beamjockey: Drawing of Bill of the Heterodyne Boys by Phil Foglio. (Default)
beamjockey ([personal profile] beamjockey) wrote2012-01-31 10:49 am

Today's Diphthong Question

Why is "threshold" spelled with one "H" but "withhold" spelled with two?
ericcoleman: (Bang Bang)

[personal profile] ericcoleman 2012-01-31 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
You're looking for logic in the English language?

WHY?
ext_63737: Posing at Zeusaphone concert, 2008 (Default)

[identity profile] beamjockey.livejournal.com 2012-01-31 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I look for logic everywhere. One day, this tendency will drive me mad.
ericcoleman: (Default)

[personal profile] ericcoleman 2012-01-31 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
One day? I've met you ...

[identity profile] dd-b.livejournal.com 2012-01-31 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
+1

I was going to reply "Because it's English!", same basic idea.

[identity profile] le-trombone.livejournal.com 2012-01-31 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
There's actually quite a bit of logic in English. The reason the "English is chaos and can never be understood" theme is so common is that it's taught really badly in elementary and high schools.

The one time a decent English book made it into my elementary school, I suddenly found that there were rules one could deduce, instead of just doing rote memorization. Of course, by the next grade we were back using the crappy workbooks from a Boston publisher (with Boston-oriented pronunciation guides, I kid you not).