remains cent- (/Kent/) in English, in French the pronunciation changed.

[@PopescuVicentiu]

FULFILL (American English) Etymolog:y: From Middle English fulfillen, from Old English fullfyllan (“to fill full”), corresponding to ful- +‎ fill. This model is closer to M.E. and O.E., in O.E. ”FULLFYLLIAN”, double ”L”s... In German: ”voll” and ”füllen”. Another word with interesting spelling: SALVE, how do you spell it? Like in Latin ”SALVE” or like in Old English ”sealf”?

[@rocksandforestquiver959]

Try Gaelic spelling, then English feels perfectly sensible

[@busimagen]

I've studied Irish & Scottish (Gaelic languages) and Cornish & Welsh (Brittonic languages) off-and-on for decades, and between the spelling conventions and the mutations, they all still burn my brain.

[@AutoReport1]

I always thought island was an attempt to transcribe yogh into a Latin script. Even demeine was changed to demesne even though the I had never been a yogh ("that i makes a yogh sound but we haven't got a yogh in the typeset so we'll use an s so people can see that").

[@FranceIsPropertyofEngland]

I remember reading somewhere that Mathew Paris wrote the word English as "Englesche"

[@MaverickSeventySeven]

An excellent presentation! Pecentation....pressentation, presentatiun.....presentaciun.....?

[@AndreiBerezin]

Prezentayshen. That's how a Russian would write it

[@AlanTownley]

A stationer sells stationery.

[@hcesarcastro]

But some spellings can be horrifyingly awkward like the "ay" in quay, the "u" in bury, and even the "o" in one and once, which is itself pronounced differently from the "o" in only or alone.

[@alexkuhn5078]

I love how basically the whole world is opposed to the 'th' sound

[@retropaganda8442]

I wonder if in a distant future, most English speakers will converge to pronouncing the letters like other latin-based languages. Especially as English is becoming more and more a worldwide language, I can't see it keeping its peculiar local inconsistencies in the pronunciation forever. That's assuming the writing system drives the language evolution though.

[@Erik_Swiger]

I remember one time when I couldn't recall the spelling difference between "viscous" and "vicious." lol

[@LetThemTalkTV]

It's understandable.

[@Leo007619]

By the way, you probably know that both "fulfil" and "fulfill" are possible.

[@EzraSisk]

What could possibly go wrong?

[@LetThemTalkTV]

exactly

[@rdbury507]

5:50 - Some languages actually do have "academies" to regulate spelling, for example German has the "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung". That has its own problems though. First they when they do change spelling rules, which happens about once a decade, people have to learn them and get used to the new system. They don't make huge, sweeping changes, but still, the people using the old system generally continue to do so until they die off and are replaced by people who were brought up in the new system. The other issue is enforcement; since German speaking countries have freedom of speech, people can theoretically spell words however they want and there's no spelling police that's going to come and take them away in handcuffs. In the past you could count on large newspapers and book publishers to adopt the reforms right away and set an example for everyone else. But with the internet there's usually no editor to tell people when they're breaking the rules. Another issue is that when you read something from 100 or 200 years ago, you notice that a lot of the words aren't spelling like they are today. So when you read "thun" in German from the 19th century, you might have to look it up to learn that it's just an old spelling of "tun", a perfectly ordinary word in Modern German. Anyway, speaking as someone who is pretty much functionally illiterate without spellcheck, I can vouch for how difficult the chaos of English spelling makes it for people to learn to write. (Spellcheck doesn't solve everything though, like "canon" vs. "cannon".) Some reform of the most egregious English spelling anomalies would be helpful. At least make some of the most common spelling "mistakes" an alternate, but still correct, version. If we can have British and American versions of spelling, why not a "Rational" version as well?

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Agreed! Well put.

[@magmalin]

You're right. After the last "Rechtschreibreform" I kept on using the former system. I simply refused to spell words like Rolladen with 3 "ls" or Schiffahrt with 3 "fs" as I thought it to be really silly.

[@englishteacher9865]

