Why Is English Spelling So Damn Weird?!

In this video I look at the historical factors that have made English spelling so varied, inconsistent, and unpredictable!
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Sources used:
The Origins and Development of the English Language, by Thomas Pyles and John Algeo.
Encyclopedia of the English Language, David Crystal.
Spell It Out: The singular story of English spelling, by David Crystal.
Bill Bryson: The Mother Tongue
“The History of English Spelling” by Christopher Upward and George Davidson
"Norman Conquest" - The History of English, Luke Mastin
Music: "Sunrise Drive" by South London HiFi.
Outro music: Rinse & Repeat by Spazz Cardigan.

[@Langfocus]

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[@makarenkaa]

All "c"s are pronounced differently in "Pacific Ocean" 😏

[@cesarmella8062]

Woah

[@SonyaLCH]

Well I'll be damned!

[@eviepalmer6730]

All the "a"s are pronounced differently in "Australia"

[@jpsoares7326]

Kate try pronouncing all Cs in the same way, makes the whole thing sound different

[@InsideOfMyOwnMind]

The c in ocean is a complete abortion of English pronounciation standards to the extent they exist.

[@JordanJones-og7hf]

First rule of English spelling: Rule #1: There are know rules.

[@manuntkicksass]

they're our know rules

[@rosewhite---]

really nough rules? really noe rules? really naw rules?

[@nomadvehr827]

🤣😂🤣😂

[@devonoknabo2582]

@@rosewhite--- know that is so stupid but I noe so many smart sentences you can be like NAW!!!

[@rosewhite---]

@@devonoknabo2582 go look in the mirror as you read what you just rote, wrought, wrote.

[@victorlaurent2978]

This is why Americans love spelling contests so much while other countries don't give a shit. In portuguese, for example, it's just not fun. You say it, you write it.

[@Langfocus]

Haha, very true. A “spelling bee” only works for a language with really weird spelling.

[@ibrahimbah1044]

Portuguese can’t have spelling bee bc it doesn’t have homophones and homonyms

[@victorlaurent2978]

@@ibrahimbah1044 It does but it's not crazy like in english.

[@stefanogattoCH]

From the spelling perspective, all languages are like Portuguese, except English and French....

[@TunaBear64]

In Latin Spanish 100% of the words would have the letters c, s and z as are spell the exact same way, there are exceptions there c has a q sound

[@---iv5gj]

English people: "How is it possible to memorize Chinese characters?" Also English:

[@Zbxwzz]

That’s such a good point tbh. I never thought about it that way. Language is so interesting

[@DannyDog27]

Well at the very least you can more easily look up a word written in English than in Hanzi. But yeah I agree it does kind of go to show that we read on a more macro level than we realize.

[@justinh6651]

They're different.

[@seanspartan2023]

真相

[@tuanminhnguyen4625]

Chinese language has over 50,000 characters. If you look in the dictionary, there are about 20,000 to 30,000 characters. If you want to study university or higher, you should know around 7,000 to 9,000 characters. And for daily conversation, it is around 3,000 characters. That is what I know. Well English language is crazy but Chinese language is the whole different level. 😅😅😅

[@TJ042]

English “rules” are like mom: “because she said so.”

[@zaqareemalcolm]

The english language is a Karen that spoke to the other languages' managers to get what she wants.

[@TheKennethfilm]

@@zaqareemalcolm I wonder when the name 'Karen' became the typical "where is your manager name?".

[@zaqareemalcolm]

@@TheKennethfilm KYM has a lot of possible theories on a specific origin for Karen becoming a meme name (eg. Like the movie Mean Girls), but I think it also has to do with the fact that the name is very common or expected among the "white 30s to middle-aged US suburban mom" type of women who also tend to be ones exhibiting the entitled behaviour described by other people's personal experiences

[@katherinemorelle7115]

Born of Fire what zaqareemalcolm said. You can see it in other names as terms, like Becky- because it’s a popular name for white women of the millennial generation. Stacy is much the same. Though as we all know, Stacy’s mum has got it going on!

[@marsattaqueladelinquancest9727]

French momma is authoritarian .. We all have straight forward moms in linguistics

[@vatsdimri3675]

As a non-native to English, this is by far my biggest complaint about English.

[@SuperLn1991]

Same. But I'm french so I can't make fun of it..

[@keith6706]

It's also the biggest complaint English speakers have about English. On the other hand, theirs knot many weighs yule get aweigh with righting like this in another language and bee able to make any cents. It certainly throes even native speaker for a loupe, so eye cant imagine watt it wood dew two a novice.

[@Ulisest91]

@@SuperLn1991 French spelling is even worse with all those silent letters!!!!!

[@SuperLn1991]

@@Ulisest91 I know, that's why I said I can't make fun of english ;)

[@Ulisest91]

@@SuperLn1991 oh i'm sorry, was trying to reply to vats, i guess i tagged you, je suis desolee lol

[@marcusr4399]

The words with 'gh' almost always have a very similar word in German with 'ch', e.g.: Laugh - lachen Though - doch knight - Knecht (servant) light - Licht sight - Sicht brought (to bring) - brachte (bringen) thought (to think) - dachte (denken) to fight - fechten (=fight with swords) tight - dicht night - Nacht ... You get the idea

[@DavidFraser007]

You've obviously visited Scotland. We still use these pronunciations. Apart from tight- ticht. Dicht means to wipe.

[@JP-2303]

@d R Gaelic is Celtic. Scots is Germanic.

[@buioso]

As italian this sounds so strange to me, with our language you know exactly how to write a word once you heard it for the first time, or pronounce a written word you never seen before

[@alejandrodelabarra2838]

Tutte le consonanti se puo doppiare... Non é tan facile...

[@skylight0656]

I speak portuguese, for me is the same thing

[@Colaholiker]

That's only if the Italian person speaks slowly enough to even tell where individual words begin and end. ;-)

[@alejandrodelabarra2838]

Cuando estaba estudiando Italiano, un sobrino mio me dijo: "Hey, tio, vas a ser una persona muy importante..." Y yo le pregunté: ¿Por qué...? Y me contestó: "Y... porque ahora vas a poder decir todas las malas palabras en Italiano..." No domino el italiano, pero seria algo así como : "É... ¡Perr che agora porrai dire tutte le parolacce en Italano!!!"

[@ciprianpopa1503]

Except for the double consonants, z plus zz, and words containing "h" letter. Italians don't really know how to pronounce h, they panic when they see it.

[@plinyelder8156]

Words in English are more like glyphs where you memorize how to say it, rather than actually pronounce them.

[@user-wd7eg6cc2i]

Pliny Elder how is (glyphs) pronounced tho?!😂😂

[@mynaneiscocaine]

@@user-wd7eg6cc2i glyphs is pronounced 'glifs' like cliffs but with a g

[@bloggsie45]

The teaching folks tried that in the country where I live. End result was a barely literate generation. Thankfully they have seen the error of their ways and words are now taught phonetically.

[@verfuncht]

Pliny Elder When you think of it that way, English speakers should have a much easier time learning Chinese languages than speakers of other languages.

[@justinnamuco9096]

But the letters are still there to give you clues.

[@OokileyGMR]

English speakers: Omg I can't believe in China people memorize a pictograph for each word Also English speakers: *HAS TO MEMORIZE THE INFINITE WEIRD AND UNINTUITIVE SPELLINGS FOR EACH WORD*

[@tarekwayne9193]

THANK YOU💯💯💯

[@samueltong8061]

I think Chinese is harder, but to be honest, don't overthink English. Just go with the flow

[@mrsqueak4837]

@@samueltong8061 That is something only people with a sense for language can do, or people who grew up with English. Going with the flow in a language is like having at least 10 years experience of listening, writing and speaking on a near daily basis. Try to think at what age you actually started to speak fluently in English, that's how long it took to go with the flow.

[@samueltong8061]

@@mrsqueak4837 True, you raise a good point. However, for me, going with the flow, not thinking too deeply into the grammar rules that do not need to be thought about, really helps me.

