have you ever wondered why... (1 Viewer)

[ChiaraStar169]

pretty is pronounced with a short I instead of a short E? Well, the answer is simple:

Spoiler: answer

Nobody knows! The OED says “The form history and pronunciation history are complex, and present a number of difficulties which have not been adequately explained.” So nobody really knows exactly why pretty has the ᴋɪᴛ vowel /ɪ/ today. It normally would not do so if it had evolved the way other words like it did.

 

[Moguri]

I actually did wonder about that

 

[ChiaraStar169]

I actually did wonder about that

hahaha I was listening to Pretty by Iz*One and had to Google it!

 

[dark_tranquility]

pp rit tee?

 

[ChiaraStar169]

pp rit tee?

yep, rhymes with kitty!

 

[dark_tranquility]

yep, rhymes with kitty!

success has been noticed

 

[Moguri]

yep, rhymes with kitty!

 

[Ahsoka]

To be fair with English being a mish mash of languages, you get a lot of stuff that doesn't make much sense. Like the many grammar rules that are inconsistent, for example.

 

[dark_tranquility]

To be fair with English being a mish mash of languages, you get a lot of stuff that doesn't make much sense. Like the many grammar rules that are inconsistent, for example.

like up yonder
sheilas
gutless wonder
???

 

[Ahsoka]

like up yonder
sheilas
gutless wonder
???

I was more thinking about stuff like the sheer number of exceptions to "i before e except after c" but theres a lot of examples of weird grammar or pronunciation or stuff

 

[dark_tranquility]

I was more thinking about stuff like the sheer number of exceptions to "i before e except after c" but theres a lot of examples of weird grammar or pronunciation or stuff

Oh I learned that in high school

 

[ChiaraStar169]

like up yonder
sheilas
gutless wonder
???

my chem teacher would say "over yonder" and it would drive me bonkers - "over yonder", to me, is more like a long distance, and she used it to mean anything that's "over there".

 

[dark_tranquility]

my chem teacher would say "over yonder" and it would drive me bonkers - "over yonder", to me, is more like a long distance, and she used it to mean anything that's "over there".

interesting and also confusing

 

[Deleted member 4423]

I always thought it was pronounced "Preh-tee"

 

[Flaneur]

ENGLISH IS A CONFUSING LANGUAGE

 

[Selfmate]

aka the English language has so many exceptions to rules that it's a stupid stupid language

 

[Harmony_Starz]

I always thought it was pronounced "Preh-tee"

Same

 

[velvet]

OH I CAN ACTUALLY GO INTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so between 1400-1700 between middle english involved into modern english as we know it right? With this evolution came the 'great vowel shift.' Nobody knows why this happened but bascially the writing of English relatively stayed the same but we just changed how we talked. People always complain about our spelling making no sense when it's really our pronouciation that is 'wrong.'

In terms of etymology and phonetics: pretty comes from the middle english word pratie; assuming the first syllable is an 'a,' I guess we just found convenient to move the vowel to the top of our mouth (a -> ɪ ). I won't paste anything here but phonetics is really intersting to dive into, and the IPA (intenrational phonetics alphabet) is amazing to learn espeically the vowel chart where it maps out which vowels sit in which areas of our mouths

 

[Harmony_Starz]

OH I CAN ACTUALLY GO INTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so between 1400-1700 between middle english involved into modern english as we know it right? With this evolution came the 'great vowel shift.' Nobody knows why this happened but bascially the writing of English relatively stayed the same but we just changed how we talked. People always complain about our spelling making no sense when it's really our pronouciation that is 'wrong.'

In terms of etymology and phonetics: pretty comes from the middle english word pratie; assuming the first syllable is an 'a,' I guess we just found convenient to move the vowel to the top of our mouth (a -> ɪ ). I won't paste anything here but phonetics is really intersting to dive into, and the IPA (intenrational phonetics alphabet) is amazing to learn espeically the vowel chart where it maps out which vowels sit in which areas of our mouths

too much about language

 

[velvet]

too much about language

Tldr: Our pronunciation is what's unconventional, not the spelling