The English language is quite strange when you think about it. People say it is one of the most difficult languages to learn and I can understand why.
The other day I was writing out the word "door jam." This, however, showed up in red on the file I was working on because the word is actually "door jamb" or "doorjamb." Apparently either is acceptable, but in order for the word to mean the upright sides of a door or window that pesky silent "b" needs to be on it.
My Oma, grandmother, actually taught herself English through comic books. She, like my Opa, were both originally from Holland and immigrated to Canada. She very much enjoys making her own Birthday and Christmas cards on the computer, which sometimes come away with a couple of spelling errors. This is completely understandable.
Take the word onion for example. If by itself "on" is pronounced with a long "o" sound then why in the word "onion" does it take on the phonetics of "un." It is honestly mind boggling.
We have certain rules, which don't always work such as "i before e, except after c" or in the case of Rottweiler, neighbour, protein, and a number of others.
Now after lamenting over the fact that I couldn't spell a simple word my Dad sent me a post on Facebook explaining "ghoti" is pronounced the exact same way as "fish." Now I'm not sure where the post originated from, but it made a good point.
Try sounding out the following words: enough, women, and nation. Enough, the "gh" makes the sound of an "f." The "o" in women makes the sound typically associated with the letter "i" and finally the "ti" in "nation" sounds like "sh." So, whoever first created the photo my Dad posted to my wall has a valid point.
Even native speakers of English have a difficult time with some words. I don't think I've ever spelled, door jamb, before, so why would I put a silent "b" on the end when attempting to write it out on some random day. I knew the word "lamb" had this unique twist to it and "knee" is just as difficult. We learn that on certain words there are exceptions; but, you need to be taught these unique words specifically or you won't know when to add a silent "b" or "k" to a word.
I remember one of my friends in school hated learning how to spell. Sounding out words didn't work because "enough" sounded out is "enuf." There were many of these words that she just shook her head at, so why wouldn't English be difficult. Why not spell words how they sound?
On top of this people will be taught different English depending on where they live or their occupation. In Canada we are fairly fluid and will take the American or the British version of words, so long as you stick with one.
"Learnt is not a word." Well technically it is a word. In British spelling, "learnt" is the same as what Americans use "learned" for. Unless talking about a learned person.
Canadians will also accept words spelled without the "u" they should have. Is it humor or humour, neighbor or neighbour? In Canada it should be humour, but we are open to either spelling which must make it even more difficult for people attempting to learn English as a non-native speaker.
In addition to this did you know the words gaol and jail are one and the same. Gaol is the proper British English spelling and is what should be used by Canadians; but, with the influence of Americanisms we most commonly spell jail. If someone hadn't enlightened me about this long ago I probably would have been attempting to sound the simple four letter word out for quite some time while reading a book written and published in the U.K.
There are exceptions in spelling within other languages as well. For instance, both French and Russian have exceptions; but, not to the same extent and the seemingly complete randomness of English. When in French class I remember being given a list of word exceptions when conjugating verbs, which didn't follow the rules. You were able to memorize them and you were set, it was that set of words only otherwise you could sound them out and spell them properly according to their conjugation.
Recently I have been attempting to learn a bit of Russian on my own. Slow going since words similar to English ones can either have the same meaning or they may mean something completely different. Now, Russian is Cyrillic script, this means they use a different alphabet than we do, though, some letters may look similar to our own they often do not make the same sound as ours.
???????, which means thank you, sounded out in English would look like "spaseeba." Each letter almost always makes the exact same sound, no matter what, in Russian. If you learn the sounds of the alphabet then you can sound out the words. I was watching a movie set in Russia and while the opening credits were playing they would come up in Cyrillic then change to English. Being the bit of an odd ball that I am, I paused the screen to sound out the names of people, which I could easily do, to my surprise.
They do have a few exceptions; but, from what I understand this is only on a few letters and only when placed at the end of the word. The "o" in "c??????" makes the same sound as the "a." A Cyrillic "o" is one of the exceptions if placed at the end of a word. However, these exceptions can be memorized easily and apply to the letter every time it is at the end of a word, not randomly like a silent "b" in English.
