The History of the English Language

In some cases, a word kept the original e r spelling, but came to be pronounced with the newer r sound. Of course, this type of thing happened quite a bit in england, where the spelling became fixed with e, r while the pronunciation still varied. But that didn't tend to happen in north america. There the pronunciation tended to match the spelling. That's why clerk is spelled c l e r k and clark or clack means "clack" in standard british english. We have vermin and varmit, two different pronunciations of the same original word. Varsity began as a shortened form of university, and it shows the switch to