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Exception words in English and Russian

Consider and compare some words-exceptions in Russian and English. Perhaps we will find something in common?

Everyone knows that when children are just starting to learn how to write, they write the words "by ear". And they often ask questions that we, adults, do not come up with. For example, why after the letters "ж" and "ш" need to write "and", because there is clearly heard the sound "s"? Why complicate your life? This rule applies to other vowels after sizzling. We always write "y" instead of "yu", "a" instead of "I" (zh-shi, cha-scha, zhu-shu, chu-shchu). But there are also words-exceptions: a jury, a parachute, a brochure. Why these words-exceptions in the Russian language were honored to be written differently?

There are two interesting points. The first is our history. Our ancestors sibilantly pronounced the sounds, that is, "zhi" and sounded, in full accordance with the spelling. Gradually these sounds hardened (also an interesting phenomenon - why?), The sound changed, and the writing remained. We write Zhi-shi through "and", just following the tradition.

The words-exceptions, indicated above, came to our language from French rather late. Even when the hissing began to sound firmly. When borrowing words, they are not always "adjusted" to the rules of the local language. In addition, in this case, the rule clearly did not reflect the current situation. Remember how often you experienced difficulties in how to correctly write: "cappuccino" or "cappuccino"? Or, perhaps, with a double "pp"? This word appeared recently, and for many it is easier and more pleasant to write, reproducing the original spelling (cappuccino).

Thus, we write the words of the "jury", "parachute" exception through "yu", partly paying tribute to the origin of these words (after all, someone else's took), in part because our home rule is somewhat outdated. Appear these words before, they would not have been exceptions, because they would sound a bit French style (exactly as they are written).

You will be surprised, but such words-exceptions in English are encountered thousands of times more often. They are everywhere. Everyone who has studied English, and even those who have not studied, for sure, heard about it. It's written like it's heard - it's definitely not about English.

For example, there are seven rules for reading the letter "u". It would seem that they can be easily learned, but no, be kind enough to learn five more exceptions (and that's a few dozen words)! Why are the words-exceptions in English so common?

Knowingly we have resulted in the beginning an example with "zh-shi". You can think about what qualities of the British led to such a number of exceptions. Note that the words-exceptions in English are the most used, common, basic words. That is why their study did not stop to become the most popular English language in the world. Exceptions are repeated so often that they are usually remembered without difficulty.

The reason for such a number of exceptions in the English language lies not only in the commitment of the English to traditions, their conservatism, but also in the huge number of "foreign" influences, and the history of the English language began as far back as the 1st century BC.

The English language was influenced by:

  1. The Romans. Until the 80's. The first century the presence of the Romans in the British Isles was noticeable, they built roads, fortifications, which later became major cities (Manchester, Lancaster). It was from the Latin words that words such as street (street), wall (wall) occurred. However, the influence of the Romans was not so much in English.
  2. Germantsev. It was they who determined the fate of the English language. The tribes of the Angles and the Saxons supplanted the Britons.
  3. Scandinavians. They attacked Angles and Saxons, beginning with the 8th century. In addition, they were close neighbors, which could not but affect the English language. Many common words have Scandinavian roots, and, accordingly, a special sound. For example, husband (husband) is a borrowed word, which is an exception to the rules. The letter "s" in it is read as "z", although, according to the rules, before consonants it is read as "s".
  4. The French. After 1066, the power passed into the hands of the Normans. For many years the Anglo-Norman dialect became the main dialect. Scribes-Normans, rewriting documents, made comfortable rules for themselves in the language. To denote these or other sounds, they used French letters. For example, in pre-English the sound "k" was denoted by the letter "c". In any case. In French, the same letter meant the same sound only in front of some vowels. That's why today the letter "c" can be read both as "k" and as "s".

Despite all this, the world language was originally English, and not Esperanto, although in the latter it is almost impossible to find words-exceptions. Any living language, whether it be Russian or English, contains deviations from the rules. They reflect the complexity of our history, our character, give us a sense of belonging to something really grandiose, to a large group, some of whose authority is transferred to us. Perhaps, therefore, the glossy, but faceless, Esperanto did not become popular.

If we compare Russian and English, the reasons for the appearance of exception words are similar, however, their number and characteristics differ as much as our historical paths differ.

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