Language Expert Answers Word Origin Questions | Tech Support | WIRED

University of Cambridge Research Fellow Dr. Stephen Turton joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about the logic (and many quirks) of the English language. Why are so many English words not pronounced the way they're spelled? Why is the plural of 'child' not 'childs' but 'children?' 'Foot' becomes 'feet' but 'boot' does't pluralize to 'beet?' How do we know what Old English sounded like? Why is the letter R pronounced so different across languages? What does a pineapple have to do with either pines OR apples? Answers to these questions and many more await on Etymology Support. 0:00 English Etymology Support 0:14 Foot Feet but not Boot Beet? Why? 1:17 Whoops 1:52 Get a clue 2:18 Why Ghoti = Fish 3:48 Who What Where When Why 4:49 Salary 5:11 What's going on with the word "child?" 5:45 Deadline 6:11 Why are there multiple words that mean the same thing? 7:07 TUVWX…but Y? 7:58 Formal You 8:59 It’s Raining Cats and Dogs 9:34 Does language alter thinking? 11:40 Break a leg! 11:55 How do we know what old English sounds like? 13:01 Dictionary approved new words 13:45 Bring back sardine’s whiskers I say 14:16 Pineapples, man 14:49 Thou and hath 15:46 Funny collective nouns 16:20 Ok 16:53 "But soft! what light through yonder window breaks?" 17:36 Quarantine 17:57 How meanings change 19:08 Meet your meat words 19:58 English pronunciation 21:21 Common sayings between languages 22:00 💪 22:57 Homonyms 23:29 How etymologists do what they do 24:21 "Did youreet?" 25:00 Why is the letter R pronounced so differently in each language? Director: Lauren Zeitoun Director of Photography: Davide Bianco Editor: Alex Mechanik Expert: Stephen Turton Line Producer: Jamie Rasmussen Associate Producer: Paul Gulyas Production Manager: Peter Brunette Production Coordinator: Rhyan Lark Supervising Casting Producer: Thomas Giglio Camera Operator: Ashley Raim Gaffer: Jake Newell Sound Mixer: Mark Hennessey Production Assistant: Grace