[@grovermartin6874]

When other languages try to make English (as they hear it) more accessible to their language (or vice versa?), things get messier. Like Pinyin, the government-authorized method of transliterating Chinese and English, which seems to have been absorbed. So I was sneered at by New Jersey acupuncturist Dr. Cai's receptionist for asking for Dr. [K]ai. She said, "You American's are so stupid, you can't even pronounce his name right, it's Sigh." I gently explained that "c" before "a" was pronounced like "k" in English. I left her to her notion. I gave up trying to learn Mandarin from a nearby college professor in town because she insisted I learn Pinyin to learn Chinese when I had already had considerable pronunciation success with Wade-Giles, another system. EEEEEE!!! It's a wonder we manage at all!

[@adeonn]

We need the þorn and eð back. So you dont have to guess which type of th is used. Also ðey look cool.

[@soupdragon151]

Damn Caxton and the Printing Press! Also the Romans for their lack of "th" sounds in latin.

[@seid3366]

Can’t we use dh, like for “dhë” (the)? Ît’s īzīër të rāit.

[@kylepickus5712]

I also like æ for the long a sound and the kw instead of the q sound.

[@nostradamusmccarthy8201]

I am Australian person

[@seid3366]

@@nostradamusmccarthy8201 Oi Australian persn. Howzde prawn cookin?

[@irlsexy]

Imagine putting like 5 languages together and having one rule for all the sounds

[@CourtneySchwartz]

Like Esperanto?

[@donnieraczynski572]

danish spelling is worse but you’re right

[@INFIYNITE]

@@CourtneySchwartz From now on, Esperanto shall be pronounced "Aspirin"

[@user-on8gd9hm3f]

Your name is made of plastic

[@denielalain5701]

@@INFIYNITE Aspirintoe

[@lightbox617]

In 7th grade, I had a brutal argument with my English teacher over my spelling of Grey instead of Gray for the color (shade?). It seems I had read too much H.G. Wells...and she had not. I'm 70 and have not yet recovered from the conflict. It's ok. I have good meds now.

[@riverforest2997]

She was wrong. You were right. Gray or Grey. Both are correct.

[@zamami]

I had the same thing in Japan while teaching middle school students. Fun times.

[@gunner678]

English is English sir, so grey is indeed grey (color is colour)! 'Two people's separated by a common language' indeed!

[@akumayoxiruma]

Wait... you cannot write 'grey' and 'color' in the same sentence. I teach English as well, and I have to remind my students that it is their choice which variety of English (e.g. AmE, BrE...) they prefer to use, but it is not okay to mix them up randomly. Hence, if you use American English, the words are spelled(!) "gray" and "color", but if you use British English, the words are spelt(!) 'grey' and 'colour'. You need to be consistent in orthography, pronunciation and grammar. With that being said, both spellings are valid - just use them in the correct variety.

[@magburner]

Grey is the correct spelling in English. In American English (which is not English), they spell it gray.

[@YamenX0]

As a non-native speaker of English who had to learn and be unpleasantly surprised so many times with English orthography... This video was both very frustrating and very satisfying to watch. Really thanks, Paul.

[@ReverendMeat51]

Hell I'm a native English speaker and being as I read a lot consider myself above average when it comes to spelling. There are still certain everyday words that I can still never spell correctly on the first try, I'm embarassed to admit.

[@crimineyjenkins1]

@@ReverendMeat51 Have you ever rewritten a complete sentence because: 1: You can't spell a word (even after looking up the correct spelling) or 2: The word looks like the wrong spelling when it's actually correct (even after verification of said spelling)? Or am I weird to do so?

[@ReverendMeat51]

@@crimineyjenkins1 I have definitely done that when I don't know the correct spelling and can't look it up, but if I can look it up I'll only rewrite sentences to avoid using certain words multiple times

[@desmondd1984]

I'm sure English spelling is frustrating to someone trying to learn the language; it's especially apparent when learning Spanish, which has 100% consistent spelling. But at the same time, English is also very simplified in some ways, particularly when it comes to verb tenses and inflection.

[@KielanGaming]

It makes more sense when you realize that the silent letters are to denote pronunciation and the weird spelling purely invented on purpose to discover non native speakers, which was important during the violent era's of the past, it was important to know if someone was claiming to be a native when infact they where a foreign agent for example, this is hard-wired into the English vernacular, a native may make mistakes too but not many, it's drilled into us at School that you must not make mistakes in pronunciation that a child or foreigner might make. In modern times it doesen't make sense to us since we live in a peaceful modern era, but in the past it made sense and is just a quirk of language which every language has.

[@fabioriato]

As an ESL teacher, I usually say to my students: "welcome to the English language, where pronunciation makes no sense whatsoever!"

[@seid3366]

Shouldn’t that be “spelling makes no sense?”

[@tosauxy7207]

@@seid3366 Still right either way.

[@zweigackroyd7301]

@@davidgriffin2770 Le ver vert va vers le verre vert

[@zweigackroyd7301]

@@davidgriffin2770 Not a meme, but okay

[@ibrahimbah1044]

@D H French can’t be harder than English

[@lilium9361]

ah. english. the only langauge that, has an national. competition, about speling it's words correctly,

[@SoloHen]

Wait, other languages don't have a spelling bee? Wow, English is weird.

[@terrythefatshark]

its*

[@SoloHen]

@@terrythefatshark Yeah, now that I think about it, why doesn't it's stand for the things possession, like all other words that end with 's. Why is it like this?

[@antoniomele4830]

@@SoloHen well in Italian it would not make any sense. If a mother tounge hears any italian word he clearly knows how it's written since you pronunce the same it's written

[@SoloHen]

@@terrythefatshark Thanks.

[@LynSain]

"Why is everything in English said differently than it's written? To make us feel stupid?" - Javier Escuella (1899)

[@thearcanespark3138]

Rdr 2

[@bobbobbly7900]

yes

[@vinny9868]

It's because the English couldn't come up with a logical spelling system.

[@LukeWham]

"You're asking the wrong man, there, Javier" - Arthur Morgan

[@lorenztico4101]

LANAHISSE RIVRR

[@PV1230]

English: where the exceptions outnumber the rules, by a lot.

[@cactussenpai9625]

PV1230 yep

[@carpediem6568]

It's a lot, not "alot". No such word exists.

[@bloggsie45]

English spelling is seemingly inconsistent because it is derived from at least four root languages. Latin, Old Norse, French, Saxon, and some Flemish. The events of 55 bce, and 43, 536 and 1066 ce have left their linguistic marks.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

Tibetan hasn't had a spelling reform since _before the Crusades._

[@Ida-xe8pg]

@@notoriouswhitemoth *900 CE*

[@BradleyZS]

Nothing makes me feel more big brained than pronouncing a word correctly the first time I see it just based on what word I assume it shares an origin with.

[@Chowder12345able]

To anyone who has to learn English as a second language, you have my respect

[@alexandernoe1619]

I don't know about today, but when I was in school they taught us the IPA quite early because there is absolutely no way to learn English without knowing any IPA.

[@nyx5408]

What is IPA? Also i prefer to learn english a hundred times instead of fucking french

[@CourtneySchwartz]

@@alexandernoe1619 Pretty sure most native English speakers have not heard of IPA, but are doing fine. 😏 Immersion and repetition can work, too. It does help if you know some Latin, Greek, French, and any Germanic language, but you have to have a sensibility for which one it sounds like (Greek or Norse for example) in order to use the correct spelling rules for that origin.

[@EngyAmr]

​​@@nyx5408French spelling and pronunciation are more straightforward .. I learned English as a 2nd language and French as a 3rd .. I am fluent in English and have no spelling issues at all, yet sometimes I read new English words wrong ! While I am not as proficient in French as English, yet I read and write it more smoothly even if I don't understand well !!

[@karenl6908]

As someone famous said, "English doesn't just borrow from other languages- it chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the back of the head, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar."

[@pwnage1731]

I’m surprised nobody has made a skit of that yet.

