Yes, English is unfortunately a completely fucked mish-mash of different languages all packed into one trench coat. I say this as a native English speaker. Fun language, but completely fucked.
There was a movement once upon a time to fix all the problems and go back to actual phonetics, but it really irritates most people to see things spelled phonetically (and I'm one of them I guess).
Random example - English never used to have "Q" at all. All the current "QU" words used to be "CW", but under the influence of the Norman French who conquered England back under William in 1066, it slowly got replaced, because CW was simply offensive to French/Latin speakers. There's a lot of similar reasons English is a mess today, but that's why Q is always followed by U - it replaced the old CW we used to use. I mean, to be honest, we hadn't been using the Latin Alphabet very long at that point anyways, but the runic Futhark was 100% not allowed under our new rulers.
Similar story behind why "vulgar" words became taboo. Vulgar just means common in Latin. You don't want people to think you're some filthy native English after all.
[ + ] KyleIsThisTall
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[ + ] xmasskull
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[ + ] Whatthefuck
[ - ] Whatthefuck 2 points 2 monthsApr 12, 2025 00:42:28 ago (+2/-0)
There was a movement once upon a time to fix all the problems and go back to actual phonetics, but it really irritates most people to see things spelled phonetically (and I'm one of them I guess).
Random example - English never used to have "Q" at all. All the current "QU" words used to be "CW", but under the influence of the Norman French who conquered England back under William in 1066, it slowly got replaced, because CW was simply offensive to French/Latin speakers. There's a lot of similar reasons English is a mess today, but that's why Q is always followed by U - it replaced the old CW we used to use. I mean, to be honest, we hadn't been using the Latin Alphabet very long at that point anyways, but the runic Futhark was 100% not allowed under our new rulers.
Similar story behind why "vulgar" words became taboo. Vulgar just means common in Latin. You don't want people to think you're some filthy native English after all.