For French origin words like "meter" American English inverted the last letters of "metre" to better match the pronunciation. Why isn't it also the case for other similar situations like "possible"?
There were already multiple patterns for words ending in âerâ (both the doer words, like runner, and a series of words like butter, feather, sister), so it could be a conflation, but I think itâs more likely that itâs just a simplification. British has âerâ and âreâ endings for meter, depending on whether itâs a verb or a noun, and Americans just spell both âerâ for simplicityâs sake.
Because only an idiot pronounces it like "possabell".
The point is to better match the current pronunciation bÉl, not change the pronunciation.
You can think of "le" as a way of showing that it's a syllabic L. Meaning that you say a dark L, and there isn't really a vowel before it. The L takes up the whole syllable. It can sound like there's a schwa in there (usually just a blip of one), but that's just part of how you say the dark L. It comes from having the back part of your tongue press down and back.
This happens at the end of a word when the L is in an unstressed syllable. The spelling can vary a little. For example:
There isn't really a reason why the spelling is different. That's just how it happened to develop.
The pronunciation can vary a little too. If you hold the L longer, or emphasize the syllable more, it can sound more like a proper vowel is in there. But your tongue stays a tiny bit lower than it does for the schwa sounds.
Go ask your teachers why they taught you the wrong pronunciation; and why they didn't equip you to hear the correct one and adapt.
#noChildLeftBehind?
"Meter" isn't a French word (it's "mètre") and "metre" isn't an American English word for "mètre". And neither "meter" nor "metre" are pronounced like "mètre".
I think it wasn't the point of OP that "meter" better matches the French pronunciation, but it does better match the (American and British?) English pronouciation than "metre" does.
I am French, I know that. Let me expend the title to make it easier to understand.
In American English, words of French origin like "meter" (American English) inverted the last letters of "metre" (British English from French "mètre") to better match the English pronunciation. Why isn't it also the case for other similar situations like "possible"?
If we inverted the last letters of "possible" to "possibel," that wouldn't really match how we pronounce it
I'd probably try to read it as something like "possi-bell"
But our actual pronunciation is more along the lines of "possi-bull" not exactly, and I feel like different dialects might maybe lean more towards the last syllable being more like bill, ball, or boll, but I can't really imagine any dialect where the pronunciation would match a "bel" spelling.
It's sort of an unintentional half vowel sound that just happens after making the "b" noise, and not really something we're intentionally trying to put into the word.
Linguists probably have some specific terminology for it, but I'm no linguist.
Sorry, now I get what you're asking. But your question was really strangely worded đ
MẚŤĹĆ
Poss-i-ble. That's how you say it in French
Po see blay
One of the reasons American English uses -er spellings (center, theater) where British English uses -re spellings (centre, theatre) is because of an early American desire to "de-Britishify" after gaining independence. Noah Webster had much to do with this, and changed many other spellings from British English to a newly forming American English.
I wonder if Webster's "anti-British" sentiment was (part of) the instigation of "American uniquism."
To this day, whatever the world does, the US does it differently, almost as a knee-jerk reaction.
Also consider that a whole lot of the world was âBritishâ when the US broke away.
Colourful reply!
Loyalist!