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by scatters 1834 days ago
No, the "pen" in "penguin" means "head" - it's from Welsh. English spelling is a lot easier if you know the languages it was derived from or influenced by.

An advantage of non-phonetic spelling is that it doesn't privilege any one accent over any other, so allowing a polycentric acrolect with each variety picking up accent and vocabulary from the local dialect, but maintaining mutual comprehension in writing.
2 comments
trainsplanes 1834 days ago
>English spelling is a lot easier if you know the languages it was derived from or influenced by.

Knowing a bunch of languages in order to have a proper context for English spelling is surely a higher threshold than memorizing the characters in your own language.

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gg80 1834 days ago
It’s still debated if that is the correct etymology. A different hypothesis has “penguin” deriving from the Latin “pinguis” (fat).
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smcl 1834 days ago
Certainly in Czech the two are related:

tučňák = noun, penguin

tučný = adjective, fat

I don't know if that helps determine the origin of the English word, but it's definitely funny to think that there’s a nation which calls penguins “fatties” :D

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