#31: What’s in a Word?
Did you know that word sounds can change over time? One example involves rebracketing, when speakers misunderstand where the edge of a word is. They keep hearing people say “a apron,” and eventually, they start to think they’re hearing “an apron.”
And it didn’t only happen with the word “apron,” either. “An ewt” became “a newt,” “a nadder” became “an adder” (lots of creepy crawlies here), and we have the word “orange” because in French, they rebracketed “une norenge” as “une orenge.”