[@NikhileshSurve]

@Karen L 😂😂😂 I laughed really hard at that

[@JSav07]

XD

[@michelledillard6316]

LOL - that is the best description I have ever seen for English!!

[@MatthewMcVeagh]

This would be a valid if jokey metaphor if vocabulary borrowing involved depriving source languages of their words instead of merely copying their form along with the meaning.

[@Tflexxx02]

A "spelling bee" is a thing in English because you have to memorize the way words are spelled. In languages like German or Spanish where most words are spelled the way they sound, a spelling bee is an exercise in the absurd. And in boredom.

[@Tflexxx02]

@Mary Contrary I believe that Hindi doesn't have an alphabet, and is more like Chinese with its characters. (That may not be true.) If it is true, perhaps Indian English speakers are already used to memorizing characters, and thus spelling, which works well for them in English.

[@francom3476]

In Spanish we have troubles with the sounds of s, c, z at least in Latin America because they are too similar the people from Spain makes a different sound to each one a it's easier for them (I apologize if I have a bad grammar my English isn't perfect)

[@2712animefreak]

@@Tflexxx02 Hindi has an abugida: the devanagari script. There are letters for consonants and diacritical marks for vowels that follow them. The spelling is mostly phonetic, as far as I can tell.

[@eufalesio1146]

yeah in spain (mostly) we have the /θ/ (spelt or ) very distinct from /s/ (always spelt ), so a spelling bee can't fool us with "taza", or "tasa", because they're pronounced differently! the problem lies on and making the same sound (sometimes, when isn't pronounced /ʎ/); on and (which both are pronounced /b/) and finally, mute

[@toade9167]

It's not true. Hindi has an alphabet.

[@Tech-Relief]

Here is an interesting observation: A a native Dutch speaker and having lived in English speaking countries (currently the USA) I believe I have found an interesting side effect of the inconsistent spelling in English. In Dutch the spelling is mostly consistent and we are taught as children to spell phonetically. I.e. each word is like a string of beads with each letter being pronounced. So when I read I see the individual letters and my brain puts this together to pronounce words. It makes it easy for me to actually remember spelling even in English and simple to pronounce foreign words. I have observed that apparently English readers see a whole word when they read and have great difficulty to imagine how to pronounce foreign names or words they are not familiar with. Also, in the US they have these spelling-bees with children having to guess how certain words are spelled. I don't think such a thing would make sense for languages that have consistent phonetic spelling.

[@RazvanMaioru]

You know English spelling is bad if even Dutch looks logical in comparison. I mean seriously, how did "ij" and "ui" end up sounding like "ai" and "au"? Let's not consider the unnecessary extra vowels in "vrouw" or "nieuw"... "vrau" or "niu" would have been enough!

[@seaeagle8976]

Actually, it is not only possible to learn to read phonetically in English, it is the best way to learn. “Sound it out” is often said by parents teaching their kids to read, and it does help. There are a lot of exceptions, though.

[@danielzhang1916]

because English has same-sounding words, like night, knight, might, mite, right, rite, etc. but also has different-spelled words like tough, through, sought, slough, rough, trough, you can easily misread the word or type it, I always break up foreign words into syllables or smaller parts, it's not that hard after reading it again

[@freethebirds3578]

@@seaeagle8976 Students decode when they read, starting with individual letter sounds. Some can hear the sounds and say the word, while others are told to blend the sounds, or stretch them out to blend them.

[@josepartida1711]

This stuck out to me: I was in first grade and the teacher split the class in half to do a spelling contest. She asked someone to come up to the class and spell “would”. And me being confident in my spelling, volunteered and spelled “wood”. I lost the contest for my team. I was confused. But had I studied the week’s vocabulary I would’ve known. 😆

[@Lizuma]

She should have put "would" in a sentence so you would know which one! That's what my teachers always had done

[@princeorion84]

That’s why in spelling bees you are able to ask for a definition, origin, and have it put in a sentence. Personally, I think asking for a definition is the best option, especially when there are homophones. Next would’ve origin because a word’s origin heavily affects its spelling.

[@NAME-yg8sl]

@@Lizuma Maybe she didn't ask for it in a sentence. She said she got confident so sounds like she never asked.

[@dianatralli4099]

A boring day becomes an exciting one when Paul uploads a new video :)

[@heribertprantl2871]

agreed

[@adolfoalbornoz3730]

I completely agree

[@barraman.]

Yeppe

[@belle_pomme]

As a language nerd, I agree😂

[@MegaFonebone]

At first they wanted to call it "the Great Vowel Movement" but then they thought better of it.

[@SoyPabloCastro]

Such an underrated comment.

[@willb.139]

I am really glad I found this gem.

[@TijmensAviation]

I guess it’s underrated but I dont get the joke bruh

[@clay7214]

I don't get it either. Please explain

[@candicehoneycutt4318]

TIAviation vowel movement sounds like bowel movement

[@miaow8670]

One of the truest statements I've ever read in my life: "Early Modern English spelling was an ungoverned mess." Pretty much holds up to Modern English as well if you ask me.

[@danwhitcombe4275]

This is genuinely fascinating - thank you so much for putting this together.

[@SnabbKassa]

As Lindy beige explained, English is now like Chinese in that you don't look at the spelling. You look at the shape of the whole word and associate that with a learned sound and meaning.

[@bilbohob7179]

Yeessss!!!.

[@scorpio252000]

THAT IS PRECISELY what I wanted to say. Chinese characters originally had only one pronunciation but as the population grew so arise many dialects, so now each character can be pronounced a hundred ways but still written the same. so many the different localized Chinese groups up until 50 years ago can only communicate in writing but not verbally with each other.

[@MartinRosol]

The spelled word is more like a pictograph rather than a collection of individual letters that must be sounded out.

[@gunner678]

That guy yaps too much I'm afraid.a rather odd way of describing words.

[@skyworm8006]

@New_Account Not true. Chinese characters are comprised of smaller elements and in some characters those elements indicate sounds.

[@kijekuyo9494]

In my lifetime, I've seen the spelling of a ring of fried dough go from "doughnut" to "donut" in the US, probably due to commercial branding.

[@TomPauls007]

Nawww - it’s the typesetter for the label!

[@random54321]

Wow you're lucky, that respelling took place before I was even born

[@happycook6737]

Both spellings are acceptable. Doughnut looks more elegant in print than donut.

[@MintyLime703]

Both are used

[@maythesciencebewithyou]

@@be7599 it really doesn't

[@verosanz]

This overview is incredible! Your Great Vowel Shift summary just saved me the time to figure out how to represent the changes. Thank you!

[@jcvr732]

I am a spanish speaker. We are taught to read every single letter in spanish. We use more " read my lips" than spelling words. While learning english you go crazy.

[@rmdodsonbills]

It does help to start when you're a baby. But yes, you're exactly right. This statement is completely true, even for native speakers.

[@jcvr732]

@@frankhooper7871 you mention only three inconsistencies. I wish i could say the same in English.

[@azarishiba2559]

@@frankhooper7871 The "x" case occurs mostly in Mexico, where it has 4 ways of pronunciation. But in many other Spanish speaking countries, "x" is only pronounced as "ks", with "México" and "mexicano" being the only exceptions. Yes, without proper education, one person could write "hola" instead of "ola", and "llo" instead of "yo". But if you see "hola", "ola", and "yo", you know automatically how to pronounce them. You could side these monstruosities: "desoxirribonucleico" or "otorrinolaringología" and still know how to pronounce them. With English this is NOT the case. In other words: in Spanish you may not know how to write a word (that is with the letters of same pronunciation, it's pretty improbable to find a person who doesn't know how to write "mañana", "gato" or "toronja" if they listen to them), but you will know how to pronounce a written word always (the Mexican words with "x" are exceptions because in the first place they are not actually Spanish words, but Nahuatl words). In English not only you won't know easily how to write a word you hear, but you won't know either how to pronounce a written word!

[@Machouseproductions]

English may not be the easiest language to learn; It can be handily mastered through tough thorough thought, though.

