Why are there no words in the English language with 3 of the same vowels or consonants together (like “aaa” or “sss”)?
In: 5
It’s because of efficiency or, if you like, laziness. An awful lot of changes in language stem from finding ways to make words and phrases easier to say or write or otherwise use. It takes effort to communicate ‘sss’ in a way that differentiates it from ‘ss’ and so if we can avoid doing so, we will. If we had two words that were the same except that where one ends in ‘aa’ and the other ends in ‘aaa’, you’d have to wait all the way until the end of the word to know what that person was talking about. If the next word started with ‘a’ or ‘aa’ then imagine how much vocal work the speaker would have to do to keep those sounds and words distinct. If we want to make things distinct, it’s an awful lot easier vocally and aurally to simply pick another sound or use a different letter.
Why are there no words in the English language with 3 of the same vowels or consonants together (like “aaa” or “sss”)?
In: 5
It’s because of efficiency or, if you like, laziness. An awful lot of changes in language stem from finding ways to make words and phrases easier to say or write or otherwise use. It takes effort to communicate ‘sss’ in a way that differentiates it from ‘ss’ and so if we can avoid doing so, we will. If we had two words that were the same except that where one ends in ‘aa’ and the other ends in ‘aaa’, you’d have to wait all the way until the end of the word to know what that person was talking about. If the next word started with ‘a’ or ‘aa’ then imagine how much vocal work the speaker would have to do to keep those sounds and words distinct. If we want to make things distinct, it’s an awful lot easier vocally and aurally to simply pick another sound or use a different letter.
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