h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And what about words that are pronounced the same but spelt differently

eg Jail, Gaol.... how and why?
or Meet and Meat
there are others. There, and Their for example.

That's a good example Jail & Gaol. My thourghts exactly, Then there's (or is it theirs) Tow & Toe

What I want to no Oops sorry I mean Know is Y we spell knife K.N.I.F.E. and not nief, Y is the K on the front.

Good point Pool The Break...
Maybe we'll never know.. the difference with the american words must be something to do with them carrying on Old English language, or should that be Olde? and should Language not be pronounced LanGage.

Apparently the word dates back to Old English and Old Norse (i.e., over 1000 years ago) and it's always been like that.

A propos of 'Slough' etc., I live in Redditch and there is a village nearby called Studley. One of the roads in Studley is called 'The Slough', pronounced 'The Sluff'. No one knows why, it just is.

With the Americans, it's not just continuing 'Old English'. They have had different influences (all those foreign immigrants) and lack certain things that influenced our pronunciation. For example, I once read that the reason some people pronounce words like 'glass' and 'brass' as 'glarss' or 'brarss' is because of the Hannoverian kings. When King George I came over, he couldn't speak a word of English, nor could his sons. When they finally started to learn English (around George III, or when he was a child) they pronounced things German style, i.e. with the long A sound. No one dared to criticise the King, and the nobles started to copy him, as did the middle-classes. After a time, any one with any pretensions of breeding spoke that way, unless they lived all their lives in the sticks. This, apparently, is why the upper and middle classes say 'glarss' and the working classes and Americans say 'glass'.

Reguarding the upper and middle class prononceation of Glass & Brass, I think it is more of a north/south thing now cause everyone in the south says glarse and brarse regardless of thier clarss

This probably is true now, but then 'the south' has London in it, and London is the seat of power, and power corrupts (even language). Us Northerners (O.K., so I'm a Midlander) are much to sensible to let our language be piddled about with like that. Personally, I tend to fluctuate between long and short a's, depending on how the mood takes me.

It all boils down to the development of the english language as we speak it nowadays. You have to consider it's input from latin(roman), germanic, french, and Scandivian influences to understand why it's so bloody confusing.

One thing on the north/south split I find curious is if you look at cultural influences, Britain used to be divided east/west the length of the country. Most of the east from germany/russia, and most of the west from french/scandinavia.

In addition, britain used to be divided up into several different regions, and communication was limited by the puritans who discouraged travel so they could maintain control of the populace, so different areas were bound to develop different pronounciation/spellings.

I know what you mean but I think you meant to say, shouldn't language be pronounced langwidge cause thats how we say it in the south east of England.