Pylimitics

One of the more annoying aspects of English is that you can’t depend on a letter — or a letter combination — having the same pronunciation every time. Take, for example, “ch.” It might be pronounced “k,” as in “school.” Or it might have an “sh” sound, as in “brochure.” Then again, it might sound like “tch” as in “child.” 

This is because English, as a language, is pretty much a sponge, soaking up new words from anywhere. When you find a word with a “ch” pronounced like “k,” the word probably came from Greek. If the “ch” sounds like “sh,” the word probably came from French. It’s the other ones, the “ch sounds like tch” words, that are less clear. They might be Germanic words that came from Old English (“child” and “church,” for example). But they might have come from Old French. 

It gets a bit more complicated when Old English gets involved because that language didn’t have a “ch” letter combination and just used “c” for both “k” and “tch” sounds. English spelling has been ridiculous for a very long time. Anyway, the “ch” combination was originally Gaelic, then it was adopted into Middle English. Once there it was used with words from Old French (which were already spelled that way) and with Old English words where the “c” was pronounced “tch” — but not the Old English words where “c” meant “k.” Simple, right? 

Meanwhile, as French progressed from Old to Modern, the “ch” combination was retained but the pronunciation changed from “tch” to “sh.” That’s why French-derived English words with “ch” have different sounds depending on when they arrived. And everybody keeps track of when each word was adopted into English, right?

The only other trivia about English words with “ch” sounds involves names for places in the US, like “Michigan” or “Chicago.” When the “ch” sounds like “sh,” you can be pretty sure the name is derived from a French interpretation of an original Native American name. 

However, while all this explanation is at least arguably interesting, it doesn’t change the observation I started with: English spelling is pretty annoying.