but what REALLY gets me is Q. there is literally no reason to have it because we can just spell it like kw or k - kween, irak, et cetera
Q comes from the greek Ϙ (koppa). most of the time it was just a number but in some dialects it represented a sorta "kw" sound. then the latins came and found it and since they're redundant dingī they also added a U after it, resulting in "qu". most of the time Q is found alongside a u. when it isn't its because q is used in arabic and similar languages to represent
that chokey K soundAlso remove ph. Why have ph if you have the F?
the digraph "ph" is derived from the greek letter Φ (phi). in ancient greek Φ made the sound of P but with a little puff of breath after it, like an H, so logically, "PH". over time this PH turned to F, but spelling was kept the same. "ph" will be found only in greek-derived words.
WHY USE THE Y IF YOU HAVE THE I??
Y is derived from the greek letter upsilon (Y) which represented
a strange sound which is basically "ee" but with your lips rounded, so they used it for the same vowel in old english. it was previously used in latin when they rediscovered greece and wanted to keep the spelling of the names preserved, but they didnt have this sound in latin so they just pronounced it as "oo" or "ee" instead.
so anyway in middle english the weird rounded ee sound eventually lost its roundness and became just "ee".
back in old english however, they had this letter Ȝ (yogh) which represented a weird GH sound. over time this gh sound became kinda like the "ee" sound, the modern consonantal Y.
so now back to middle english. you have a letter Y which represents the sounds "EE" and the similar, modern consonatnal Y sound. but oh whats this its
THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT!! and every instance of the "ee" vowel (but not the similar consonantal Y) turned into the modern "i" sound, whilst the other consonantal Y kept its sound.
WHY USE OO IF YOU HAVE U?!
thanks to
THE GREAT VOWEL SHIFT the diphthong "oo" turned from a long "oh" sound into the modern "oo" sound.
English is a very gay language.
english orthography* is very gay. if you think that's gay, check out
this video on the thai writing system
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