this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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Clarification Edit: for people who speak English natively and are learning a second language

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[–] jordanlund 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I learned Latin and in the process learned that quite a lot if what makes English fucked up was a movement a couple of hundred years ago to make it more like Latin.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago

Well, and also one to make it less like Latin. And the same with French.

People have been beating this thing with a stick for many centuries. It's part of the charm. And now it's doing the same to every other language. That's maybe less charming.

[–] Glowstick 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)
[–] inefficient_electron 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Debt used to be spelled dette or simply det. We spell it with a useless silent “b” today because meddlers decided to bring it back to its Latin roots of debitum. This happened in French as well, even though neither language ever pronounced the “b” and had no business adding it. The same happened with words like doubtplumbersubtleindict, and island. French was sensible enough to reverse this through modern spelling reform, but I think English is stuck with it for the foreseeable future.

[–] Glowstick 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Who had the power to unilaterally decree that the spelling of multiple existing words must now be spelled differently?

EDIT

The links i found all just refer to "scholars in the middle ages" being the cause of this

https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/why-is-debt-spelled-like-that

[–] inefficient_electron 4 points 4 months ago

Yep. It’s a bit hard to fathom today, but in the Middle Ages few people had the ability to read and write, mostly either learned monks and clergy, or those wealthy enough to be taught by them. With such a small pool of people, it’s comparatively easy to influence the prevailing spelling through the actions of a few.