Samantha Fummerton
Linguistics 210
T Th 10:00
Journal #12
Choose one or two questions and answer using information from today’s class or the text.
Why do some nouns have irregular plural forms?
Why do we say “He saw him” not “He saw he”?
What happened to English spelling?
Where did standard English come from and when?
Why do English words have so many different origins?
What happened to English spelling?
English spelling has been changing since the beginning of written language. With change
in time and our society, our pronunciations of words have been changing. If we change the way a
word sounds, its normal to want to change the way the word is spelled. Also, when we borrow
words from other languages, we can pronounce it differently then they do, so we morph those
words and drop or add letters to make it a word that’s easier to pronounce. Our book states, “If
we were to turn on the radio and miraculously receive a broadcast in our ‘native language’ from
the year 3000, we would probably think we had tuned into a foreign language station.” This
change is language and the way we pronounce words is what leads to the change in English
spelling.
Why do English words have so many different origins?
The English language has so many different origins for many reasons. There were
countless different wars and battles that led to the conquering of different countries that formed
old versions of the English language that we have today. When countries take over each other,
different forms of both languages are usually formed. Religion also played a big factor in the
formation of our language. When settlers came to America, they all brought their different
languages and dialects, and they all got thrown together to form what we have today which is the
English language. There are so many different cultures and languages in America that we have
words from all over the world making up our language.