Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish · 3 months agoWhat is the (subjectively) weirdest word in the English language?message-squaremessage-square224fedilinkarrow-up1153arrow-down12
arrow-up1151arrow-down1message-squareWhat is the (subjectively) weirdest word in the English language?Interstellar_1@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.worldEnglish · 3 months agomessage-square224fedilink
minus-squarechiliedogg@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up5arrow-down1·3 months agoIt would be half-true if we hadn’t gotten rid of a letter (the thorn, which made the"th" sound) For a long time, they used the letter “Y” instead of “th”. That’s how we have weird relationships with old English words like “You/Thou,” and “The/Ye.”
minus-squareCoggyMcFee@lemmy.worldlinkfedilinkarrow-up5·edit-23 months ago“You” and “thou” come from different roots. They are not simply different orthographies like “ye” and “the”. https://www.etymonline.com/word/thou https://www.etymonline.com/word/you
It would be half-true if we hadn’t gotten rid of a letter (the thorn, which made the"th" sound)
For a long time, they used the letter “Y” instead of “th”.
That’s how we have weird relationships with old English words like “You/Thou,” and “The/Ye.”
“You” and “thou” come from different roots. They are not simply different orthographies like “ye” and “the”.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/thou
https://www.etymonline.com/word/you