https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_e
Cognitive dissonance on the more accurate name of “Ignored e”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heteronym_(linguistics)
Record a record? Convict a convict? What an annoying concept.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphological_leveling
At least irregular verbs are drifting away, that’s a pleasant surprise.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trisyllabic_laxing
fotograffy > fuhtawgruhfee I’ll die on this hill
On thinking it over, “proper” spelling of foreign words has done its own share of damage to English spelling. We don’t just have to learn our own spelling conventions, we also have to learn foreign ones. Or not (sent to you from Cairo, Illinois, locally pronounced “care-oh”)
Frankly, I agree. I’m perhaps biased because of Italian, but I think etymology doesn’t belong to the spelling; a consistent and dialect-agnostic set of rules that allows you to predict how to spell and pronounce a word is far more important.
In special I never understood why English obtusely sticks to the double spelling standard, native (as in /gɪf/) vs. Romance+Classical (as in /dʒɪf/).