May 15, 2019
#4 Why Does English Have Weird Spelling?
*Show notes page - *https://levelupenglish.school/podcast4
*Become a Level Up Member* - https://levelupenglish.school
*Transcript* - https://levelupenglish.school/transcripts (Members Only)
*Expression of Today: Turophobia* - is the fear of what?
Muhammed asked on Facebook
*“Why are there some letters that we don’t pronounce?”
For example: Know, Listen, Often, Neighbour
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*29% of English is French (France was the main language after the 1066 invasion for 600 years)
Examples of French words: *Beef, Pork, Pastry, Salad, Portrait, Capitalism, Camoflague
*26% of English is from Germanic languages (including Old English, Old Norse and Dutch)
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* Old Norse words are often concrete nouns, things we can feel. They often have hard consonants, such as "dirt, gun, club"
* Words with silent Ks usually come from Old Norse and the K used to be pronounced. Over time, the pronunciation changed but the spelling remained the same.
* In Old English, the E used to be pronounced. "Bite"…