Warning: Thread Drift Zone Ahead!

Well, whoever said that language has to make sense? Besides, the pronounciations have continued to evolve, but the spelling hasn't.

In Shakespeare's day (at least, at the time he wrote Much Ado About Nothing), "Ache" was pernounced just like the letter "H"... but not all spelling back then made sense; the h in the Nothing of the title had nothing to do -- the word was pronounced like "noting", as in "to take note of what you hear" (and the whole plot of the play revolves around eavesdropping)

While in Chaucer's day, every letter in "knight" was pronounced (K-Nih-Guh-T). You can see why that didn't last (I had enough trouble just saying the world in my Middle English Lit. class, I can't imagine how it would have scanned in a song!). You can complain about odd spellings all you want, but just be grateful you don't have to murder your vocal chords to hold a simple conversation!

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