Why is English spelling so messed up?

Too much to cover in two minutes. That's why they take four for the topic:

[video=youtube;zhqr-GNNgGo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhqr-GNNgGo[/video]

Cos we had to throw in extra vowels that out rebel colonists could drop and ignore later.

eye sea watt ewe did their....

Salvage-1 said:

Cos we had to throw in extra vowels that out rebel colonists could drop and ignore later.

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At least we have vowels.

Too many words borrowed from the French.

"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

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

FC

FastCargo said:

"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

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

FC

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So true. However, other languages do the same and to us it just sounds out of place. Like watching Anime in the native Japanese (with subtitles) and suddenly the character yells "machine gun" it just seems so out of place.

FastCargo said:

"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

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Nicoll

FC

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ghoti

I love the Spanish incorporations of English words. Sometimes they respell them (besbol, futbol), and sometimes they don't even bother (el hockey).

Saw a Spanish language publication of a Flash comic book. His name in Spanish? Flushman. Not kidding. :lol:

And then there's Batman. I guess they figured "el mucielago hombre" was a bit too much, so they call him Batiman.

Back to the OP, here are three great poems that illustrate our problems with English.

English is predictable. So is Spanish, Latin, French, German, Greek, Hebrew and others that we've raided and adopted as our own. The difficulty lies in knowing which one you are spelling.

Peartree said:

The difficulty lies in knowing which one you are spelling.

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Nah. The difficulty lies in the fact that more and more people could not care any less than they already do to take the time to spell correctly within the syntax and context of the thought they wish to communicate given the resources available to them online to quickly check their work before posting. They were too lazy in school and are still too lazy as adults to correct themselves.

English. Because &@$!?%#€?!?** you and your brain.

English spelling is fine. It's the pronounciation that gives gives me problems.

wh4+ 480u+ |33+ $p34k?

WTF? IIRC, U ROFLYAO & I SMP!

N!ce.... u r gttng gd @ this stff....

Modern American English is the first language to be influenced by the constant assimilation of input from many other cultures and languages simultaneously.

Previously, languages were changed more or less in sequence in order of when they began regular contact with other dialects.

Ever since the mid 1800s American English has been constantly influenced by contact with literally hundreds of other languages around the world.

Formal, British English does not always have the most consistent or logical rules of spelling, usage or grammar, and other languages have even more inconsistent standards.

So American English now is a crazy hash of hundreds of languages, starting on the rough framework of British English and hammering on new and different stuff every day, and in turn of course American English is now having its own 'corrupting' influences on other languages as well.

"Okay" has now become universal.

The way American culture is heading it's only a matter of time until we're reduced to a system of clicks, grunts and snorts to communicate. In fact, we may well be there already.

Hey, pull my finger!

tmacklin said:

The way American culture is heading it's only a matter of time until we're reduced to a system of clicks, grunts and snorts to communicate.

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Oh, oh, ugh, ugh! Ah ugh oh agh ugh uh?
[Screams]
Agh ugh ohg!

Translation:
John, John, look, look! Do you see the lion there?
[Screams]
I guess not!

I am not going to write out the conversation about celestial mechanics that two cave people had in 27,000 BC.

o1d_dude said:

"Okay" has now become universal.

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That's one of my absolute pet peeves: some movie which is supposedly an accurately-researched period piece from colonial or medieval times, when some character pipes up and says, "Okay."

:y::y::bang::bang::gavel::bangpan:

There is considerable debate as to how and when the term came into public usage in the U.S. but wide agreement that it did not happen until the second half of the 19th Century. And it really did not gain a lot of traction worldwide until WWII with the strong introduction of U.S. culture into British daily life -- at that point it really became more and more common and REALLY gained steam with the coming of regular worldwide communications/interactions in the 1960s.

You can even see it by watching interview tapes of the Beatles at different points in their careers. In the early clips in 1963-65 or so they use mostly British axioms, 'quite right,' 'righto,' etc etc., when Americans would normally say 'OK.' By the late period of their career, 1968-70 or so, when they all had been to America many times and interacting with many Americans -- and not coincidentally watching quite a bit of U.S. teevee -- they said "OK" about as often as Americans would.

JStarStar said:

That's one of my absolute pet peeves: some movie which is supposedly an accurately-researched period piece from colonial or medieval times, when some character pipes up and says, "Okay."

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Since the rest of the movie is translated from old English English into modern American English as well, this is not really a problem.

Mark Twain's plan to reform English spelling (or perhaps someone else's):
https://www.i18nguy.com/twain.html

The European version:
https://www.i18nguy.com/humor/eurospell.html