[@santiagocas3683]

Jaja en inglés solo pones palabras al azar y ya tienes un trabalenguas 🥴

[@korcommander]

@@santiagocas3683 that is actually 100% correct though

[@user-go6il2tm4b]

Oh as a english learner, it's very fun rhyme !

[@Maverick-di2br]

Basically we missed the deadline for revising our written language and now we're stuck with modern-speaking and a classic-writing.

[@aarne3187]

What deadline? Whose deadline? We could fix it now if we wanted. It just takes the will to do it. If enough people want change, change will happen.

[@HD-fy2wu]

@@aarne3187 The deadline is when the printing press arrived in England. Only then do people need to standardize the spelling of a word for their printings.

[@jankrynicky]

@@HD-fy2wu Well .... if it wasn't totally fucked up back then, the spelling would have kept up with the pronunciation like it did in other language.

[@AdamW-eo2yq]

@@aarne3187 if the spelling changed now, it would wreck havoc on the entire world. Not only would a massive chunk of native speakers suddenly lose the ability to write properly, but it would also destroy the international written presence of the language as those with a second language in English would almost have to relearn it again too This is such an issue as English is the most spoken language in the world and the international language of business

[@forest-goddess]

@@AdamW-eo2yq also plenty of different FL accents pronounce the same words with different sounds that often wouldn't work within the same standardised spellings, so plenty of spelling reforms would have to choose which accent is the most valid. the only way for the spelling reform to work would be to basically make each dialect its own language with its own spelling.

[@joryrevealsreality6409]

I cannot express my love for your content enough! This whole video, within every point you made I found my own critiques, realizations, and issues I’ve encountered with the English language. About 5 minutes in I thought ‘This must be why I feel like I can do whatever I want when writing in English.’ Then! You explained authors simply submitted their works and people with printing presses winged it so whatever they wanted was published! To this day, English has the feature of adapting alongside its speakers and writers! English continues to self-determine who understands with more factors like region, even ethnicity and in-groups, with the learning and participation of non-native speakers, and the creation and adoption of new words. It’s so fun to see discussion and information about the history that brought us communication🥰 Thank you for your hard work!

[@juandiegovalverde1982]

I = Ai; you = yu; he = hi; she = shi; it = it; we = wi; they = dhei; this = dhis; that = dhat (stressed pronunciation), dhet (unstressed pronunciation); here = hir; there = dhér; where = whér, who = hu; what = whot, whoet; how = hau; not = not; all = ool; many = meni; some = soem (stressed pronunciation), sem (unstressed pronunciation); few = fyu; other = oedher; one = woen; two = tu; three = thri; four = foor, four (depending on pronunciation); five = faiv; six = siks; seven = seven; eight = eit; nine = nain; ten = tén; long = long, loong (depending on pronunciation); heavy = hevi; head = héd; hammerhead shark= hamerhèd shark; short = short; narrow = naro; woman = wumen; women = wimin; men = mén; need = niid; person = poersen; husband = hoezbend; diseases = disíiziz, disíizez (depending on pronunciation); throughout = thruáut; father = faadher; daughter = dooter, dootter (depending on pronunciation); thought = thoot; though = dho; low = lo; now = nau; know = no; knight = nait; doubt = daut; presentation = prezentéishen, priizentéishen (depending on pronunciation); island = ailend; business = biznis, biznes (depending on pronunciation); bury = beri; story = stori, stouri (depending on pronunciation); bird = boerd; world = woerld; fur = foer; does = doez; fruit =fruut; put = put; little = litel, littel (depending on pronunciation); flower = flauer; etc.

[@anwalt693]

A superb video. Thank you !! I've used this in my adult English-as-a-foreign-language classes with great success.

[@Die_Theresalia]

"So, the sounds changed. They must have updated the spelling to match the new sounds, right?" English: *laughs nervously*

[@play-toe2053]

Lol

[@romanr.301]

@Mario It was just a light joke. It's not that deep.

[@NhungNguyen-jm7rs]

You think that's bad at least you're not American like the spelling does not even match what we're saying

[@HerbertLandei]

It's also fascinating how some words shifted their meaning. In German, we still have "Knecht" (which is the origin of "knight"), but it kept its old meaning of "(farm) servant". In Swedish, the word for woman is "kvinna", which became "queen" in English - quite a promotion.

[@diandradeeke]

english word "knight" and the german word "Lands-knecht" have a shared cognate

[@larsb2999]

I noticed some more extreme examples. Like the words sea and lake in dutch (zee en meer) and german (meer and see). Exacly the opposite, for example Waddenzee in dutch, Wattenmeer in german. Or the word 'black' in english. Comes from the french 'blanc' which means white. It's quite fascinating to see.

[@murrayaronson3753]

But queen in the gay sublect or whatever is the correct term really is closer to the original Danish borrowing - from what I've read - opera queen, drama queen, etc. There's a story that Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) would say to some of her staff "Will one of you queens get a stiff drink for this tired old Queen."

[@louismart]

wcpgw I regret we have never been told at school to pronounce English words as they are spelled - just to guess their meaning (not when speaking). Thus a German speaker could easily know the meaning of many words of Germanic roots.

[@JohnJones-ec5em]

also think about indo-european root *gʰóstis, "stranger": English guest, German Gast (same meaning); and then you have Latin hostis = enemy. quite a different way of considering the strangers.

[@notmyworld44]

I HUGELY enjoyed this video. As an amateur linguist myself, it answered many questions for me. EXCELLENT!

[@aquamarina7944]

I'm a mexican in learning process, and something that I always found so crazy about English is its weird spelling. I were in a lot of spelling bee contests that my English teachers organized year to year, but I never understood why the words were spelled the way they had: no patterns that a ten years old mind could understand, no consistency, anything. Don't get me wrong, I like to learn English, but it's pretty weird sometimes.

[@danielzhang1916]

English has same-sounding words, like night, knight, might, mite, right, rite, etc. but also has different-spelled words like tough, through, sought, slough, rough, trough, they had to figure out how to spell and differentiate them all, very few languages have this problem to this scale, so they had to add or change letters as needed

[@dhruvkhandelwal7282]

❌English language is damn wired. ✔inglish languaje is dem wiard. 😂

[@MrChickennugget360]

or wyrd

[@gambigambigambi]

ay no rayt?

[@vatsdimri3675]

U R rait

[@kumaroraon9919]

Confusion Explainer 😂 bt it's not bad for non English speaker. It's nice to spread English language

[@painonveins1413]

That's the correct way of spelling 😅

[@peterchang7417]

I've been living a lie my whole life thinking I can spell English

[@adidell]

I’m a native speaker and have been living the same lie :)

[@xtricman]

不，你不能

[@krollpeter]

@@xtricman They should have stayed with the pronunciation before the vowel shift. That made a lot more sense ... to me at least.

[@firewoodloki]

@@krollpeter History happens and mistakes are made everywhere. Period.

[@SM_zzz]

You spelled it correctly: "English"! 👌

[@italoman9]

Great channel, host, linguistic history, and breakdowns on language origins, evolution and facts!

[@YanlucasxD]

English learners: English grammar is so easy Native speakers: Hold my ghoti

[@nyx5408]

i think the grammar is the easy part, the grammar in my language its extremely hard to learn for foreigners , but the hard part is the spelling, there are words that you can guess how to spell if you have a little bit of experience but some of them like "queque" are impossible to guess

[@user-px7kx2gp1b]

English grammar is easy, but the spelling is hell on earth

[@NAME-yg8sl]

@@user-px7kx2gp1b I guess that's why I had to memorize a list of words for monthly spelling bees.

[@dinosaurusrex1482]

English is 3 languages stacked on top of each other wearing a trench coat

[@user-pp4pu1eo4b]

any bojack horseman fans here?

[@amiyousoff6560]

I did a business!

[@dinosaurusrex1482]

@@ericolens3 do other languages not also do that?

[@larrydavison8298]

@@dinosaurusrex1482 but English is downright agressive about it.

