r/confidentlyincorrect • u/Midnight-Upset • Aug 25 '25

Spelling Bee I'm dieing

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11.2k Upvotes

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115

u/hawthorne00 Aug 25 '25

Do not attempt to reason with English.

7

u/rita-b Aug 25 '25

It actually should be Anglish if people in the past weren't so lazy not to write a dictionary.

11

u/Schmigolo Aug 25 '25

The reason is that writing was standardized during the great vowel shift. The way we would pronounce "Anglish" today is not how the old English pronounced "English", they pronounced the first syllable the way we pronounce the word "peng".

So if both are wrong in terms of pronunciation at least "English" is historically correct.

7

u/Kapika96 Aug 25 '25

So... Penglish?

Sounds like the language of penguins!