Many students ask, “Why is this spelling so crazy?” Or, “Why are these two words pronounced differently when they look the same?”
That’s a great question. Words like “please” and “pleasant” are pronounced differently in the first syllable when they look the same and are from the same root word. “Crime” and “criminal” are another example: one vowel sound is long, the other is short. It is frustrating for English learners, but there is actually a reason why this happened…
Over time, languages slowly and constantly change. Long ago, the vowels in each word pair were pronounced the same. Then two things happened. The first was the Early Middle English Vowel Shortening which changed the vowels in the longer words into a short vowel sound. Then came The Great Vowel Shift, which occurred between 1400 and 1600 BC. This Shift changed the long vowel sounds in the first word in each pair. As a result, “please” was no longer pronounced like “pleas” in “pleasant” was pronounced.
People did not wake up one day to change the pronunciation on purpose. It was the natural evolution of the language over time. Unfortunately, because many words are no longer pronounced the way they are spelled, it can bring surprises for people who are learning English.
Whenever you see a word spelled a funny way and it does not make sense with the way it is pronounced, often times you can blame the Great Vowel Shift. Other examples of word pairs that it affects are:
serene - serenity
sane - sanity
sign – signal
divine – divinity
profound – profundity
serene – serenity
fool – folly
sane – sanity (I hope this explanation brings you more sanity in relation to the English language!)
I hope this helps! Have a great day!