[@exxelsetijadi5348]

I guess thats true I mean spanish, german, french, malay, indonesian, and some others have similar words with english

[@thisherekontrast]

I remember asking my teacher in primary school why we don't say the 'e' and the end of snake. She said it was because the 'e' is silent, so I asked why it was silent and she just shrugged her shoulders and said "sometimes we just have silent letters"...like, okay.

[@irhashshalihin3741]

Haha, It was good to make your teacher mad

[@shuttlefeather]

At my school, an English teacher asked for examples of words with silent letters. One suggestion was "The silent pee in" bath".

[@rik1754]

Late to the game but the silent e does have some use. It usually, not always, shows a change in the vowel sound before it. The vowel sound changes to prety much how you would pronounce it when you pronounce each letter of the English about. Just think ABCDEFJH... cap vs cape pet vs Pete kit vs kite hop vs hope cut vs cute Of course words like "have" don't follow this rule nor do I know if it is even a real tested theory or not. It's just something I noticed.

[@fifthdoctor]

If we didn’t have the e there then everyone would think snak(e) is pronounced ‘snack’

[@theoneitself]

@@rik1754 I am not a native english speaker and I also had that theory years ago, AWESOME!!!!

[@pancon5]

I've always wondered about this, fantastic content!

[@JoaoDieter]

I speak Portuguese as my first language and I’m glad that the Portuguese and Brazilian linguists have been updating our language through the years. In the last 2 centuries we had 3 updates: first in 1910, banning the spelling of ph as f in words come from Greek, the second one in 1946, correcting words with wrong spellings to C,S and Z sounds and the last one back in 2009, standardising the use of graphic signals and removing some useless letters in some words, it also created a spelling standard of vowels among all the Portuguese speaking countries. So, my question is: why a so influent and widely spoken language as English can’t unite all its grammar linguists to try a form of improving the spelling and pronunciation? It would help the native speakers and the people around the world who find themselves in difficulty to spell English correct. I’m an English teacher here in Brazil, and I can easily notice that for my students, the most common cause of mistakes and wrong spelling is the harsh and weird spell. The listening and understanding process is not a big problem or difficulty, they can understand English conversations, but reading and writing in English is a bigger challenge that takes me more classes time to teach them this confuse spelling context.

[@amonraii7273]

Your language is tiny compared to English, so you can do whatever you want with it. English has become this gigantic monster now with 2 billion speakers. No one can impose rules on it so easily anymore. Fake words like "Actioning" and "updation" are popping up organically by people whose first language isn't even English, and even regional dialects like Hinglish and Euro English are being taken with a tiny bit of a hint of seriousness nowadays. Good luck telling them to stop using those fake words and pronunciations. Besides, even natives (US, UK, Australia, etc) don't agree on the specifics anymore

[@Quarequieus]

​@@amonraii7273English don't even nearly has so many speakers.

[@danielzhang1916]

English has words like bight, bite, eight, ate, might, mite, right, rite, etc, they all sound the same but are spelled differently, how do you differentiate all of them, as well as different spelled words that sound the same

[@Quarequieus]

@@danielzhang1916 What the difference between bight and bay?

[@thomasvanasperen9097]

This is he moment you realise that the pronunciation of Middle English is exactly how you pronounce Dutch.

[@albertmutton1687]

Frisian is the closest relative to English, so thats no real surprise.

[@Menxo]

@@albertmutton1687 Dutch ist actually Flatgerman

[@Toronto-Brad]

@@Menxo Low German?

[@Menxo]

@@Toronto-Brad yeah Flatgerman comes from Low German but it's a own language and not a dialect

[@Toronto-Brad]

@@Menxo Cool! English was originally a dialect of Low German which become its own language. So Dutch and English have something in common.

[@BuffOrpington7]

English has so many good things going for it, particularly the simple grammar and absence of gender, but then we go and ruin it all by having such absurd spellings.

[@BuffOrpington7]

@Mercedes VenXX No masculine or feminine nouns. Everything is 'the' not el, la, le, der, die, das etc

[@yn9229]

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic with the "simple grammar"....

[@yn9229]

Severus Well you must be very smart then. I'm American and I find english grammar pretty complicated, I've studied chinese and korean before and I find both these language's grammar easier than english. (Don't mind the horrible punctuation lol)

[@yn9229]

Severus I don't really find it hard because it's my naitive langauge but it seems like everyone around me who don't speak English as their native langauge can't get the grammar correct, so I'm assuming it's hard for people to learn it. The people who I see get it wrong tho usually get the plurals and tenses wrong. Also english has way too many homophones.

[@cueiyo6906]

@@yn9229 as a Korean I sit and wonder how you think Korean grammar is easy.

[@hpc1975]

I really enjoyed all your videos, learned a lot since I speak english as a second language, I always had trouble with the way english words are spelled. For example: Island, depot, Chandler, pinnacle, etc. and the one you mentioned on the video: "Indicted" I used to pronounce it "indeected" . Thanks again for your nice videos.

[@shoshana-xs4cm]

So fascinating! Thank you! 💕

[@MogX34]

"English is a language that lurks in dark alleys, beats up other languages and rifles through their pockets for spare vocabulary" - quote from James Nicoll

[@TheSuperCoolMan122]

enuff

[@DannyDog27]

This is a really terrible analogy. Firstly, it implies that as soon as a word is borrowed into English, it’s magically forgotten from the original language. The Japanese didn’t suddenly forget how to say “tsunami” once English speakers started saying it. Secondly, there are plenty of other languages that have been influenced greatly by loan words. How silly would it sound to say that Japanese is just a mix of Korean, Chinese, and English?

[@paintnamer6403]

@@DannyDog27 wellthatsnofun.

[@m_uz1244]

@@DannyDog27 2/10 troll

[@jw-ws8dz]

​@@DannyDog27 In terms of vocabulary, Japanese does have significant influence from Chinese, English, and to a much lesser extent, miscellaneous European languages for random loanwords like アルバイト. Korean influence might come in the form of grammar, since the Japanese grammar is very similar, and we know that the yayoi people likely immigrated from the Korean peninsula.

[@PiousMoltar]

"Isle" and "island" don't share the same etymology? Okay that's it. I'm done. That's insane.

[@sluggo206]

Isle < Middle English ile < Old French ile (earlier isle) < Latin insula < terra in salo (land in the sea) < salum. Island < Middle English iland < Old English igland/iegland/ealand (water+land) < ig/ieg (water) < Proto Germanic *ahwo < Indo European *akwa (thus Latin aqua).

[@MusicalRaichu]

@@sluggo206 yeah new to me too.

[@SuicideBunny6]

´Island' is a Germanic word (just like its Dutch translation 'eiland'), while 'isle' is of French origin: 'île'

[@xunbaluba415]

@@sluggo206 indo european conection is insane

[@OwenKelly]

Don't yah know? That's what the lookout in the crows nest of those olde wooden shippes would say upon spying land. "Is Land!!!" lol 😁⛵👀🌄

[@AndyMangele]

This video is right up my alley! I always wondered about the various pronounciations in words like "Superman", "superfluous" or "superior"! :)

[@Aeturnalis]

11:20 I think the background image is the inside of the dome of the Baptistery of St. John, in Florence, Italy, right in front of the Cathedral. That's a perfect choice for Renaissance era stuff, good work Mr. Paul.

[@douglaspate9314]

In "scent!" is it the "s" or the "c" that is silent?

[@DieAlteistwiederda]

Just thinking about that makes my brain hurt. People say German is hard but at least our pronunciation and spelling makes actual fucking sense. Our complicated grammar also follows rules, lot of them to be fair but they are mostly consistent too.

[@kiandemonteverde4121]

They're both pronounced at the same time.

[@jungkooksbread7158]

It's like stopped the pp is just p a twice as long as one p So the SC is the same

[@shyasaturtle]

@@DieAlteistwiederda many people also complain about our "long words". like dude. compound words are just words strung together. plus the fact that our pronunciation makes sense helps in pronouncing those "long words".

