Why is hearth pronounced like are th instead of like earth?

[Eric]

Is it because of the leading h?

[wufwugy]

because english hates sense

hear
heart
earth
hearse
art

[dhubermex]

We learned these as "snurks" in grade school. The spelling book didn't give any explanation, just a G-rated F-U by categorizing words like this separately.

[surviva316]

Why isn't "ghyti"pronounced "fish," like touGH + gYpsum + acTIon?

[MadMojoMonkey]

The first guy to spell subtle with a 'b' is responsible for all of this.

[wufwugy]

^^too tbrue

[MadMojoMonkey]

Why isn't "ghyti"pronounced "fish," like touGH + gYpsum + acTIon?

So you're saying you like touGH gYpsy acTIon in your mouth?

[Luco]

That episode was great, and made even funnier by the fact that kanye got genuinely butthurt over it:

SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT’S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT AT THIS POINT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER. I USE TO USE IT TO BUILD UP MY ESTEEM WHEN NOBODY BELIEVED IN ME. NOW THAT PEOPLE DO BELIEVE AND SUPPORT MY MUSIC AND PRODUCTS THE BEST RESPONSE IS THANK YOU INSTEAD OF “I TOLD YOU SO!!!” IT’S COOL TO TALK SHIT WHEN YOU’RE RAPPING BUT NOT IN REAL LIFE. WHEN YOU MEET LITTLE WAYNE IN PERSON HE’S THE NICEST GUY FOR EXAMPLE. I JUST WANNA BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM. I NEED TO JUST GET PAST MYSELF. DROP THE BRAVADO AND JUST MAKE DOPE PRODUCT. EVERYTHING IS NOT THAT SERIOUS. AS LONG AS PEOPLE THINK I ACT LIKE A BITCH THIS TYPE OF SHIT WILL HAPPEN TO ME. I GOT A LONG ROAD AHEAD OF ME TO MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE I’M NOT ACTUALLY A HUGE DOUCHE BUT I’M UP FOR THE CHALLENGE. I’M SURE THE WRITERS AT SOUTH PARK ARE REALLY NICE PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE. THANKS FOR TAKING THE TIME TO DRAW MY CREW. THAT WAS PRETTY FUNNY ALSO!! I’M SURE THERE’S GRAMMATICAL ERRORS IN THIS… THAT’S HOW YOU KNOW IT’S ME!

[a500lbgorilla]

It's because languages are stupid and undoubtedly this word used to be that word that was pronounced like this while this other word used to be that other word that used to be pronounced like that.

[daven]

Why is hearth pronounced like are th instead of like earth?

cos hearth like earth sounds like her's with a lisp and the patriarchy hates that shit

[Eric]

because english hates sense

hear
heart
earth
hearse
art

lol, it really is crazy.

[OngBonga]

The first guy to spell subtle with a 'b' is responsible for all of this.

That guy was a genius.

[dhubermex]

The first guy to spell subtle with a 'b' is responsible for all of this.

Yep!

[eugmac]

actually i think english is one of the worst languages in this regard. make fun of how hard german is all you want, but at least it's really consistent when it comes to spelling. it of course has other qualities that makes it a total bastard in its own right though. kinda wanna pick up italian, it seems fairly straightforward and less of a pain than other romanic languages like french.

[eugmac]

it's just the language that forms when an initial anglo-saxon settlement gets pwned by romans thus introducing latin, then vikings who spoke a scandinavian tongue that resembled old english creating some sort of mingling and bastardising, and then normans came along speaking some sort of bastardised french, owing to the fact that the normans were vikings anyway, so that resulted in a second vector from which more latin crept into english. at least the way i understand the history of the language, which isn't very deep admittedly.

[eugmac]

oh and then it gets adopted by a brand new nation across the atlantic inhabited by immigrants from all over europe trying to speak a common language. is it a stretch to say american english is a result of some sort of melting together of pidgin tongues?

