this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 7 points 40 minutes ago

Because the English language is rife with tradition that makes the language intentionally more complicated.

I have postulated for years that you can just get rid of ph from the language entirely and it will make absolutely no difference in how we say the words.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 3 points 31 minutes ago (1 children)

Why is Kansas, "cansus", while Arkansas is "R-cansaw"?

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 1 points 7 minutes ago

Why is Houston "hew-stown" while Houston is "house-ton"

[–] 6stringringer@lemmy.zip 42 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] WanderingThoughts@europe.pub 38 points 1 day ago (1 children)

English, misspelling and never admitting mistakes go hand in hand.

[–] DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 day ago

Don't forget 'far too inconvenient to correct now'

[–] sbeak@sopuli.xyz 57 points 1 day ago

The Philippines were named after a Spanish king, King Phillip, or Felippe in Spanish. Given that the country was first controlled by the Spanish for ages, then the Americans, I'm guessing that at first the Spanish name for both the people and the territory was used, but when the Americans took over, the English-ified name of the territory was used, while the Spanish name for the people stuck as colonial powers use the name for the territory more often? Perhaps the Filipino diaspora also plays a role in this. I don't know, just my guess.

[–] funesto@sh.itjust.works 38 points 1 day ago (3 children)

And is pronounced "Pilipino" by most Filipinos. But my Filipino wife, who grew up in South Carolina, had a friend who said "Flippin-o". So that's what we say now, lol.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago

"Flippin-o" sounds like if a kids show tried to create a fake curse word, so they could curse on air, without being fined by the FCC.

It's all a bunch of smoo!

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

That's not because of the spelling but because of the language. Just like Indonesian, the language doesn't distinguish between f and p, because they're basically the same letter (one is a plosive and one is a fricative but that's it). In Indonesian you'll hear fancake and coppee, for example.

I knew a Pilipino family that seemed to pronounce it both ways.

I tend to think it’s due to those around them. Like this kid I knew from school who came from the UK; with us as his friends, he had an American accent like the rest of us. But as soon as he talked to his parents or his sister, he had this heavy English accent. He seemed to be aware of it but had no control over it.

[–] schwim@piefed.zip 29 points 1 day ago (5 children)
[–] one_old_coder@piefed.social 1 points 22 minutes ago

Kaging is bad for French people, and especially Occitan in the south, as caguer (loosely translated to caging in English) means "to take a dump." https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/caguer

[–] macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Use a better search like Bing or duckduckgo. googol sucks and was never any good.

[–] valek879@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Back in my day we used to call it "searching"

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Here's a Nintendo game. It's Halo for the Xbox360.

[–] Zier@fedia.io 4 points 1 day ago (3 children)

You could easily replace 'googling' to 'Interneting'.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 53 minutes ago (1 children)

If “Googling” falls into common usage to cover all web search, Alphabet lose their trademark protection…

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 minutes ago

"Kleenex" being more common than "facial tissue" is not hurting the Kleenex brand at all.

[–] osanna@lemmy.vg 6 points 1 day ago

Instead of googling, I say searching it up

[–] Bazoogle@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

'Interneting' does not suggest using a search engine

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

People that use Kagi are the Harvard grads of search engine users

[–] bright@piefed.social 23 points 1 day ago

How did this question never occur to me before? Now i need to know the answer too

[–] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Lol

Guangzhou is spelled with the Pinyin

But the local language is not called "Guangzhouese", its Cantonese, but the city is not called "Canton"

lmao

Also: Petition to rename my city to "Filadelfia" 🤭

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Canton was originally the transliterated name for the province of Guangdong, which is why the language is called Cantonese in English, from guǎngdōnghuà.

The name Canton being applied to Guangzhou came later.

[–] expatriado@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

it was an Spanish colony for 300 years, Filipino is the Spanish spelling, and probably stuck, in English would have been "Philippine"

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

I always remember the 'pp' by imagining it as some suburban estate. "Philip Pines"

[–] purrtastic@lemmy.nz 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That is exactly what I do.

[–] saltesc@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Does your brain also say it with the same voice as "Reticulating Splines" from SimCity?

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org -3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The only relevant spelling is the original language.

What foreigners are doing in their languages has no meaning. You can spell it however you like, change it every year etc.

[–] Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 7 points 1 day ago

Do you mean Spanish or Tagalog?

[–] ThomasWilliams@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That would be latin ? I'm pretty sure that's where "Phillipines" originates.

[–] freeman@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago

Greek name meaning he who likes horses, the name of Alexander the great's father, then a Spanish King's who colonized the islands.

Therefore actually spelled with a Φ and the issue being different transliterations of it.

[–] brownsugga@lemmy.world -4 points 1 day ago

Probably something to do with Tagalog vs English, and the English named the Philippines