07 nov 05
Shouldn’t exclamation (as in exclamation point) be spelled like exclaim, with an I?
crystal / 08 nov 2005 / 4 a.m.
umm, wow at jasons comment. i didnt think it was that DEEP.
i was going to write “good point” but then i reas jasons comment, so yeah:/
Shaun / 08 nov 2005 / 12:45 p.m.
However, modern etymological evolution will eventually lead to the ESPNification of the words so that they will be Xclaim and Xclamation, respectively.
Nancy / 09 nov 2005 / 8:07 a.m.
But what’s up with the word “judgment?” No second ‘e’? Where’d it go?
jason / 08 nov 2005 / 12:38 a.m.
no. exclaim comes from the middle french exclamer. the word exclamation comes from the french word which is spelled the same (most words ending in “-ion” are of french origin). In english, we kept the original spelling of exclamation while we made the verb exclaim probably because of pronunciation reasons due to the fact that it would’ve been spelled “exclame/exclames” when conjugated in english which, as you know, would give the word the long A sound like in game while keeping an short A sound like ah in french. in order to make sure that the word was properly pronounced, the spelling of the word was probably changed to conform to english phonetic rules. then again, i’m making all of this up based on reading the etymologies and my knowledge of french.