[wufwugy]

variety of dialects. mexican spanish is quite a bit different than spanish spanish

in spanish spanish ll sounds like j, in mexican spanish it sounds like y

in spanish spanish v sounds like b, in mexican spanish it sounds like v

ive even seen examples of j no longer sounding like h but instead like y

ofc it probably depends a lot where in the americas you come from

[eugmac]

i hate how thpanish thpanish lithp all the time omg thtawwwp

[bjsaust]

because english hates sense

I was going to say "because it's english" but well and truly beaten to it.

I've got a 6 year old just finishing his first year of Prep. He's a great reader and good at writing, but when you daily help someone learn how to spell, you really realize just how messed up English spelling is. For every rule there's exceptions.

[MadMojoMonkey]

Even the exceptions have exceptions.

I before E, except after C, unless it's an A, as in neighbor and weigh.

-

and don't forget that weird is weird.

[Luco]

just ask kieth

[KoRnholio]

because english

FYP

Also

Through
Tough
Though
Plough

[surviva316]

The first guy to spell subtle with a 'b' is responsible for all of this.

Or was the first guy to pronounce "sub-till" like "suttle" really at the bottom of all this?

[MadMojoMonkey]

Or was the first guy to pronounce "sub-till" like "suttle" really at the bottom of all this?

[eugmac]

stuff like this interests me quite a bit. learning german, i discovered some interesting things about common roots between english and german. the verb to bring is bringen in german. the past perfect form in english is "have brought", or "habe gebracht" in german. the ge- prefix is standard for most verbs in the past perfect tense. the latter part, "-bracht"... see, it's the same! Except that the "ch" sound is pronounced in german, whereas the "gh" has become entirely silent in english. i would assume this means at some point of old english, those consonants would have been pronounced in one way or another.

[MadMojoMonkey]

When I studied the play "Much Ado about Nothing" in High School, my teacher told us that the word 'nothing' was pronounced 'no-ting', making it a homonym for noting (noticing). It's a cool pun in the title of the play, if she's right. Almost all the drama in that play is caused by someone seeing one thing and interpreting it as another - sometimes by design.

Plus it has possibly the best line in all of Shakespeare:
Dogberry: Oh, if only the sexton were here to write down that I’m an ass! Gentlemen, remember that I am an ass; even though it’s not written down, don’t forget that I’m an ass.

[eberetta1]

Why is hearth pronounced ...

to remind you it is hers if you ever decide to divorce her.

[surviva316]

stuff like this interests me quite a bit. learning german, i discovered some interesting things about common roots between english and german. the verb to bring is bringen in german. the past perfect form in english is "have brought", or "habe gebracht" in german. the ge- prefix is standard for most verbs in the past perfect tense. the latter part, "-bracht"... see, it's the same! Except that the "ch" sound is pronounced in german, whereas the "gh" has become entirely silent in english. i would assume this means at some point of old english, those consonants would have been pronounced in one way or another.

FWIW, the spelling as of Chaucer (Middle English) was "broghte." As in: "And broghte hir hoom with hym in his contree." No idea when or why the "u" came in. The "e" is likely some weird antiquated tense thing because it shows up elsewhere as "ybroght" (which is definitely a tense thing that I've since forgotten).

Doesn't help with the evolution of pronunciation, obviously, but that's not near as easy to find. Based on how universally the softer, hock-a-loogie-sounding c's fell out of the English language from its Germanic patrons, I'd imagine it was bound to go that way regardless of the particular history. Maybe it was a dialect thing on the Brittish isles; maybe it was an influence of the Norman overlords, whose Romantic tongues tend to be more flowy.

Clearly I'm no expert, but I also find all that stuff very interesting. The language has had such a loooooong arc of overwhelming changes, even since 1066, and yet you still every-so-often come across things in English that are straight from sanskrit.

[Luco]

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour

[spoonitnow]

WHAN that Aprille with his shoures soote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour

The Canterbury Tales are played out.

[Jack Sawyer]

Herb.

Herbert.

Sigh.

[eugmac]

rest of the world pronounces the h in herb

[a500lbgorilla]

rest of the world pronounces the h in herb

Mongrels.

[givememyleg]

KITE
KITTEN
KEEP
KEBAB
KRUNKJUICE
KNIFE

[a500lbgorilla]

Legs, av source?

[givememyleg]

The album War Stories by Unkle. Sick, sick, sick... it's on Spotify.