TRIVIA
Can You Guess What These Olde English Words Actually Mean?
6 Minute Quiz 6 Min
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About This Quiz
In Medieval times, before the printing press came along and literacy became cool for non-clerics and non-aristocrats, standardized spelling and vocabulary weren't really a problem. There was no right way to handle these sorts of things - and that meant there was no right or wrong way to say many words. We can see from the rhyme schemes of older poems that there were differences of opinion, to say the least.
These days, the English language is the most commonly-spoken across the world, and includes in its many dialects a variety of correct options for pronouncing certain words. Much of the idea that there is only one right option in such instances comes from snobbery rooted in class or cultural discrimination. However, even if you put linguistic pomposity aside, there are some words that do have a right or wrong pronunciation. Some of these are words that entered the lexicon from a foreign language, many of them are food items. Others are older Latin, Norse, Greek, or Germanic words whose meaning would be altered were they to be said differently. Still, others are simply words that everyone pretty much agrees on only have the one correct emphasis or vowel.
So let's run through a few of them and see whether or not you are a linguistic expert!