- NEW!
by john pennington on April 13th, 2008
Same reason for "dough".
by iwnit on April 13th, 2008
1) Maybe you would not laugh otherwise...
2) the old spelling is even more funny:
"From Old English hlæhhan, hlihhan, hliehhan"
Source:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/laugh
3) Much more curious in my opinion is the great vowel shift:
"The values of the long vowels form the main difference between the pronunciation of Middle English and Modern English, and the Great Vowel Shift is one of the historical events marking the separation of Middle and Modern English. Originally, these vowels had "continental" values much like those remaining in Italian and liturgical Latin. However, during the Great Vowel Shift, the two highest long vowels became diphthongs, and the other five underwent an increase in tongue height with one of them coming to the front."
Source and further information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift
4) Here some information about the evolution of the English language:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_the_English_language
by Nuttsky on April 27th, 2007
English has the damnedest spelling of any language on the planet. Our /gh/ spelling unit is the weirdest.
(Edinborough. Through. Though. Hiccough. Cough. Rough. Just to name a few.)
Laugh was hlæhhan in Old English, and my source said it was probably in imitation of haha with a verb ending on it. (We had lots of words starting in hl. The h disappeared. The word lord used to start with hl. Weird, yes?
English is pretty closely related to German. German laugh is lachen - pretty close. Same in Dutch.
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Comments
Doh: Homer Simpson.
by Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today on April 13th, 2008