Spanish word with one letter added, changed or missing

Maciamo

Veteran member
Admin
Messages
9,948
Reaction score
3,228
Points
113
Location
Lothier
Ethnic group
Italo-celto-germanic
Mutations are not exclusive to genes. Languages mutate too and often in a similar way as genes, with just single letter changes (like SNPs in genetics). This happens because humans aren't perfect. They mishear words or mispronounce them. It was all the more frequent before universal education and before languages acquired codified, fixed spellings.

When linguists created the spelling rules of modern Romance languages, they usually used the Latin etymology of words to reshape the new standardised language. Standard Italian bears striking similarities to Latin spellings, unlike Italian dialects that evolved more freely.

In contrast French pronunciation has changed so much from Latin that when French académiciens had to decide on the standard spelling of words, they had to add many silent letters to keep as much resemblance as possible to the Latin root of words. This has become a nightmare for learners of French, be them native or foreign, as the written language bears little similarity to the spoken one. English is in a similar situation.

Spanish may be a phonetic language (it is written exactly as it is pronounced), but that did not prevent it from undergoing mutations before its spelling was codified. I have made a list here.

SpanishFrenchItalianLatin
alimañaanimalanimaleanimālia
anclaancreancoraancŏra
ausentarses'absenterassentarsiabsentare
bendiciónbénédictionbenedizionebenedictiōne
blandirbrandirbrandire
cautivarcaptivercaptare
deseardésirerdesideraredesiderare
disminuirdiminuerdiminuiredeminuĕre
ensayaressayer(assaggiare)from exagium
escoltaescortescorta(from Italian)
honrarhonoreronorarehonorāre
invertirinvestirinvestireinvestire
mensajemessagemessaggiomissaticum (from missus)
nombrarnominernominarenomināre
osooursorsoursum
pelucaperruqueparrucca
poseerposséderpossederepossidère
postradoprostréprostratoprostatus
propiopropreproprioproprio
quebrarcrevercreparecrepāre
reclutarrecruterreclutare(from French)
rendiciónredditionresaredditio
retaguardia-retroguardia(from Italian)
sentarses'asseoirsedersisedere
soplarsoufflersoffio, soffiaresufflāre
temblartremblertremaretremulāre

By category:

  • Added 'n' : bendición, mensaje, rendición, sentarse
  • Other additional consonnant : disminuir, nombrar
  • Missing 'r' : desear, oso, postrado, propio, quebrar, temblar, retaguardia
  • Shift from 'r' to 'l' : ancla, blandir, escolta, peluca, reclutar
  • Shift from 'b' or 'p' to 'u' : ausentarse, cautivar
  • Consonnant replaced by another : alimaña, invertir, soplar
 
Spanish show us a tendancy that was even stronger in Oil French; but here you can see some of the current French words are words remake from Latin - among the more evident Spanish tendancies -
the r to l shift is frequnt in Spanish (Castillan to be precise), but it occurs elsewhere (indialects for the most, not always).
the implosive -p, -b changed into -u < -w < -v before explosive is natural enough, spite it doesn't occur frequently elsewhere.
the loss of a liquid (r, l) in a word where one of these sounds occurs also in another syllabe, is not so rare.
All that shows us (I think), Castillan, so the Spanish language, spite official, has not been submitted to the dramatic artificial archaising (re-Latinisation) as has standard French has been! So many genuine Oil French words has been replaced along history.
 
French pronunciation has indeed evolved significantly from Latin, leading to a considerable disparity between the written and spoken language. As a result, the French Academy had to introduce silent letters and other orthographic conventions to maintain connections to the Latin roots of words. Similarly, English has undergone numerous sound changes and historical shifts, leading to discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation.


While Spanish is often considered a phonetic language with a close correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, it has also experienced changes before its spelling was standardized. However, the phonetic nature of Spanish does contribute to a more direct relationship between the written and spoken forms of the language.

English and French (and Portuguese) orthography are really a problem. Why not replace the orthography of these languages with the transcription of their standard dialect, in the universal phonetic alphabet as found in dictionaries! Those who still speak non-standard dialects could communicate with each other by writing their dialectal version in universal phonetic alphabet, and the speeches of characters from literature who are also from non-standard dialects of these languages could thus also be reproduced more faithfully. If this phonetic alphabet is more difficult to write by hand, the truth is that nowadays people practically only write on the keyboard. There are spellings that are 'a thousand times more difficult' than the European, as is the case with Japanese (Japanese writing: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system ), besides the Japanese people, there will be very few who master it, even among foreign diplomats in Japan. The basic teaching of European languages normally takes 4 years, that of Chinese takes 6 years due to the thousands of characters. Changing the spelling, faces force of habit: - Even as a simple matter of counting by fingers, the generalization of the decimal system has been forced, but perhaps due to the force of habit, even in the so-called most exact of the exact sciences, mathematics, we continue to use the sexagesimal system with more than 4000 years: we divide the circle into 360⁰, each degree with 60' (and these with 60''), and it is with these 360⁰ that we navigate in space (and on earth). Sexagesimal is also the 24-hour day with 60 minutes (and these with 60 seconds), the month (30 days), the year of 12 months, the quarters and semesters, the dozens and half dozens. The week also continues to have 7 days. For those who travel there is the right-hand drive problem in England and the 110 volts in America versus 220 volts in Europe.
 
Last edited:
French pronunciation has indeed evolved significantly from Latin, leading to a considerable disparity between the written and spoken language. As a result, the French Academy had to introduce silent letters and other orthographic conventions to maintain connections to the Latin roots of words. Similarly, English has undergone numerous sound changes and historical shifts, leading to discrepancies between spelling and pronunciation.
While Spanish is often considered a phonetic language with a close correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, it has also experienced changes before its spelling was standardized. However, the phonetic nature of Spanish does contribute to a more direct relationship between the written and spoken forms of the language.


OK for the more accurate Spanish spelling to render pronounciation.
But I doubt the most of the silent letters in French have been reintroduced by academicians. They reflect very often an ancient pronounciation later modified for the most by lenition (because they concerned consonnants/stops). It's true some seldom words show an artificial spelling like in scavoir : to know where the c letters is for a false etymology mixing sapere with scientia < Verb scire: to know, all latin words.
Plus, French has reintroduced words (doublets) of the same Latin (and also Greek) sources, but with slightly different meanings. These other words are very closer to Late Latin, and even their pronounciation in modern French, shows more proximity to the Latin one spite being different nevertheless.
A lot of silent consonnants have the peculiarity to be pronounced in derived words
t is silent in chant but is pronounced in chanter (where the r is silent).
&: other way: the p in dompter is part of a stage of phonetic evolution from domitare before it became [do~te] phonetically in genuine French - it's true the final -nt had become > -ns in the plural before being rewritten -nts...
it's difficult to tell the respellings of the conservations, because before standardistions, more than a spelling cohabited for a same word, one conservative, the other evolved.
What I agree with is that French spelling is very inacurate and unhomogenous, even under the angle of conservatism.
 

This thread has been viewed 2872 times.

Back
Top