694
TIL When you hover over a piece of the phonetic notation on (English) Wikipedia, it shows you an example for its pronunciation
(sh.itjust.works)
this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2025
694 points (99.2% liked)
Today I Learned
25027 readers
562 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The original name for "Island" did not have an 's' in it. Some scholar added the 's' as a stylistic choice to make the word look more Latin (despite not having a Latin root).
Unless you're also arguing with people that "It's spelled 'Iegland', because that's how it was originally named" you can STFU about how it was originally intended.
Sorry, I'm using language that has been changed from it's original intented form, let me fix that:
Þæt ǣrest nama þæs "Īglandes" næfde nāne 's' on him. Sum wita ēcde þæt 's' swā stīllic gecēosung tō macienne þæt word līcian Lǣden (þēah hit næbbe Lǣden wurt). Nymþe þū ēac winne mid folce þæt "Hit is gespelod 'Īegland', forþām swā hit wæs ǣrest genemned," þū meaht swīgian ymbe hū hit wæs ǣrest gedōn.
Did John Iland (legland?) see the first island and name it, then go around telling everyone how it was spelled and pronounced only to have it changed by some scholar? Or was it "Leopold the namer" who was like, "that is called an i-land, everyone! I invented it".
Sarcastic, but also a genuine question. Who named the first island an island? How did he or she popularize it and distribute their intended pronunciation and original spelling? Did people ask him, get a definitive answer, and say, "no that's wrong" to his face, like with GIF? Was the inventor upset by the change in spelling or did it happen hundreds of years after their death? Were they alive, do you think it would have bothered them that they were misspelling the word they invented?
This form of spelling began to change as English mixed with French during the Norman conquest. Among other things capitalism had an influence on the way words were written as typesetters were paid by the line, which incentivized them to make words longer.
Language changes over time (like looong periods of time) as cultures grow and merge and I recognize and respect that. What I don't respect when someone says, "I've made a really cool thing, and it's spelled 'like this' and called 'pronounced name'", only to have other people basically reply to them, "no that's stupid and you're stupid for suggesting it".
How much time is required before something is allowed to change?
When "Iegland" was first spelled as "Island" that was wrong. It was incorrect and stupid. It wasn't okay because "Iegland has been around long enough so we can change it now." It became correct because that is how people started using it.
It's not the amount of time, it's how language is used and understood.
However long it takes for something to be more or less universally accepted. GIF's pronunciation, despite being defined and sounded out for people, is not currently widely accepted in either pronunciation, or we wouldn't be having this conversation.
How is this different from the argument that GIF being pronounced with a hard G is incorrect and stupid? It was wrong then and over much time became right.
It takes time for linguistic changes to propagate and it doesn't happen because one person decides it should change. If you walked around back when island was first invented and said "nice island" to a bunch of leglanders, they'd think you were an idiot because there hadn't been enough time for people to start using it.
It is widely accepted in both pronciations. "Aluminum" has a different pronouciation in the UK then it does in the Americas. Both are correct depending on where you are. If you hear someone use the pronouciation you're not used to it might take your half a second to mentally adjust, but you'll understand just fine and can continue the conversation.
Correct. Over time the hard G became right because that's how it was used. Notice how I am not arguing the people should actually be using "Iegland".
Which is exactly what you are arguing for.