Rabbit hole du jour

Colonel is pronounced kernal? What the totally confounding fuck?

The word ‘colonel’ stems from the Italian word ‘colonnello’, which, in turn, was derived from the Italian word ‘colonna’ meaning ‘column’. This was because the rank was bestowed upon the commander of a column of troops. This word was then adopted by the French, who translated the term in their own language, converted the word ‘colonnello’ to the word ‘coronel’. (source)

Why is bologna, that egregious lunch “meat,” spelled the way it is but pronounced baloney.

As you may know, there is a city in northern Italy called Bologna, which is home to many delicious delicacies, including mortadella. Mortadella is traditional cured sausage made from ground pork. The lunchmeat we call bologna or bologna sausage is derived from mortadella, though it doesn’t have to be made from pork (and gets a bad rap as a kind of cheap “mystery meat.”) (source)

The “bad rap?’ No, that rap is entirely accurate.

The word that’s spelled AND pronounced baloney? That’s a noun or an interjection meaning bullshit.

e.g. Every word out of Moscow Mitch’s mouth is unmitigated, elaborately carved baloney.

Check out the Moscow Mitch link. With all the excrement that's been hitting the fan (personally, nationally and globally), I'd forgotten how fucking far MM had burrowed up Russia's butt.

Yesterday's seawall walk view

Sword is pronounced sord? C'mon man!

The W in 'two' and 'sword' is silent because of a sound change that took place somewhere between Old English & Middle English. The change applied to words in which the W was preceded by [s, t] and followed by a back vowel like [ɔ o ɑ u] etc. (source)

Et voilà we have the Great Vowel Shift which explains some but not all of the eccentricities of the English language.

The Great Vowel Shift refers to a set of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that began in southern England in 1350 and lasted until the 18th century. The shift affected the pronunciation of all Middle English long vowels, as well as the sound of some consonants, which became silent.
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Scholars fail to agree on a specific cause of the Great Vowel Shift. However, there are many theories that attempt to provide reasons for the shift. Some scholars believe the shift was influenced by the rapid migration of people from northern England to the southeast part of the country to escape the Black Death that killed over 25 million people across Europe. The migration resulted in the mixing of accents, warranting changes in the standard London dialect. Others argue the Great Vowel Shift occurred in response to an increase in the number of French loanwords used in the English language. Additionally, some claim the shift was caused by a hypercorrection in response to the increase in the number of French loanwords, which occurred either intentionally or unintentionally, to make English vowels sound less like French. (source)

Why does my language frustration and confusion come up this morning? Eh, who knows. Maybe, in some parallel dimension, I'm a linguist? Oh wait—could I be a linguist AND an archeologist in my next life (if there is one)? That'd be WAY fun!