Pronunciation errors that made the English language
Very interesting article with cool examples. Here are a few more:<p>* In the "words that begin with an n" category he didn't include the most famous example: <i>orange</i>, the fruit, which has an <i>n</i> in Persian and Arabic from which it was borrowed but lost it (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)#Etymology" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_(fruit)#Etymology</a>)<p>* I used to think that <i>baby</i> was the actual word and <i>babe</i> was a corruption, turns out most probably it was just the reverse (baby < babe + y) (<a href="http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/44883/was-baby-originally-baby-talk" rel="nofollow">http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/44883/was-baby-or...</a>)<p>* Somewhat related to the last category: Have you ever wondered why the initial sound in <i>chair</i> and <i>chandelier</i> are pronounced differently in English? There was a sound change in French, <i>chair</i> was borrowed before that change and <i>chandelier</i>, like many other French word that start with ch, after that change.<p>* According to OED the reason that some animal names have the same singular and plural was that they originally contained a long vowel, e.g. <i>deer</i>, <i>sheep</i>, <i>fish</i>. Turns out, <i>horse</i> was also in this group but after a sound change its vowel shortened, hence the -s plural now.