why don't pronounce whatever written ??

Status
Not open for further replies.

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
why don't we pronounce whatever is written ??

Hi everybody

I don't know if title is clear or not ?
I'll explain what I mean.

E.g:honest
Why we pronounce "onest" without letter "H"?
There are many word such as:
light >> layt
hour >> aour
laugh >> laf

I don't now if I asked you stupid question ?!
But really I want to know the answer

If I have mistakes can you correct them, please?
 
Last edited:

Raymott

VIP Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2008
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Australia
Hi everybody

I don't know if title is clear or not ?
I'll explain what I mean.

E.g:honest
Why we pronounce "onest" without letter "H"?
There are many word such as:
ligh >> layt
hour >> aour
laugh >> laf

I don't now if I asked you stupid question ?!
But really I want to know the answer

If I have mistakes can you correct them, please?
The simple answer is that, if we pronounced words as they are written, no one would understand us. This occurs in any non-phonetic spelling system.

The longer answer would require some knowledge of the evolution of English spelling and pronunciation, which is a large topic.
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
I was surfing the internet this morning about this thread. I found some information about it which some words comes from france. I think because of the battle of hasting that happened among England and france.

"raymott" when I re-think it will be difficult if we pronounced each word.
I will try to know everything about it.
Thank you for reply.

"birdeen's call" it's a nice video and thank you for you attention.


cheer :-D
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
I opened it look is very useful for me. exactly what I want.
Thanks ^_^
 

konungursvia

VIP Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2009
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Also, most English spellings retain information about ancient pronunciations, whether in English itself or in the foreign origin of the word. Example: psychology, where the ps and the ch represent Greek letters, psi and chi respectively. They were retained in Roman letters because some people found it more closely reflected pronunciation, at least in some places.
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
Also, most English spellings retain information about ancient pronunciations, whether in English itself or in the foreign origin of the word. Example: psychology, where the ps and the ch represent Greek letters, psi and chi respectively. They were retained in Roman letters because some people found it more closely reflected pronunciation, at least in some places.


I will add this information in my account :up:
 

Tdol

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
The Battle of Hastings didn't just bring French; most of the Latin vocabulary also came with the Normans (the French). There are very few Latin words that survived from the times the Romans ruled Britain.
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
Thank you "Tdol" for this information

cheer
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Hi everybody

I don't know if title is clear or not ?
I'll explain what I mean.

E.g:honest
Why we pronounce "onest" without letter "H"?
There are many word such as:
ligh >> layt
hour >> aour
laugh >> laf

I don't know if I asked you stupid question ?!
But really I want to know the answer

If I have mistakes can you correct them, please?

It's not a stupid question, and you're not alone in wondering why English spelling is like it is. See Spelling Society : The Spelling Society. . But there are strong arguments against such a change, as others here have said.

b
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
Thanks teacher
I am happy because I'm not alone ask this question.
True I am a bit confused by reading this information at short time but I am happy that I got the answer to my question..
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Incidentally, I marked the one error in your first post, but the subject line should be either 'why don't we/you/people pronounce whatever is written' or 'why not pronounce whatever is written'. I think the first version is better, as the second one sounds to me like a suggestion for an experiment. ;-)

b
 

maaram

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
United Arab Emirates
Current Location
United Arab Emirates
when I putted the title I felt there is something wrong, but I didn't know how to fix it because of this I requested to correct my mistakes.

Now I will change it in order to people read correctly
I hope that I have no mistakes:-?

Thank you for all :-D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top