Re:Reasons some languages are harder to learn
by jwhitlark on Sunday May 16, 2021 @10:47PM
(#27179610)
IIRC English was phonetic/spelled consistently before the great vowel shift. The spelling solidified but pronunciation continued to change.
The great vowel shift happened after the Norman conquest, and there is no way that an infusion of French would create a language in which there is phonetic spelling.
Re:Reasons some languages are harder to learn
by dodobirdlord on Monday May 17, 2021 @03:53AM
(#27181002)
Middle English (and Early Modern English) was spelled as it was spoken, to such an extent that there wasn’t consistent spelling, and people would just write whatever sequence of letters would get pronounced as the desired sound.
No, there is no such thing as "spelled as it was spoken" when everyone has inconsistent agreements on how to spell sounds and when a new language comes in with its own Latin spelling conventions that differ from the previous language.
Conjugating verbs, inflection, capitalization, and plural forms of nouns are alien to at least Chinese and probably many other Sino-Tibetan languages.
The lack of phoenetic/spelling consistency is alien to many European languages, especially Spanish, which is remarkably consistent.