News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on English has been my pain for 15 years (2013). Parent comment

Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by boudin on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @03:42AM (#29646896)
I think it's more historical than anything. If someone has a better explanation I would like to hear it though. For example, words that comes from French have the letter "i" pronounced the french way, other pronounced like a "y"
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by Ratalala on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @03:47AM (#29646939)
And the local variations. In NZ the bulk of "e"s in words like pen, ten, etc. are often pronounced as "i"s, like in pin or tin. Took me a while to get used to it.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:English has been my pain for 15 years (2013) by dmurray on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @04:09AM (#29647081)
Some of them, but I don't think this is a rule. I would say more so for uncommon words that are recognizably French, and less so in US English. Historical accident is definitely the main cause.

Compare dauphin, cinema, dime.

[ Parent | on HN ]