Why is there an "S" in Island?

[RubenX]

I keep telling ppl about my island. Ppl keep thinking I come from "iceland". Why the word has an "s" in there if you are not supposed to use it? Now I feel like I was born in an Apple Inc. Lab cuz I have to say I was born in an I-Land. :\ meh

 

[Soup]

pronunciation - Why is the "s" in "island" not pronounced? - English Language and Usage

 

[imagesbyholly]

So now the question is, "why do the french not pronounce the 's' in isle?"

 

[Soup]

httphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter

Got your back too, Holly!


A weird French/English language fact: When French people speak English, they may add an H as the 1st letter of words that begin with vowels BUT eliminate the H at the beginning of words that have one:

English guy, "Harry is at the hospital."

French person speaking English, "Arry is hat de ospital."

When I spend de day speaking mostly French, dis tends to appen to me too & I ave to watch out for hit.

 

[Christian T]

Soup, a friend of mine found exactly this with his French exchange student. He found it infuriating always hearing, "Are you 'urt?" and "This is my hahnt (aunt)?"

It is my understanding that all of these "silent letters" are a product of two instances of laziness from our ancestors: 1-they can't be bothered to pronounce the letter and 2-they can't be bothered to take it out (not condemning them though, it's human nature)

Then, you have a next generation who learn from their parents not to pronounce these letters, and then several generations later we're left wondering why they're there. People are generally pretty short-sighted when it comes to language-they easily forget where everyday words and phrases have come from.

What really ground my gears though, in France, was the habit of our tour guides asking things like, "So why did the army invade? Do you have an ID?" because the French word "id?e" for "idea" is so similar. Something about it just bugged me, but I could handle it.

 

[RubenX]

httphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter

Got your back too, Holly!


A weird French/English language fact: When French people speak English, they may add an H as the 1st letter of words that begin with vowels BUT eliminate the H at the beginning of words that have one:

English guy, "Harry is at the hospital."

French person speaking English, "Arry is hat de ospital."

When I spend de day speaking mostly French, dis tends to appen to me too & I ave to watch out for hit.

LOL... that his funny.

 

[OutsideIn]

In fifth grade I got "aisle" wrong on a spelling test and my teacher told me to go look up the correct spelling in the dictionary. This is impossible if you're a 10 year old kid. I spent the rest of the class reading the "I" section of the dictionary. When I saw this thread I had flashbacks.

 

[imagesbyholly]

hahahha I'm glad I'm not the only one who has flashbacks from school days. When my husband was in college he came home talking about math a couple years ago, and showing me what he was working on. I began to have jr. high and highschool nightmares. And I was the academic one, while he was the failer in those days! Sounds like that teacher had some kind of vengeance issue. If a kid that young doesn't know how to spell a word, you tell them, or at least show them where to look it up, for goodness sake! Then they can practice it with a happy heart (or at least without feeling like they are hated idiots) and hopefully learn it. Arrrg! Aisle is a tricky word for sure.

 

[Soup]

Haha, Holly: my son became one of those maths people too: he came home with maths homework that did not include NUMBERS! That is just wrong. As for that 'look it up' teacher, she sounds like an incompetent. As recently as a decade ago, anyone with a BA in English, for ex. could get a teaching license in some places. SCARY! Elementary education here is a 4 yr full time university programme. Even with another degree, you do 4 yrs.

Teaching strategies have to be modifiable to suit the needs of each individual student: it isn't a 1 size fits all mu mu.

 

[Loomis]

httphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter

Got your back too, Holly!

A weird French/English language fact: When French people speak English, they may add an H as the 1st letter of words that begin with vowels BUT eliminate the H at the beginning of words that have one:

English guy, "Harry is at the hospital."

French person speaking English, "Arry is hat de ospital."

When I spend de day speaking mostly French, dis tends to appen to me too & I ave to watch out for hit.

In Brooklyn people have a tendency to refer to someone by the name of Earl as ``oil.'' But if they want a quart of oil in the car, they say, ``Give me a quart of earl.''

There was a baseball player named Hoyt who slid into into second base twisting his ankle. He was lying there injured and obviously in pain. There was a deep hush over the whole ballpark. Then a Brooklyn voice was heard above athe silence that said, ``Gee, Hurt is hoyt.''

 

[OutsideIn]

Sounds like that teacher had some kind of vengeance issue. If a kid that young doesn't know how to spell a word, you tell them, or at least show them where to look it up, for goodness sake!

I know right? I think she was just trying to keep me busy for a while. I was a handful at that age.

School nightmares are the worst! I still have nightmares about the school bus 30 years later.

 

[Soup]

I shudder when I see one of those yellow behemoths as well. I still remember the rush I felt when I descended from the high school bus in sec V on the last day of school for the last time: it felt like being released from a lengthy sentence in prison for which I had been wrongfully convicted!

 

[Quart]

Iceland is called ?sland in Icelandic.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Probably because we've been saying it wrong all along and it's actually pronounced "Is Land".

 

[IContainMultitudes]

Probably due to the Latin word "insula" having an S.

 

[Grumpy Cat]

Probably due to the Latin word "insula" having an S.

That's a good thought ICM, but I really do believe its the "Is Land" pronunciation thingie. Just like "depot" is actually pronounce
"De Pot". It must be a French word for a chamber pot or maybe even a French word for marijuana. I'm very wise in these things.

 

[IContainMultitudes]

Interesting, "island" is actually derived from an Anglo-Saxon word, but the etymologically separate "isle" is derived from the Latin "insula":

Online Etymology Dictionary

Online Etymology Dictionary

 

[Turnip]

pronunciation - Why is the "s" in "island" not pronounced? - English Language and Usage

@IContainMultitudes That's what Soup posted earlier, more or less.