I’m picking “Colonel” needs to be respelled to match how it’s pronounced.

Try to pick a word no one else has picked. What word are you respelling?

  • @ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
    0•1 year ago

    English is pretty good (generally) at doing the same thing.

    Y’all are just bringing up words that English stole from other languages.

    You can use phonetics to figure out how to pronounce most words in English.

    • @ericbomb@lemmy.worldOP
      3•1 year ago

      We just really wish when we stole them we changed the spelling to match the pronunciation if we wanted the pronunciation to stay the same of where we stole it from.

    • Chrissie
      1•1 year ago

      The amount of words that are not “stolen” from other languages is neglible…

      Cat from German Katze, from Latin catta
      Car(t) from German Karren
      Kitchen grom German Küche
      Bike/Bicycle from French bicycle
      Leaf from German Laub
      Beef, mutton, pigeon from French boeuf, mouton, pigeon
      Cow, sheep, dove from German Kuh, Schaf, Taube
      Computer from Latin computare
      Sun and moon from German Sonne and Mond
      Lunatic from Latina luna
      Death from German Tod
      Snug from Norse snøggr
      Funny from Swedish fånig
      Breeze from Spanish brisa
      Ranch from Spanish rancha
      Brave from Italian bravo
      Arcade from Italian arcata
      Dildo from Italian diletto
      …

      • Mwalimu
        1•1 year ago

        The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

        –James D. Nicoll