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  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

The spelling may be odd and the pronunciation difficult, but we seem to be able to give out more information with fewer words than any other language.

This is very apparent when we see films with sub titles. The leading lady speaks for several minutes and the sub title is "No" I jest, but it is obvious when you look at instruction books in multiple languages.

Posted

The English language is made from multiple foreign languages that enslaved the pics or whatever they were callef before they were Given that name,  even Derby, pronounced Darby, ( not Derby as in W A ) is viking for deer, as the place had lots of them.

Who knows what the world would think IF the English spoke Welsh !.

spacesailor

Posted
On 22/03/2021 at 1:53 PM, Yenn said:

... we seem to be able to give out more information with fewer words than any other language...

When Kodak film came with instructions in multiple languages, the English section was the shortest.

Posted

Consider these with rhyming sounds:

 

Fort, sort

bought, fought, sought, thought

court 

caught, taught

taut (as in 'a taut rope')

 

Who said English wasn't confusing.

 

 

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)

As pointed out by others above, there are enough confuzing craysee spelled words out there without me trying to make up new ones.

Edited by nomadpete
Posted

bow 

with a short -o-, "forward part of a ship," beginning where the sides trend inward, mid-14c., from a source such as Old Norse bogr, Middle Low German boog, Middle Dutch boech "bow of a ship," from Proto-Germanic *bugon-, from PIE root *bheug- "to bend," with derivatives referring to bent, pliable, or curved objects.

 

bough 

Old English bog "shoulder, arm," extended in Old English to "twig, branch of a tree" , from Proto-Germanic *bogaz (source also of Old Norse bogr "shoulder," Old High German buog "upper part of the arm or leg," German Bug "shoulder, hock, joint"), from PIE root *bhagu- "arm" (source also of Sanskrit bahus "arm," Armenian bazuk, Greek pakhys "forearm"). The "limb of a tree" sense is peculiar to English.

Posted

In the context of your first question, the pronunciation rhymes with "now".

 

However, in other uses for "bow", the pronunciation rhymes with "no", as in "bow and arrow", "bow of ribbon".

  • Like 1
Posted

The different sound we give to those three letters, b, o and w all depends on the length of the sound we give "o". 

 

The short "o" sound as in "how now brown cow" is used in nouns (now & cow), adjectives (brown) and adverbs (how)

 

The long "o" sound is used in verbs as in "to bow", meaning to bend.

 

This will help determine the sound of the letters that make "sow". Short "o"- female pig; long "o" - to scatter seed

 

Then, of course you have the exception - "sop" - to absorb liquid. As a noun or a verb it always has a short "o" as in "cop".

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