Comments on: Knight versus Night

By: Christine A Miller

Christine A Miller — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:45:21 +0000

How about the fact that some names of Scandinavian origin DO pronounce the K in front of the N?

By: Oliver Slay

Oliver Slay — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 19:34:54 +0000

My teacher at Uni suggested that words ending in -ght were derived similarly from the german -cht (which makes sense for words like eight (acht) and night (nacht)) and the -ght would have also been pronounced.

The h-wen appears to have been derived from quhen, quhere, quhile, quho, quheel … which are vaguely similar to quand, que, quo… quhen is found in old Scottish books.. and you can search for it in Google Books.

My favourite diametrically opposite plosive word is Shawaqp – ‘carrot’ in a dying/dead language called Squamish. The final sound is a /k/ and a /p/ pronounced somehow at the same time.

Oliver

By: Webmaster-Translations

Webmaster-Translations — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:35:27 +0000

Bravo…!!!
What a perfectly scientific explanation.
Keep your thinking hat always on.

Webmaster-Translations:
freetranslationblog.blogspot.com

By: Alek Storm

Alek Storm — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 01:45:14 +0000

Why the “k” disappeared from the “kn” consonant cluster isn’t “just another mystery of language”; it’s very simple. The /k/ sounds is a velar plosive, while /n/ is an alveolar nasal. They are produced, roughly, in opposite sides of the mouth. One of them had to go.

By: Lotus root, cheesy grits, yoga, & juice! | Say Yes to Salad

Lotus root, cheesy grits, yoga, & juice! | Say Yes to Salad — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 21:34:19 +0000

[...] P.S. Did you know that Shakespeare gave the English language almost 2,000 new words?? [...]

By: Maggie

Maggie — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:37:05 +0000

Ah, thanks for the info

Tricky question… I know it was sometime in the Middle Ages. “Whereabout” is from 1300 so it was probably before then. “Whatsoever” is from 1250; “somewhat” is from 1200. (I just got those from etymonline.) The switch happened to align the spelling with other switches – ch, ph, sh, th. More here – http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-WHSOUND.html

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 04:19:14 +0000

The /hw/ hasn’t completely disappeared from English. In many Southern American dialects, the wh-question words, whale, and others retain the /h/ phoneme with historical accuracy. I don’t know at wHich point the “h” and “w” graphs switched places in the orthography, though. Do you know, per chance?

By: A Day in the Life… | Say Yes to Salad

A Day in the Life… | Say Yes to Salad — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 22:29:18 +0000

[...] I did manage to tear myself away from Dexter and the frozen fruit for a few minutes to write about why we have silent k’s (like knight, knee, etc…). Click for more. [...]

By: Dori

Dori — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 10:22:02 +0000

Fascinating! I love this! What about mnenomic?! m-nemonic??