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IIRC English was phonetic/spelled consistently before the great vowel shift. The spelling solidified but pronunciation continued to change.
by jwhitlark 5y ago
IIRC English was phonetic/spelled consistently before the great vowel shift. The spelling solidified but pronunciation continued to change.
- rsj_hn 5y agoThe great vowel shift happened after the Norman conquest, and there is no way that an infusion of French would create a language in which there is phonetic spelling.
- dodobirdlord 5y agoMiddle English (and Early Modern English) was spelled as it was spoken, to such an extent that there wasn’t consistent spelling, and people would just write whatever sequence of letters would get pronounced as the desired sound.
- rsj_hn 5y agoNo, there is no such thing as "spelled as it was spoken" when everyone has inconsistent agreements on how to spell sounds and when a new language comes in with its own Latin spelling conventions that differ from the previous language.