I have a very important question for you as I really consider you an authority on the English "languages"( yes I really see English as no less than 3 or 5 languages combined together under the broad title of English ! ) ! , and in fact the question is also directed to all educated native English speakers : I am a native speaker of Arabic , 47 years now , an English teacher and translator for more than 25 years , claim to have a "treasure" of vocabulary in all fields , studied many languages including Latin and Greek , Chinese and Japanese, however , I always find new , new and new vocabulary in my very long journey with English(especially in novels !!) , the question here is , which I hope you make a video on this topic : does the educated native speaker of English simply know all the vocabulary found in English novels ? , I am asking this question simply because I always find new words in novels whatever rich vocabulary I have ! I easily read The Independent , New York Times , Washington Post , Watch Sky News , Fox , CNN , NBC , ABC , and just encounter 7 or 10 new words every month or more ! but when reading an English Novel , last one I tried was Chuck Palahniuk's Doomed , believe it or not I have been finding no less than 5 new words per single page mounting up to 500 new words or something towards the end of the novel !!, so I wish you and educated native English speakers here clarify this dilemma and why the vocabulary in novels are so difficult and different from the language used in newspapers and news channels ?are native English speakers so genius that they simply know all this tremendous amount of vocabulary , together with phrasal verbs which are the curse of English for any non native learner of the language? how come you find time to acquire all this ? does the average native speaker use words like ( slouch , scarab , flail ,trundle , zirconia ,scabrous, frond ) "words I encountered in Chuck's novel , Doomed , and never saw before ?, and does the native speaker also find words like ( acumen , blandishment ,calumny, circumlocution , commensurate , diaphanous , dirge ,emollient, expunge , expurgate , impecunious , impinge ,inchoate munificent , obstreperous , penchant , proclivity , turpitude) , are these words difficult or just ordinary words for any average native speaker ? or should we simply imagine that all native speakers of English learn the English dictionary by heart ?? thank you !

[@garrickworthing7332]

As a reasonably well-educated native speaker of English, I would answer your question by saying that reading widely and regularly (for studies and for recreation) is how people expand their vocabulary. Of the words you listed in brackets as examples of words you had to look up when reading novels, only two ('scarab' and 'zirconia') would have me pulling out the dictionary; but I'm in my seventies now and have been reading regularly for a long time. Novelists are people who enjoy working with words, so you can expect them, especially the cleverer and more creative among them, to delve deep and wide in the resources of the English language to enrich and embellish their narratives. Good novelists are artists, after all. Reading novels is an excellent way to expand your vocabulary, regardless of whether one is a native speaker or not. Congratulations, Englishteacher9865, on achieving such a high level of competence in English - higher than that of many native speakers, especially those who don't read any more than they need to read to get the day's business done.

[@englishteacher9865]

@@garrickworthing7332 thank you very much indeed for your valuable remarks , I really appreciate them , one just more point please concerning the second list of words , ( acumen , blandishment ,calumny, circumlocution , commensurate , diaphanous , dirge ,emollient, expunge , expurgate , impecunious , impinge ,inchoate munificent , obstreperous , penchant , proclivity , turpitude) , are they also easy and familiar to the average educated native speaker or also contain some difficult words ? thanks a lot !

[@MrBulky992]

Meaningful spelling reform in English is not possible because there are too many different pronunciations of the same words, not only in the UK but worldwide. For example, how would one write the word "bath"? I know at least three ways of saying it. Then there's the problem of rhoticity: my English pronunciation of "far" is different from most Americans. Even the ones in New England who do not pronounce the "r" say the "a" as a more open vowel than many in Britain. Changing the spelling of "improvisation" to aphonetic onewould createan even greater divide between the UK and the US as we do not agree on the syllabic stress which affects the "i" vowel. With words like "graph" and "graphic" in British RP you would have two different spellings of the first syllable. Partial spelling reform would just confuse everybody.

[@saidhammar5006]

I am so used to the English spelling nonsense, I associate it with the English language. If it becomes more logical, I may get lost 😂 Since I have learned French way before English, I don't have much trouble figuring out the spelling. For instance, with a word like "trouble", I just need to think "this is from French", so it must have an 'ou' and a final 'e'. But I agree that when I think about it from an "Anglo-Saxon" perspective, it doesn't quite make sense. This issue exists in every single language in the world. Although you could think that English is the worst case, actually it's not. Because when you think about it, the English language has evolved and improved a lot despite the spelling mess, because it has accepted changes and new things and modernity. Had the English stayed just Anglo-Saxon, it would now have a logical spelling and a cool alphabet, but it would not be the dominant language in the world today. It could even have died by now, like Irish, Celtic, Old Norse, etc.

[@masudashizue777]

You would think people with good memory are good spellers and vice versa, but really, there is no correlation. I have always been a good spelling but have embarrassed myself many a time with my horrible memory.

[@regpither3392]

Very interesting and educational video! However, your incorrect pronunciation of 'contribute' at 01:05 irks me somewhat. Sorry to criticise, but it's a real pet peeve of mine!

[@hglundahl]

10:01 And one of the Normans apparently came _from_ Isigny. You may have heard of the descendant in US entertainment.

[@k.umquat8604]

Aren't the Pennines considered mountains?

[@johnwgarrett1]

I remember correcting someone spelling of embarrassing. I told them to remove one of the rs. I ended up very embarassed...

[@LetThemTalkTV]

ha ha. How appropriate!

