Embed Notice

I'm reading a book about the history of spelling (Spell it Out) and it's more interesting than you'd think.

Did you know that arctic was originally pronounced "artic", but the pron changed after some wise guys added the 'c' to make it look more like its Latin source?

Also, that ghost gained its 'h' entirely because Flemish typesetters preferred the look of the Flemish word "gheest"?

And apparently honey was once spelled "huni", but that looked like a collection of incomprehensible short downward strokes in cursive script, so it was changed to something more visually distinctive.

Fascinating. To me anyway. :)

#Words #Language #EnglishLanguage