4 ms·

Intellectuals do this. For example in English they added the letter b to the word debt. Sometimes it goes the other way and difficult words are made easier, lik

by _glass 4y ago

Intellectuals do this. For example in English they added the letter b to the word debt. Sometimes it goes the other way and difficult words are made easier, like ornithology becomes birdlore, which didn't work out, but folk-lore stayed.

samatman 4y ago
Are we sure that's what happened? We still have the word 'debit', I've always presumed it was descended from the Latin directly and contracted to one syllable as part of the general English tendency to do that, the current pronunciation of Worchester being one memorable example.
- pessimizer 4y ago
  > the current pronunciation of Worchester being one memorable example. With place names I think it's going to be Norman spellings of pre-Norman words. "-shire" for example, was always pronounced -scr.
- kweingar 4y ago
  I was taught that “debt” descended from French “dette” and was spelled similarly until Latin pedants added the b back in. I found a couple links that seem to confirm this. Words “receipt” have similar origins. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-spelled-like-that https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-sp...
  - samatman 4y ago
    It turns out (from a grep of /dict/words and some time with the etymology) that this was done with three different words: subtle, doubt, and debt. I happen to agree with the scholars which chose these spellings, which turn up at first in the 14th century btw, not such an eggheaded time. I might support a hard reform to make English orthography phonemic, but that's radical change. The immense complexity of English spelling reveals the creole substrates of the language, and we have hundreds if not thousands of cases such as debt and debit where understanding the common Latin root is part and parcel. I don't see the advantage in `dette`, basically. As long as the orthography is highly irregular, we may as well gette something outte of itte.

by _glass 4y ago

samatman 4y ago

Are we sure that's what happened? We still have the word 'debit', I've always presumed it was descended from the Latin directly and contracted to one syllable as part of the general English tendency to do that, the current pronunciation of Worchester being one memorable example.

pessimizer 4y ago
> the current pronunciation of Worchester being one memorable example. With place names I think it's going to be Norman spellings of pre-Norman words. "-shire" for example, was always pronounced -scr.
kweingar 4y ago
I was taught that “debt” descended from French “dette” and was spelled similarly until Latin pedants added the b back in. I found a couple links that seem to confirm this. Words “receipt” have similar origins. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-spelled-like-that https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/why-is-debt-sp...
- samatman 4y ago
  It turns out (from a grep of /dict/words and some time with the etymology) that this was done with three different words: subtle, doubt, and debt. I happen to agree with the scholars which chose these spellings, which turn up at first in the 14th century btw, not such an eggheaded time. I might support a hard reform to make English orthography phonemic, but that's radical change. The immense complexity of English spelling reveals the creole substrates of the language, and we have hundreds if not thousands of cases such as debt and debit where understanding the common Latin root is part and parcel. I don't see the advantage in `dette`, basically. As long as the orthography is highly irregular, we may as well gette something outte of itte.