For French origin words like "meter" American English inverted the last letters of "metre" to better match the pronunciation. Why isn't it also the case for other similar situations like "possible"?

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• pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  I say we just admit that R can be a vowel, and drop the E entirely.

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  • ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Blew my mind when I learned that the Chinese i frequently works like that and that pinyin is a lie.

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  • sznowicki@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    That’s what we did in Polish. It’s „metr”.

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    • rikudou@lemmings.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Rookie stuff, in Czech we have čtvrthrst. No vowel in sight.

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• ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  “Meter” isn’t a French word and “metre” isn’t an American English word. Other than that, spot on.

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  • oce@jlai.lu ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I am French. Let me expend the title to make it easier to understand.

    In American English, words of French origin like “meter” (American English) inverted the last letters of “metre” (British English from French “mètre”) to better match the English pronunciation. Why isn’t it also the case for other similar situations like “possible”?

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    • Fondots@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If we inverted the last letters of “possible” to “possibel,” that wouldn’t really match how we pronounce it

      I’d probably try to read it as something like “possi-bell”

      But our actual pronunciation is more along the lines of “possi-bull” not exactly, and I feel like different dialects might maybe lean more towards the last syllable being more like bill, ball, or boll, but I can’t really imagine any dialect where the pronunciation would match a “bel” spelling.

      It’s sort of an unintentional half vowel sound that just happens after making the “b” noise, and not really something we’re intentionally trying to put into the word.

      Linguists probably have some specific terminology for it, but I’m no linguist.

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    • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sorry, now I get what you’re asking. But your question was really strangely worded 🙂

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  • Successful_Try543@feddit.org ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think it wasn’t the point of OP that “meter” better matches the French pronunciation, but it does better match the (American and British) English pronouciation than “metre” does.

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  • seven_phone@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Töo muçh “spec’ial” char{act}ér.

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    • Blyfh@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Other languages exist. Tolerate their writing.

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  • MissJinx@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    MẹŤŘƏ

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• idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  There were already multiple patterns for words ending in “er” (both the doer words, like runner, and a series of words like butter, feather, sister), so it could be a conflation, but I think it’s more likely that it’s just a simplification. British has “er” and “re” endings for meter, depending on whether it’s a verb or a noun, and Americans just spell both “er” for simplicity’s sake.

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• db2@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Because only an idiot pronounces it like “possabell”.

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  • oce@jlai.lu ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    The point is to better match the current pronunciation bəl, not change the pronunciation.

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    • marron12@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      You can think of “le” as a way of showing that it’s a syllabic L. Meaning that you say a dark L, and there isn’t really a vowel before it. The L takes up the whole syllable. It can sound like there’s a schwa in there (usually just a blip of one), but that’s just part of how you say the dark L. It comes from having the back part of your tongue press down and back.

      This happens at the end of a word when the L is in an unstressed syllable. The spelling can vary a little. For example:

      • people
      • simple
      • model
      • oval

      There isn’t really a reason why the spelling is different. That’s just how it happened to develop.

      The pronunciation can vary a little too. If you hold the L longer, or emphasize the syllable more, it can sound more like a proper vowel is in there. But your tongue stays a tiny bit lower than it does for the schwa sounds.

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    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Go ask your teachers why they taught you the wrong pronunciation; and why they didn’t equip you to hear the correct one and adapt.

      #noChildLeftBehind?

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• theneverfox@pawb.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Poss-i-ble. That’s how you say it in French

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• Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Po see blay

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