On the evolution of English as a written or spoken language.

Parasomnium writes:

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Does anyone know how to pronounce "ghoti" in English?

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Ah, yes...the canard of "fish."It's clever, but the problem is that the expectations of the "phonetics" fall victim to the rules of orthography.Yes, "gh" can be pronounced as /f/, but only when it's at the end of a syllable, not the beginning.Yes, "o" can be pronounced as /I/, but only when it is in certain unstressed syllables. The way this word is written, the first syllable is likely to be stressed.Yes, "ti" can be pronounced as /sh/, but only in certain constructions where the "i" is followed by a vowel.For all the weirdness of English spelling, there really are rules. There are always exceptions, but those are usually based upon the etymological derivation of the word. That's why spelling bee participants ask for the country of origin. It lets you know what orthography will likely be followed.

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

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Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can use mine.

dwise1 writes:

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And ironically, in language the words and constructs most used are also the ones subject to the most change.

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Actually, it's the other way around. The ones that can survive being different can only do so if they're used often.It's why "be" in English is such an irregular verb. None of its conjugated forms match the pattern. It should be:I be
You be
He/She/It bes
We be
You be
They beInstead, it's:I am
You are
He/She/It is
We are
You are
They areThe only reason that this has managed to stay that way for so long is because it is such a common word. That's the only way such irregularity can remain stable. If a word is not that common, it will lose its irregularity and eventually become regular. The past tense of "help" used to be "holp." It's now "helped."As was published in Lieberman, E. et al. Nature 449 713-716 (2007), examining the speed by which such verbs change, "The half-life of irregular verbs is proportional to the square root of their frequency." Looking at 177 irregular verbs from Old English, only 98 are still irregular.

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Rrhain

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Thank you for your submission to Science. Your paper was reviewed by a jury of seventh graders so that they could look for balance and to allow them to make up their own minds. We are sorry to say that they found your paper "bogus," specifically describing the section on the laboratory work "boring." We regret that we will be unable to publish your work at this time.

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Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can use mine.