full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Gina Cooke: Why is there a "b" in doubt?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy because of the letter "b". Since it doesn't spell a sound, most folks can't figure out what it's doing there. But in stpie of what most of us lraen in school, sound is never the most important aepcst of spelling an English word. A word's meaning and history need to come first. To doubt means to question, to waver, to hesitate. As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion. The present-day English word "doubt" streatd as a Latin word, "dubitare". It first moved from Latin into French where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b". And then it came into English in the 13th century. About 100 years later, scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin, started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling, even though no one pronounced it that way. But why would they do this? Why would anyone in their right mind reinsert a silent letter into a spneillg? Well, because they knew Latin, the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it. Over time, even as fewer literate people knew ltian, the "b" was kept because it marked important, meaningful connections to other related words, like "dubious" and "indubitalbly," which were subsequently boorwerd into English from the same Latin root, "dubitare". Understanding these historical ciennootcns not only helped us to spell "doubt," but also to understand the mneniag of these more sophisticated words. But the story doesn't end there. If we look even deeper, we can see beyond the shadow of a dbout, just how rvenaelig that "b" can be. There are only two base words in all of English that have the letters "d-o-u-b": one is doubt, and the other is double. We can build lots of other words on each of these bases, like doubtful and doselbuts, or deloubt, and redouble, and doubloon. It turns out that if we look into their history, we can see that they both derive from the same Latin forms. The meaning of double, two, is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt. See, when we doubt, when we hesitate, we second guess ourselves. When we have doubts about something, when we have questions or confusion, we are of two mdnis. holislrtaicy, before English began to borrow words from French, it already had a word for doubt. That Old enislgh word was "tweogan," a word whose relationship to "two" is celar in its spelling as well. So the next time you are in doubt about why English spelling works the way it does, take a second look. What you find just might make you do a double-take.

Open Cloze


People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy because of the letter "b". Since it doesn't spell a sound, most folks can't figure out what it's doing there. But in _____ of what most of us _____ in school, sound is never the most important ______ of spelling an English word. A word's meaning and history need to come first. To doubt means to question, to waver, to hesitate. As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion. The present-day English word "doubt" _______ as a Latin word, "dubitare". It first moved from Latin into French where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b". And then it came into English in the 13th century. About 100 years later, scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin, started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling, even though no one pronounced it that way. But why would they do this? Why would anyone in their right mind reinsert a silent letter into a ________? Well, because they knew Latin, the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it. Over time, even as fewer literate people knew _____, the "b" was kept because it marked important, meaningful connections to other related words, like "dubious" and "indubitalbly," which were subsequently ________ into English from the same Latin root, "dubitare". Understanding these historical ___________ not only helped us to spell "doubt," but also to understand the _______ of these more sophisticated words. But the story doesn't end there. If we look even deeper, we can see beyond the shadow of a _____, just how _________ that "b" can be. There are only two base words in all of English that have the letters "d-o-u-b": one is doubt, and the other is double. We can build lots of other words on each of these bases, like doubtful and _________, or _______, and redouble, and doubloon. It turns out that if we look into their history, we can see that they both derive from the same Latin forms. The meaning of double, two, is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt. See, when we doubt, when we hesitate, we second guess ourselves. When we have doubts about something, when we have questions or confusion, we are of two _____. ____________, before English began to borrow words from French, it already had a word for doubt. That Old _______ word was "tweogan," a word whose relationship to "two" is _____ in its spelling as well. So the next time you are in doubt about why English spelling works the way it does, take a second look. What you find just might make you do a double-take.

Solution


  1. learn
  2. aspect
  3. revealing
  4. meaning
  5. spite
  6. borrowed
  7. doubt
  8. clear
  9. doubtless
  10. started
  11. latin
  12. english
  13. historically
  14. spelling
  15. doublet
  16. minds
  17. connections

Original Text


People often think the word "doubt" spelling is a little crazy because of the letter "b". Since it doesn't spell a sound, most folks can't figure out what it's doing there. But in spite of what most of us learn in school, sound is never the most important aspect of spelling an English word. A word's meaning and history need to come first. To doubt means to question, to waver, to hesitate. As a noun, it means uncertainty or confusion. The present-day English word "doubt" started as a Latin word, "dubitare". It first moved from Latin into French where it lost both its "buh" sound and its letter "b". And then it came into English in the 13th century. About 100 years later, scribes who wrote English but also knew Latin, started to reinsert the "b" into the word's spelling, even though no one pronounced it that way. But why would they do this? Why would anyone in their right mind reinsert a silent letter into a spelling? Well, because they knew Latin, the scribes understood that the root of "doubt" had a "b" in it. Over time, even as fewer literate people knew Latin, the "b" was kept because it marked important, meaningful connections to other related words, like "dubious" and "indubitalbly," which were subsequently borrowed into English from the same Latin root, "dubitare". Understanding these historical connections not only helped us to spell "doubt," but also to understand the meaning of these more sophisticated words. But the story doesn't end there. If we look even deeper, we can see beyond the shadow of a doubt, just how revealing that "b" can be. There are only two base words in all of English that have the letters "d-o-u-b": one is doubt, and the other is double. We can build lots of other words on each of these bases, like doubtful and doubtless, or doublet, and redouble, and doubloon. It turns out that if we look into their history, we can see that they both derive from the same Latin forms. The meaning of double, two, is reflected in a deep understanding of doubt. See, when we doubt, when we hesitate, we second guess ourselves. When we have doubts about something, when we have questions or confusion, we are of two minds. Historically, before English began to borrow words from French, it already had a word for doubt. That Old English word was "tweogan," a word whose relationship to "two" is clear in its spelling as well. So the next time you are in doubt about why English spelling works the way it does, take a second look. What you find just might make you do a double-take.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
english word 3


Important Words


  1. aspect
  2. base
  3. bases
  4. began
  5. borrow
  6. borrowed
  7. build
  8. century
  9. clear
  10. confusion
  11. connections
  12. crazy
  13. deep
  14. deeper
  15. derive
  16. double
  17. doublet
  18. doubloon
  19. doubt
  20. doubtful
  21. doubtless
  22. doubts
  23. english
  24. figure
  25. find
  26. folks
  27. forms
  28. french
  29. guess
  30. helped
  31. hesitate
  32. historical
  33. historically
  34. history
  35. important
  36. knew
  37. latin
  38. learn
  39. letter
  40. letters
  41. literate
  42. lost
  43. lots
  44. marked
  45. meaning
  46. meaningful
  47. means
  48. mind
  49. minds
  50. moved
  51. noun
  52. people
  53. pronounced
  54. question
  55. questions
  56. redouble
  57. reflected
  58. reinsert
  59. related
  60. relationship
  61. revealing
  62. root
  63. school
  64. scribes
  65. shadow
  66. silent
  67. sophisticated
  68. sound
  69. spell
  70. spelling
  71. spite
  72. started
  73. story
  74. subsequently
  75. time
  76. turns
  77. uncertainty
  78. understand
  79. understanding
  80. understood
  81. waver
  82. word
  83. words
  84. works
  85. wrote
  86. years