Eli5: why do languages have spelling and pronunciation in common? Counting is the easiest example. Most words that are in a foreign language can be almost guessed in English which is very weird to me.
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Most languages you’ll encounter are descended from Proto-Indo-European. Many sounds and structures have been passed through the ages as languages diverged.
A second major factor is that there has been a much more recent divergence in the most popular languages today. In Europe and the Americas the most common languages are derived from either Latin or Germanic only over the last millennia or so.
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