“Why isn’t the word ‘phonetically’ spelled with an ‘f’?”
―Steven Wright
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Kate Morgan Reade: Why, indeed!
Being a philologist, you personally know quite well the answer to that question.
But the quote is not only witty, it brushes with the intended experiment of that benign Grandfather of the best in America: Benjamin Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin, himself, set about a phonetic (fonettik?!) dictionary of American English.
But Noah Webster was among the philologists who prospered, and the rest is, well, philology.
Speaking of philology, but on a topic totally different:
In a group of German speakers SUPPOSEDLY at the CERFL level C1-C2 (two highest of six levels), where one asked, in German of course, why "Alptraum" -- nightmare -- was named for the Alps.
Oh, my.
According to the authoritative Duden (the German equivalent to Noah Webster) "Alptraum" is a variant of "Albtraum," the elements of which are "Alb" -- itself a variation of "Elfe" or "Elf" -- which, would you guess it, is the ENGLISH "Elf" -- which the Germans adopt from Shakespeare (whose work is critical in the development of German literature!!) and "Traum" -- the exact same Germanic word as the English "Dream".
So, a German "Alptraum" is a scary "Dream" about "Elves", according to the Duden "Wortherkunftsbuch" (Etymological Dictionary).
What about "nightmare", itself?
The German language has the exact cognate: Nachtmahr.
But I have seen that variant used in only a few pieces of literature -- maybe a story or two in Brüder Grimm. By far, the word used is "Albtraum" "Alptraum".
Thank you for today's thoughts.
Teaser: Come on! Who is the artist, and what is the name of the Painting that so beautifies this page? OK, from "Unsplash". Alright. But who is the artist? What is the name of the painting? This painting is worth keeping a copy!
Good ole Stephen Wright!