• Ottomateeverything@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I still don’t understand the English insistence on borrowing words from other languages, yet refusal to standardize spelling into ways that actually make sense within the language.

      So I still blame English for being silly with their transliteration.

      • eclectic_electron@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Blame the great vowel shift.

        But also, English spelling can’t standardize because English pronunciation isn’t standard. West Coast vs Midwest vs South vs East Coast have vastly different accents. Any spelling reform that makes English phonetic for one would be wrong for the others.

        And it keeps changing! People keep moving and interacting with other languages, adding and dropping words and accents over time.