4 ms·

I was over 40 when I someone explained to me that "kaaa-nigt" was just a strange pronunciation of "knight".

• dylan604 3y ago
  You must have not had a dad that would constantly ask for you to pass the butter kanife. As a kid, I just assumed bad dad joke about silent letters, but then I saw Holy Grail, and realized he was making a movie reference.
• johncessna 3y ago
  Yeap, same, and even then it wasn't until I watched it with subtitles on.
• jhbadger 3y ago
  In Geneva, Switzerland there are various buildings named after John Knox, the early Scot Protestant who lived for a while in Geneva after being exiled. When Knox is mentioned in America his name is normally pronounced "Nox" like Fort Knox is. But in Switzerland the K isn't silent, as I learned when visiting. It's weird when you think about it why English decided that K's at the start of words should be silent.
• nickserv 3y ago
  More of an archaic pronunciation, although maybe emphasized for comedic effect. Orthography is typically more conservative than pronunciation, so when the language was written down, all letters were pronounced. Comparing cognates can be interesting. For example English 'night' with German 'nacht', the original English pronunciation was closer to the German one. Or 'knife' with French 'canif' (pronounced like it's spelled, for once).