转自：
http://jandan.net/2012/12/19/b-in-doubt.html英语被公认是世界上最难学习的一门语言（...）之一，它的
正字法（
English orthography）极其不规则。精细琐碎的发音，令人捉摸不透的动词词性变化，还有看起来完全没有道理的发音规则让英语有时候令人十分头痛——有时甚至对英语为母语国家的人也是如此。比如说怀疑这个词“doubt”（读“刀特”...），绝大多数会读会写英语的人都会告诉你这个词里面的“b”是无声字母，不发音。对你说如果根本没有“b”这个音，为什么造词的时候会放个“b”进去呢？
更令人费解的就是当你了解到，听起来简单的“‘b’不发音”被语言学家称为“缺少
双唇音”。当这个词在13实际首次进入英语词典时，它的拼法其实是“doute”——这和它法语中的
同源词是完全一样的（
注解1）。但是如语言学专家 Gina Cooke 在 TED 讲座中解释的那样，自该词出现不久之后，英国的作者们就开始试图对这个词进行修改。很快，他们就选定了 D-O-U-B-T 的这个拼法。
为什么14世纪的作者会给一个已经形成的词加入一个无声字母呢？这样说吧，“doubt”或许确实是从法语词“doute”发源而来，不过它们都有一个共同的拉丁语祖先——“dubitare”——这个拉丁语中的“怀疑”才是后来派生了“dubious”（“可疑的”）和“indubitably”（“不容置疑地”）的词根，这两个词都有完整的双唇音，即“b”是发了音的。“dubitre”这个词还“造”了两个另外的词——“double”（“双倍”）和“doubloon”（古西班牙金币“达布隆”）——只是它们和词根的联系看起来不是那么明显罢了（
注解2）。不过就 Cooke 的说法，它们之间的联系是真实存在并且有趣的。
#1：严格来说，英语中的“doute/doubt”却是可以说是一个外来词/借用语（来自法语），但是在同源性的说法上还有争议。
#2：注意：如 Cooke 指出的，有一个与词根的联系不是很大的词是“doublet”（紧身上衣），它来自单词“double”。当“doublet”的意思和衣物无关时，它通常指“成对之物中的一个”，而在语言学中，这个词更是有特殊的意义：同源异形词，异源同义词，双式词（它们都和同源词不一样）。这也就是说，单词“doubt”，“doublet”，“doubloon”，“dubious”等等，它们本身就全都是“doublets”（同源异形词）。不知道这是过去语言学家所埋下的彩蛋，还是一个惊人的巧合。
English is widely recognized as one of the world's most difficult languages, due in no small part to its
deep,
highly irregular orthography. Niggling quirks in pronunciation, freaky verb conjugations, and seemingly non-sensical spelling conventions can all make English downright bewildering, even to native speakers. Take the word "doubt," for example. Most well-read (well-written?) English-speakers will tell you:
the "b" is silent. But if it's silent, why is that "b" there to begin with?
The lack of what linguists call a
"bilabial consonant"in the pronunciation of "doubt" is even more perplexing when you learn that, when it first entered the English lexicon in the thirteenth century, the word was actually spelled "doute" —
exactlythe same as the French
cognatefrom which it stems1. But as linguistic expert Gina Cooke explains in the TedED video down below, it wasn't long before scribes began to tinker with the word's spelling, and the English "doute" quickly took on the D-O-U-B-T spelling we know today.
Why would 14C scribes
re-insert a silent letter? Well, "doubt" may have origins in the French word "doute," but both share a common ancestor in the Latin verb "dubitare" — a root word that has given rise to related English terms like "dubious" and
"indubitably," each with bilabial consonant intact. But "dubitare" has also engendered words — like "double" and "dubloon" — whose connections with the word "doubt" are less obvious2. But as Cooke explains in this video, the connection is very real — and remarkably interesting, at that.
1. Strictly speaking, this may actually make the English word "doute/doubt" a
loanword(
borrowedfrom French), and not a cognate, but I digress. Any linguists care to weigh in?2. NB: As Cooke points out, one of the words with less obvious historical and connotative connections to "doubt" is "doublet," spawned from the base word "double." What she doesn't mention is that the word "doublet," when not referring to
a close-fitting jacket, is commonly used by linguists to describe
one of two or more words derived from the same etymological root. (Unlike cognates, which I mention above, doublets exist within the same language.) In other words: "doubt" and "doublet" (along with dubloon, doubtless, dubious, etc.) are, in fact, doublets themselves. Was this a coincidental decision on Cooke's part, that she would choose perhaps the best set of words imaginable to explore the ramifying nature of these linguistic concepts? Maybe. But we doubt it.
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搞错了吧，英语应该是最简单的一门语言才对啊
看看
世界上最难学的十大语言排行（联合国公布）NO.1-汉语(中国)
NO.2-希腊语(希腊)
NO.3-阿拉伯语(阿拉伯)
NO.4-冰岛语(冰岛)
NO.5-日语(日本)
NO.6-芬兰语(芬兰)
NO.7-德语(德国)
NO.8-挪威语(挪威)
NO.9-丹麦语(丹麦)
NO.10-法语(法国)
