Why island pronounce

Click to expand I'm dogged if I can understand what you mean. I'm also thinking that the 's' is silent in aisle and lisle. I guess I see what you mean, but all these words have the same root form, and have just eroded in different ways-- I see less rhyme or reason to it than you seem to. And if "iolate" is so hard to say, how come we have a word like dilate , violate and annihilate?

Outsider Senior Member Portuguese Portugal. I have a vague recollection of having read, or heard, that the "s" in "island" was never pronounced. It was introduced by scribes into the spelling for etymological reasons to emulate Latin insula? I may be wrong about this. Outsider said:. The s appeared in the word's spelling late in its development, in the 17th century, under the influence of French isle or Latin insula; so far this spelling peculiarity has not influenced the word's pronunciation.

You are probably right, though, that the s had long fallen silent. I suspect when the Franks and Burgundians took local women for wives and their children grew up learning early-medieval Latin was when it happened.

Granted, the spelling may have been gallicized, or latinized, because some misguided scribes thought that island derived from Old French isle whose "s" had at some time been pronounced. They begin with a capital letter because they are names. The word Iceland is the name of a country sometimes called Republic of Iceland.

However, the country of Iceland is also an island because it is surrounded by water the North Atlantic Ocean. Ireland is the name of an island to the west of Great Britain. The island of Ireland contains two political units:. Row, row, row, hard across the sea Row to my island in the middle of the sea Row, row, row, hard across the sea Row to my island in the middle of the sea. Ireland is an island in the middle of the sea Row, row, row Baby: Row back home to me Row, row, row, hard across the sea Row to my island in the middle of the sea.

Given that a sufficient answer was produced by quoting Wikipedia, I'm voting to close as general reference. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. Barrie England Barrie England k 10 10 gold badges silver badges bronze badges.

Orion Orion 1, 6 6 gold badges 19 19 silver badges 26 26 bronze badges. Is the pronunciation of island pretty close to ireland , then? Kris If Apple had invented the word, they would probably have spelled it like iLand SCNR — Raku. Raku: So it would be a trademark and no man could be an iLand anymore? Show 1 more comment.