The History of English Podcast Episode 185: Spelling Says a Lot (Part 2)
Sep 1, 2025
The discussion dives into the evolution of letters K through Z, revealing why K replaced C for the /k/ sound and how initial K became silent in words. There's an exploration of the loss of medial L in phrases like 'talk' and how it was regained. The merging of short O with A in American English shows fascinating vowel shifts. Listeners learn about R's regional pronunciation changes and the S sound developments, along with intriguing insights on the contributions of French to English spelling. Historical spellings also provide clues to ancient pronunciations.
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K Was Revived To Fix C's Confusion
- The letter K expanded in Middle English to avoid confusion from C's soft/hard values.
- Silent initial K's (knife, knee) reflect a lost pronunciation preserved in early spellings.
Silent L Emerged In Vowel-Consonant Clusters
- L often disappeared between a vowel and consonant, producing silent L in words like talk and calm.
- Educated speakers retained L longer, while common speech dropped it by the 1600s.
American O-A Merger Began Before Colonies
- Short O and short A merged in many American dialects because speakers unrounded O, producing an A-like vowel.
- Evidence from Elizabethan writings and Alexander Gill shows this unrounding reached 1600s London and later North America.