Why are the rules of English so inconsistent and complex?

The English spelling system developed over the centuries and the irregularities came about because of various invaders and writers trying to fit their alphabet and sounds to English: English developed from the Anglo-Saxons & Vikings from northern Germany and Scandinavia.

Why is the English language inconsistent?

It is because English is a natural language with its own irregulations which are not changed because English has no organization that bring some regularity in its spelling. So there is no spelling reform and the spelling is not adapted to the change of pronunciation of words unlike Dutch and German.

Why does the English language have so many irregularities?

Scholars have tried to set rules to help guide English students, but time has proven that there are many exceptions. This is partly because English is cobbled together from languages all over the world, making it a challenging language to learn for both primary and multilingual speakers.

Why is the English spelling system so weird?

Modern English has a phoneme inventory of 44 sounds (with some variation according to dialect) but only 26 letters with which to write them. Since its very earliest days, this mismatch has been a key obstacle to spelling the language in a regular manner.

Why is English spelling so confusing?

Thanks to the Great Vowel Shift, the huge number of words that English has taken from other languages (retaining their original spellings at varying levels), and the arbitrary regulation of spelling that took place over hundreds of years without any central plan, English is by far one of the most irregular and …

Is English an inconsistent language?

The peculiarity of the English language phonology is that it is highly inconsistent. These inconsistencies are widely spread in the areas of differences in the spelling and sound representation, sameness in sound or letters but different representations.

What is the most confusing language?

Mandarin
1. Mandarin. As mentioned before, Mandarin is unanimously considered the toughest language to master in the world! Spoken by over a billion people in the world, the language can be extremely difficult for people whose native languages use the Latin writing system.

What are some of the problems with the English spelling system?

Here are some of the most common problems when spelling words in English.

• Three Syllables Pronounced as Two Syllables.
• Four Syllables Pronounced as Three Syllables.
• Words That Sound the Same (Homophones)
• Same Sounds – Different Spellings.
• Unusual Letter Combinations.

Why are languages not phonetic?

Perhaps those languages have evolved phonetically too quickly for their spellings to be renewed too often. As for English, the mix of Latinate and Germanic words (and therefore the mix of both spelling traditions) could be the cause for not adopting a more or less phonetic system.

Why is English weird?

According to WALS, most spoken languages only have between five to six vowel sounds. This is part of the reason that English spelling is fiendishly complicated, because it has inherited five letters for vowels from the Roman alphabet and speakers have to make them work for more than twice that number of sounds.