[@michaeljuliano8839]

MarvelousSandstone Altes Englisch hatte drei Artikel und vier Fälle genauso wie Deutsch. Deutsch ist meine zweite Sprache, aber ich wünschte, meine Erste wäre ähnlicher zu meiner Zweite.

[@LumiKuuro]

So basically, English is the language with severe dyslexia XD

[@benh9350]

DarkLordling I wonder if people in English reading lands report having dyslexia more than others?

[@VTdarkangel]

No. Lysdexia is not very common in English...

[@eldermillennial8330]

Actually, it’s a quadruple Pidgin language too naively arrogant to admit it’s a street urchin, like a homeless orphan wearing a fine but tattered, ill fitting old suit he found as if he were a rich lord. History of the English, really.

[@wilhelmtaylor9863]

DYSLEXICS, UNTIE!!!!

[@wilhelmtaylor9863]

@Paul best - do you have a clue what is being discussed?

[@DikWhite]

Very interesting explanation. Thank you.

[@connora3085]

Was the word "you" originally pronounced like "yow" What makes me think this is 1 the spelling 2 the word "thou" was pronounced that way

[@vikrantpulipati1451]

Now, with the Advent of the internet, we get beautiful words like "yeet" and "lmao"

[@xnopyt647]

Walter William Skeet

[@jeanettewaverly2590]

LOL!

[@Desh282]

Don’t forget totes m gotes!

[@Lambda_Ovine]

yesn't and putting n't at the end of any word is now my favorite thing ever.

[@kalanaherath3076]

LMAO? LMAO!

[@likebot.]

You can't spell slaughter without laughter :/

[@user-mb7xs8zu6c]

or therapist without..

[@kuasocto3528]

@@user-mb7xs8zu6c You did'nt!..

[@midge_gender_solek3314]

@@hipwave When I read this, I thought some music band might have used it. And it did...

[@laurel5432]

manslaughter is many's tragedy and one man's laughter

[@casadimilano7048]

Like Bot abundance without dance

[@Turrican]

As an English person I have tried and failed to learn other languages. I know English is weird in some ways but it feels so right to me 🤣

[@maartenhermens5035]

That was a joy to watch, well put together! It seems that partly due to the vowel shift English became more different from other Germanic languages in speech. I could not help to see more similarity between the older spoken English and what is Dutch nowadays.

[@TuiCatNZ]

Proves spelling in English is a exercise in memory rather than logic.

[@oldedwardian1778]

You are absolutely CORRECT. But what a MAGNIFICENT language it is, the sheer volume of words alone enable English speaker to express themselves in such marvelous and precise terms. I am English but have lived in the USA for 49 years and yes I still say “Tom ar toe” and “ban AR na”. But I also say “ZEE” not “ZED”. We should all be INSULTED when people say that English is a HORRIBLE language, I can think of many languages which are truly HORRIBLE. One commentator said that his wife’s native language was Dutch and she said that English was HORRIBLE. There is a perfect old English expression for that, we would say it was a case of the pot calling the kettle black. If you don’t understand that please let me know and I will explain it. French and Italian are BEAUTIFUL but English is MAJESTIC, POWERFUL, PEACEFUL AND JUST WONDERFUL. Can you imagine the heartbreaking beauty of Shakespeare being written in ANY OTHER LANGUAGE. Have you ever heard Shakespeare in German? It’s almost as bad as Shakespeare spoken with a Glaswegian accent. Sorry guys JUST JOKING. I am a native of the Black Country, the old workshop of the world in the West Midlands of England, if you are not a native then the Black Country dialect can sound as if you are from MARS.

[@seegee7728]

Yep no logic in theses words Donkey-Monkey Daughter- Laughter Break and Steak but Bleak and Streak Horse-Worse South- Youth Memory must be used to remember the pronunciation.

[@dyefield2712]

@@oldedwardian1778 Please explain the whole dutch thing. And maybe less capital letters for emphasize, perhaps you could use italics instead?

[@oldedwardian1778]

Dyefield Have you ever HEARD any Dutch spoken or seen any examples of the written language? If you have not then any further dialog is a waste of time. However let me give you some background. I am OLD, I was born in 1942, at the end of WWII Europe tried to re-establish some form of coming together to try to help the European countries meet each other on a level playing field. One of those events that I still remember very well was the World Scouting Jamboree that was held in London. Scouts from all over Europe and indeed the world came to attend that event and to travel around Britain, they stayed with British families and several stayed with my family. I was very young at the time but my memories are still good and I have warm happy memories. A young giant of a man stayed with us, he was Dutch and I still remember his name, it was Dav Heymanns he was from The Hague. I remember him tossing me in the air and catching me while my mother watched expecting a catastrophe, but David’s arms were very strong and sure, I adored him as did we all. He came to see us many times in the 1940s and 1950s, he oiled arrive unannounced to the joy of everyone, of course my mother adopted him as she did everyone. Dav spoke excellent English, but he would have us all laughing till we cried when he spoke in Dutch trying to recite Shakespeare or Wordsworth in Dutch. Perhaps it was just the strangeness of the words coming from someone we loved so much. All languages sounds strange if you do not know them, but to say that any language is HORRIBLE IS STUPID AND IGNORANT. There were other scouts from France who stayed with us, I do not remember them as well as Dav and we were far ore familiar with French than Dutch so French did sound as strange to us. We also hosted several young French women who were teachers, one of whom we remained in touch with until she died some years ago. Her name was Therese, and I became her young English brother, we last saw he in Paris in 2000. Another was Mete ho was Jewish, she was in the French resistance and told my father many stories about the horrors of the Nazi occupation, she was from La Rochelle. You see my remarks are not just a display of IGNORANCE.

[@dyefield2712]

@@oldedwardian1778 No disrespect was meant from my comment. It's kind of difficult to gauge the implied tone of writing. At least for me. I was legitimately curious as to what you were talking about. I've recently gained an interest in languages and it sounded like you had something interesting to say, and what you did say was somewhat interesting, though not what I was expecting. From what I've heard, dutch can be very guttural, though that could be a different language I'm thinking of. Now, as for that whole thing where I suggested not using all caps, I honestly don't know what I was thinking at that point. So, sorry about that. I do agree that calling a language horrible is ignorant. All languages have their subtle nuances, strengths, and weaknesses. English may have inconsistent spelling, but it also has a smorgasbord of synonyms to choose from. It also shares vocabulary with both germanic and romantic languages. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

[@uby54ty06]

The word QUEUE has 80% mute letters

[@user-kz2nx7vk1z]

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[@MrCount84]

In french it is 99% queue is pronounce khhhh

[@Tuberex]

in poland it would be pronounced like "ku a u ae"

[@johnded3874]

kuoowoo

[@rayscene5887]

@@Tuberex æ

[@Dionysos640]

Very well put together.

[@rebeccasherrod4966]

Mr. Paul, I’m just beginning my masters in language and linguistics. The information in your videos (where all the languages originate and how they were influenced) is what I’m most interested in. Can you tell me what sort of classes would be best for this type of study? I took The History of the English Language, and it was most like this. Thank you!

[@miaow8670]

Hello, I'm not Paul, but I studied English philology, which involved a great deal of linguistics. Personally, I can recommend especially The History of the English Language (which you've mentioned already and I took it too), Historical Linguistics, Comparative Linguistics, Contrastive Linguistics, and importantly, too, something that is loosely called "General Linguistics" (generally an umbrella term for the "traditional" fields like phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics - subfields that give you the essential analytic means to "dissect" the language in its technical aspects, such as sentence structure, pronunciation, inflection, types of word-formation, etc.). Lexicology and Sociolinguistics will be helpful too, I believe - lexicology will help you with sense relations such as homonymy, polysemy, synonymy, antonymy, idioms, collocations etc. and also with assessment of dictionary entries, meanwhile sociolinguistics is precisely the field you need for learning about dialects, accents, multilingualism, language planning and policy (e. g. what to do if you live in a country where multiple languages are spoken and you have to decide which one to choose as the "national language") and also language contact (which is closely related to the origin of pidgins and creoles, for example).

