• ProstheticBrain@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    I was just learning about this today in response to this post! I had no idea that the definition of a vowel is based on what sound you actually make, rather than it having anything to do with what you write.

    It’s kind of weird that it’s not taught that way in schools. Like, you’re just told a/e/I/o/u are the vowels and left to get on with it. Seems to me that could just be changed to “by the way it’s a/e/I/o/u/y/w, off you go”.

    • MamboGator@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Dunno why anyone would downvote you for this.

      “Hey, this guy is trying to learn something that he wasn’t taught before! What an asshole!”

      • ProstheticBrain@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        I can only imagine they’re downvoting because they’ve had a better education than me, or paid more attention in class, or read the Wikipedia entry ten minutes before me.

        • MamboGator@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          I majored in English at university and still had to double check Wikipedia to make sure I wasn’t talking out of my ass. There are so many grammatical rules that I only have a tiny understanding of.

          • ProstheticBrain@sh.itjust.works
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            10 months ago

            Exactly! I mean, some people (looking at you downvoters) learnt that during their education. But I (we?) didn’t, and this has been a really interesting find for me.

            I genuinely love learning about linguistic weirdness, I just don’t know a lot about it. Or have many occasions to learn.

    • lad@programming.dev
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      10 months ago

      I was once told on one croud-knowledge site that in English letters don’t imply sounds and there is no such thing as “this letter sounds like that in this word”

      Makes me wonder what they would’ve told me about this “sometimes Y” rule that is exactly based on letter-sound correspondence

      • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Back in my day, we didn’t even have “and sometimes Y”.

        • PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          I’m not sure if I’m older or younger than you so IDK if it’s trending better or worse. I’m late 30s, for reference. Also Canadian since that probably makes a difference.

          • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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            10 months ago

            I’m a little younger than you. I live in the US, but I was homeschooled in my early school years, so it’s possible the curriculum my mom used simply didn’t teach it. Or maybe I’ve simply forgotten they taught it.