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.

Question

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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Answer 1

I think this has more to do with English adopting words from other languages. English is based on versions of the Russian/Germanic, but obviously influenced by Latin as well, meaning theres French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian in there. And that’s just old English.

Modern English uses words from almost every language. There’s Japanese words in regular use in most English countries. There’s no English word for “Haiku” for example, but im sure most people who speak English are familiar with the word.