[@Dominion_Hawks]

Everyone: WHY CANT YOU BE NORMAL!? English: **screams**

[@Statusinator]

Other languages: WHY CAN'T YOU BE NORMAL!? English: GHOTI!

[@KielanGaming]

Because being normal is too easy to learn, how else will you know if you are talking to a non native speaker unless there are traps in the language, hmmm?

[@Ramk0core]

@@KielanGaming English has taken it too far though! You now think someone is not a native speaker from their weird pronunciation but then you realize they are just urban british or something like that.

[@Me-eb3wv]

Fr

[@disapearingboi]

Don't you mean *Screamb?*

[@tiagomarques9822]

My favorite “English” word is ‘facade’, which lost the cedilla in usual writing but is still pronounced as if it had one.

[@jjwp-ql5rv]

Fa-sard. Is how we say it.

[@SM_zzz]

@@jjwp-ql5rv I don't think there's an "r" in there.

[@varana]

@@SM_zzz Depending on your accent, there is no R in "fasard". :D I've come across a few examples where the R in there is used a marker for a long open /a:/ by speakers with a non-rhotic accent.

[@boldanabrasevic3020]

I think I saw people writing it with the cedilla

[@Muzikman127]

varana312 bingo, if father=farther then facade=fa-sard Brits and Americans trying to spell phonetically to each other is always hilarious what with aw,o,ah vowel mergers in American accents and non nonrhotic homophones in British. Flaw=floor? Law=La? Don=Dawn? Con=Khan? Drawer=Draw? Depends where you’re from...

[@milolekic]

Very informative. Thank you

[@roadoflifewa]

Fun and interesting video! Nice to learn more about the origins of English spelling. One question remains: what is the spelling origin of words beginning with "wr", e.g., write, wrong, wrestle, writhe, wrap, etc.?

[@nagumosdilemma8419]

When i was a kid, my teacher used to give the word "Rough" everytime during english dictations and I would always write "Ruff". Teacher always marked it incorrect and wrote "Rough" nearby. i wondered why she always writes this word.😂😂 Never realized it was correct spelling of "Ruff".

[@sharonjuniorchess]

I would have marked "ruff" right as long as you could spell "onomatopoeia" & knew what it meant.

[@herrakaarme]

@@sharonjuniorchess Those first English printing press owners from the 15th century most certainly didn't know what it means.

[@sharonjuniorchess]

@@herrakaarme I am sure they had homophones then...

[@neptuneamaru5649]

Ruff is my mother's maiden name and we pronouce it like rough or roof.

[@zweigackroyd7301]

@@neptuneamaru5649 Ah - but how do you pronounce roof? Like "moon" or the "u" sound in "push"?

[@colinr0380]

This all makes me glad to have learnt English before I had to understand *how* to learn it!

[@jeremyhelquist]

And here’s and example between British English and American English. Learnt = learned. Lol

[@jeremyhelquist]

Edit, “an example”

[@WadioXD]

@@jeremyhelquist Lol, when i saw "learnt" i think: WTF IS THAT?

[@EpicSpeedademon]

@@jeremyhelquist Couldn't notice it before reading your comment, as a non-native speaker who is being exposed to both versions of English.

[@Natalia-hf3et]

I agree.

[@renatamatwiejczuk4555]

As always perfect. To learn any language, need to be combine with history of country and all historical influences on it. Thank you.

[@x._val_.x]

In Bulgaria we start learning English in 2nd grade, you can imagine what pain in the ass that is. I was one of the lucky ones though, I'd memorize new information quick. I think my fluency level was at B1 by fifth grade.

[@skkotbtw]

in portugal we started learning in 1st grade

[@bilbohob7179]

Middle English had a reasonable pronuntiation...Today English is crazy

[@vatsdimri3675]

Internet is actually helping in making spellings more reasonable though. Most people when writing informally in text use spelling which matches the pronunciation.

[@kumaroraon9919]

Bilbo hob in Spanish there is no silent letters.😃😀

[@jamesestrella5911]

Hora, Hablar, Hacienda, Hacer, Hidalgo

[@lampkinplayzminecraft]

@@kumaroraon9919 h In Spanish is always silent?

[@jevomt440]

@@lampkinplayzminecraft Yes it is, I can't think of an example where it isn't, even though, some people believes it has the "g" sound (like in "game") in words like "huevo" or "chihuahua" (the "u" is pronounced like in "Zeus") but it's still silent. It's just an illusion created by the sound of the "u"

[@Lugmillord]

Tough, Though, Thought. Add one letter and everything changes.

[@maxshuaitang]

Lugmillord Through

[@elchami743]

thorough

[@irhashshalihin3741]

Taf, tho, thaut

[@chuckychuck8318]

Throughout

[@richardanderson8696]

6.20 - the great vowel shift section. I think many of those middle English vowel sounds, or transitional vowel sounds, can still be heard today in the North East of England.

[@joker7301]

Great explanation. Thanks!

[@verlorenModus]

elementary school teacher: just sound it out...

[@NightmareZzK]

But The thing is you can sound it out in many different ways that’s the hard part

[@pinkiepiefan02]

Yea i was told that when trying to spell Wednesday

[@Benjamin-1776]

That right there has been going through my head this entire video

[@mouykaing7456]

elumencheri skul ticher: juhst sownd it owt...

[@ltdowney]

I’m American but I lived in northeast England for several years, and a fun fact about the local dialects there (Geordie and such) is that they retain many vowels from before the Great Vowel Shift. If you hear a *very* thick native speaker it almost sounds like an old Germanic language, like that barbarian in the opening of Gladiator - “ihr seid verfluchte hunde!” - different vocabulary, but very similar phonology.

[@chriscornell9409]

So true.

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

My uncle was born in Newcastle c.1910. He had a natural gift for picking up languages, and even the accent of whoever he was talking to. According to him, Geordies and visiting Danish seamen could understand each other. (The Danes may of course have spoken one of the Frisian dialects/languages, which would have made things simpler.) There's a classic Geordie long 'a' in Wallsend; which, as the name suggests, is at the end of Hadrian's Wall. It's close to, though not quite the same as, the 'a' in e.g. 'arm'. I can mostly understand the accent, but cannot speak it.

[@seiph80]

@Luke Downey I know what phrase you're talking about in the beginning of the movie, what does it mean?

[@roodborstkalf9664]

@@mikesummers-smith4091 : Your uncle was correct. I spend seven months in Newcastle in the early 2000's. Being able to understand Frisian with ease I was really amazed and even shocked how similar Frisian and the language spoken in rural Northumbria were, especially when people spoke about family matters and farm things, using common words that were already in existence when the languages split more then a 1000 years ago.

[@mikesummers-smith4091]

It's modern German - "You are accursed dogs!"

[@robote7679]

Whoa, thanks for doing this! Quite amazing.

[@coconuz]

English speaker : Japanese writing system is complex. Japanese speaker : You too.

[@MachoMaster]

One could divide languages to 5 groups based on the regularity of their spelling (degree of phonemicity). They are (from best to worst): 1. Finnish. 2. Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Hungarian, Slovenian. 3. German, Dutch, Greek, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic. 4. Danish, French. 5. English. Kominek and Black (2006) estimate that English language spelling is about 3 times more complex than German, and 40 times more complex than Spanish (and who know how many times more complex than Finnish). A survey of English spelling (Carney, 1994) devotes 120 pages to describe phoneme-to-letter correspondences, and lists 226 letter-to-phoneme rules, almost all of which admit exceptions. It's no wonder that it takes so long for children to learn to read. The reading level after 1 year of instructions: - Greek, Finnish, German ~ 100%. - French ~ 80%. - Portuguese ~ 75%. - Danish ~ 70%. - English ~ 35%...

[@darkprince56]

That's crazy… I would think Danish is harder to spell. It sounds like people mumble it when they speak it. There is also another episode where he talks about Tibetan being very hard to spell

[@NJ-wb1cz]

You know your language sucks as a communication tool when there are entire contests based on simple basic task of writing words.

