Why English spelling is so weird?

Between 1350-1700 the pronunciation of many English vowels gradually changed in a process known as the Great Vowel Shift. However, the spelling of many words became standardised in the 1400s-1500s with the arrival of more widespread printing. So English spelling is quite literally ‘stuck’ in the Middle Ages!

Why is the W not pronounced in sword?

The W in “sword” is silent because of the following round vowel; the lips get round for W as well as the following round vowel so we round only once.

When words are not pronounced exactly the way they are written is known as?

Phonetic spelling is a system of spelling in which each letter represents one spoken sound. In English, some words are pronounced exactly as they look.

Why are monkey and donkey pronounced differently?

1 Answer. The Oxford English Dictionary has this to say about donkey: A recent word, apparently of dialect or slang origin. As the original pronunciation apparently rimed with monkey (whence the spelling), suggestions have been made that the word is a derivative of dun adj.

How is the pronunciation of Old Norse determined?

Reconstructing the pronunciation of Old Norse is by nature approximate. In most instances, we estimate the pronunciation from spellings in manuscripts, rhymes in poetry, and spellings on runic inscriptions. There was no standard spelling.

How many words are in the Old Norse language?

The Old Norse vocabulary below compiles the 246 most common Old Norse words that appear in the family sagas. A more extensive dictionary can be found here. Additional grammars, and vocabularies can be found as part of the Viking Language Series.

Is nasality phonemic in Old Norse?

Nasality was phonemic for long nasal vowels, but not short ones. So at a very early stage there were 9 vowel qualities, and these could be short , long, or nasal. I have never met a single person who I have known to incorporate this into their pronunciation of Old Norse.

How do you teach Old Norse-Icelandic?

A trend in the teaching of Old Norse-Icelandic is to read the texts with Modern Icelandic pronunciation while retaining the standard Old Norse spelling. This is a workable method, since the pronunciation between Old Icelandic and Modern Icelandic is not that different.