[@Klaavinjsh]

You only have to learn English twice. Writing is one thing, speaking is another. After a few years it looks easy. Phonetic writing would be nice, but would it represent English or American sounds? Besides, if that miracle happened, old books would start to become unreadable. (We, the lucky Latvians, have a fairly phonetic script, almost.)

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Phonetic spelling would not address all the regional variations but there are a lot of sounds common to all such as an "S" sound word starting with an "S" and not a C

[@nHans]

Old books are already unreadable! Look again at _The Ormulum_ at 11:22, or the Bible manuscript at 15:14. I actually paused the video at those moments and zoomed in to see if I could read them. As Gideon already knew, I couldn't. Shakespeare is about as far back in time that I can understand without help-and only because we studied a Shakespearean play in English class every semester during high school. I struggle with Chaucer-I need plenty of footnotes, annotations, and explanations to really appreciate his brilliance. And I still can't make sense of Beowulf in the original, even when accompanied by a side-by-side translation in modern English. Spelling has been changing ever since writing was invented-though not always for the better, as this video shows. Reforming contemporary English spelling is not unthinkable. In fact, it's the first ask of each and every ESL/EFL learner, including myself. And many English educators, including Gideon and RobWords, are in favor of reforms. As Gideon points out in his reply, you don't have to go all phonetic (like Shavian, Deseret, futhorc runes, or IPA). In the spirit of Noah Webster, you can keep the Latin alphabet, but make a few straightforward, common-sense, dialect-agnostic changes-the low-hanging fruit. You'll still reap huge benefits-for yourself and for every future English teacher and learner. English will become _more_ readable, not less. On the downside, spelling-bees won't be quite as challenging.

[@AndreiBerezin]

24:42 gangsta rap language alert

[@adcashmo]

How about this: I made a fake ID when I was 16 and next to my family name I wrote "Sirname".

[@Rovi-js9yb]

For English speakers, it must be hard to spell some words, but for English learners, it’s a mess to get the pronunciation right. I’m from Spain and I pronounce ‘fruits’ like ‘froo-its.’ I am much better at spelling.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Yes, exactly. Most mis-pronounciations are not the fault of the learner but the spelling.

[@davidrmcmahon]

F7, still my favourite quay.

[@LetThemTalkTV]

indeed!

[@MrGalpino]

I pronounce both cs in arctic but not the l in almond.

[@MrGalpino]

And won and one are not homophones!

[@cavesalamander6308]

Gideon's bad gramma coming out in a company with Hem, Washington, and Churchill. Modesty adorns. 🙂 16:48 ... the medieval scribes didn't go skiing. - ROFL, you made my day! See for more information Stirlitz’s heart sank. He saw that the pastor didn’t know how to ski at all kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y37aimOKmMeKsJo 26:00 So there was a method in their madness. 27:20 Is it time for spelling reform? Too late.

[@PaulBoden-d7p]

bear/bare is not a spelling mistake, they are different words.

[@raylewis395]

It's a spelling mistake if you write the wrong one - which I find it difficult not to do when I have a class of English learners in front of me!

[@onepcwhiz6847]

Tuff luv

[@alangknowles]

Too late for spelling reform. There are too many accents worldwide to come to a concensus on a common vowel sound. You failed to mention Johnson, who added letters to cover alternative vowel sounds around the country. (cuntry/contry)

[@tylerfoss3346]

It seems as though English remains a difficult language even for native speakers wherever they come from. That said, I do hope that arbiters of spelling (dictionaries) continue to do their jobs in the face of political correctness in the age of woke madness.

[@jameshitselberger5845]

In American schools eight years are spent for spelling classes..first through eighth grades. I never enjoyed wasting that good time for spelling. Just think, if your language was Russian,you might study more math, literature or chemistry

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Agreed

[@hglundahl]

15:20 singulorum a mgria annis et super omnes qui ad bella procederent: quadraginta quinque milia sescenti quinquaginta. De filiis mda per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum per nomina singulorum a vicesimo anno. Two words I couldn't read, what I spelled "mgria" and what I spelled "mda" ... and as we have "per nomina singulorum a vicesimo anno" I think it's the mustering of Israelites in the book of Numbers. Ah, "de filiis mda" is actually "de filiis iuda" It's part of: De filiis Gad per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum recensiti sunt per nomina singulorum a viginti annis et supra, omnes qui ad bella procederent quadraginta quinque millia sexcenti quinquaginta De filiis Juda per generationes et familias ac domos cognationum suarum, per nomina singulorum a vigesimo anno et supra, omnes qui poterant ad bella procedere [Numbers 1:24-26] Obviously, no verse numbers in a Medieval manuscript, those were introduced at the Renaissance.

[@yahouallavoix4512]

I had Latin at school for 5 years, alas, my spelling is horrid…

[@LetThemTalkTV]

Pity