[@Aurinkohirvi]

I don't know how it is in other languages, but here in Finland kids often learn to read home or kindergarten before starting school. How about Korean? They have rather new writing system, and I hear that making it easy was the point. I'm interested in Japanese and Chinese, and oh horror, the amount of symbols and how to read them!

[@kgoblin5084]

@@Aurinkohirvi & @darkprince56: you're conflating multiple concepts... The issue with complexity in Japanese is multiple simultaneous writing systems, some of which are logographic. I'd imagine spelling in the more phonetic writing systems would be consistent, while the concept is irrelevant for the logographic bits (you can't misspell a single symbol). Spoken Dutch being difficult to understand doesn't mean written Dutch has inconsistent spelling

[@kgoblin5084]

@@NJ-wb1cz Given that the same language is currently one of the most prevalent on the planet, with strong pressure to adopt & teach it in areas where it is not native; and that this state of affairs is in large part due to how easily it adopts neologisms & loan words, which is a direct contributor to the unfortunate complexity in spelling... I'm gonna actually go with NO, it doesn't suck as a communications tool at all. It just has some functional tradeoffs... easily & aggressively able to adopt new words but as a consequence horribly inconsistent spelling which then increases difficulty to become fluent.

[@dr_monday]

Seeing this, I'm more sure to think that Indonesian is the easiest language in the world: 1. It has a very simple spelling. No exception! You write what you say. With Latin alphabet. 2. No tenses. No verb declinations or conjugations. No noun genders. No noun cases. No tones! 3. This language is "designed" for native speakers of around 720 languages in Indonesia. (Therefore it has to be simple).

[@Sam-shushu]

Indonesian is still a Level 4 language for native English speakers, for a variety of reasons. If you've had exposure to it as a child for some reason, it will seem significantly easier to you than to a person with no exposure. I once had a whole group of American born Vietnamese trying to convince me that was super easy. I looked it up, and it was a 4-with-a-star, which means it was only slightly shy of a Level 5, the hardest language ranking.

[@hotrodharbor]

Short dictionary, simple verbs and tenses, BUT you have all these things you need to put before and after a word: kirim -> mengirimkan. Etc etc etc

[@dominus6695]

epic

[@komikuslucu785]

@@hotrodharbor justru hafalin kosakotanya makin mudah contoh meminjam : borrow meminjamkan : lend

[@billysatrio2731]

Well, as an Indonesian myself I think the foreigner students will having a bad struggle in (in)formal sentence & Imbuhan (affixes) part. For example: Ajar (to teach) > basic word If we adds imbuhan (affixes), it'll be: Ajari (to teach someone) Ajarilah (asked politely to be teached) Ajarkan (*don't know how to describe this one) Ajaran (*also don't know) Pengajar (teacher) Pengajaran (* I don't know how to describe this) Pembelajaran (*also don't know) Pelajar (student) Pelajari (giving order to study) Pelajaran (the subjects you are studying) Mengajar (teaching) Mengajari (to teach) Mengajarkan (have been teached) Mengajarlah (persue someone to teaching) Mempelajari (studying) Diajar (teached by someone) Diajari (teached by someone) Diajarkan (have been teached by someone) Belajar (study) Belajarlah (persue someone to study) Terpelajar (educated person / people) But don't worry, we don't use all of this in the daily conversations, especially with friends and family. You'll see this kind of words when you're reading or when you should make an Indonesian formal letters by yourself.

[@pravoslavn]

I have been tinkering and dabbling with languages (classical and modern) for almost 60 years (achieving various degrees of competence.) And I love your channel and very much esteem your your talents. Keep up the good work, Pavel ! ☺

[@markholm6955]

Love the line - depending on iphone auto correct in spelling is never a safe bet - so true. A few iOS versions ago, my auto correct would auto correct English into French words! No idea of why - did have my keyboard set up so I could change to French, but also have my keyboard set up so for German and Spanish - but it never auto corrected to Spanish or German words.

[@anubisu1024]

English: Even us don't know how to spell some words, but let's use English as an international language! Me: That's *INSANE*

[@PeterGregoryKelly]

And WHICH spelling system? The American system or the British system?

[@anubisu1024]

Peter Kelly Not so different, -ise/-ize, -our/-or, do you know any other?

[@MrCrashDavi]

+

[@freddevlin6578]

@James The girls names "Sinead" and "Siobhan" are Irish and have an Irish pronunciation. Where there is a "bh" it is pronounced like a "v" sound. Some names are anglicized to help English speakers, for example my surname is "Devlin" but it originated from "Ó Doibhilin".

[@disoriented1]

@@anubisu1024 there are others..but..you make an excellent point! Even with the spelling differences, most of us native English speakers understand each other..we tend to exaggerate them to exaggerate our U.S./U.K. differences. The rest of the world seems to be understand them..even as a second or third language..lol

[@hariszaheer1212]

If a teacher is watching this, please don't punish or shame your students for spelling mistakes after watching this Video. I really mean it.

[@SaraVV]

This was fun :-) Thank you!

[@elainejel790]

Thank you so much! Pretty engrossing piece

[@thehopeofeden597]

Because English isn't a language. It's five languages in a trenchcoat pretending to be one. Edit: Guys...it's a joke.

[@anguswu2685]

Awsamazing Eden 5? It’s much more because of contact with Asians (Hong Kongers, Indians) and much more!

[@EchoHeo]

r/badlinguistics

[@chris.dillon]

I was fooled again by muppet man!

[@connie1wilson]

Of course it’s a language, a heavily borrowed one. If it was five languages, why are the original languages not really that evident in English today, I have studied German & French and heard Latin, and they mean nothing to my ears? So, see no real correlation in my everyday English. We use their words (however re-spelt), and our grammar and sentence structures are different. Also, many of those languages we borrowed heavily from, use masc. & fem. for vowel classification, we don’t at all.

[@mgmtmlk7555]

You're right the Brits aren't the original English language

[@atakanbalaban3543]

You are doing such a great job, Paul. My congratulations and supports! This video ought to be seen by anyone who learns or speaks English.

[@modipy5703]

this is one of the dopest videos i’ve watched in a minute. also as i was typing i realized the plurals of “videos” and “heroes” is a weird one

[@kathryncarter6143]

Excellent topic. I often wonder about this.

[@JamesRoyceDawson]

I love how the spelling of "standardized" isn't standardised

[@Langfocus]

Good point! lol

[@Lichfeldian--Suttonian]

It adds “colour” or “color” to the English language!

[@raytrevor1]

@@Lichfeldian--Suttonian It could even be 'kula'. But the problem with spelling words as they are pronounced is that different people pronounce words differently.

[@aquasicrystal226]

The z in standardized, realize, civilize, etc. is just in American. The Brits and Canadians use the s.

[@imienazwisko8742]

I think it's better that being shouted at for using a wrong letter.

[@zytsang]

As a Chinese person being agonized by spelling and pronunciation for over 10 years, I shall curse those publishers in 15th century. 7:05

[@TalmoTheSell]

@@coryjorgensen622 I didnt even find out that wierd was actually spelled weird until 7th grade lol

[@MsZsc]

Ironically chinese is more similar to english than you might think. Only my dad really has trouble comprehending sentences longer than basic interaction. Mom just doesn’t get social nuances though that’s probably not much to do with english and more with her nature. I’ve been comparing chinese “rules” to english “rules” in my head since i moved to canada at 5, so maybe I’m just lucky.

[@N00bcrunch3r]

>Chinese speaker >Calls English writing system hard

[@flutterwind7686]

@@N00bcrunch3r Thing is, Chinese characters are a lot more straightforward than you might be thinking. 木: Tree 森: Forest 下: Below 上: Above And there are other characters made up of these smaller characters (or parts of them), that combine meaning Its a bit to learn at first, but once you get the hang of it, its ez.

[@kobayashibadger6438]

@@N00bcrunch3r I really like Spanish spellings The grammar needs more time but seems saving time as a whole

[@samuvogado8284]

El video que siempre quise ver! Muchas gracias!