How is choir pronounced

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The pronunciation doesn't fit the spelling of the word at all. English spelling is a strange hodgepodge that often has little correspondence to the pronunciation. That's one of the more difficult parts of learning English. Our words come from many different origins and the spelling has been adjusted at different points in history. The Online Etymology Dictionary gives this as the origin of "choir": c. Meaning "band of singers" is c. Re-spelled midc.

Click to expand It was originally spelt quire , and borrowed from Old French quer. Some time in the 17th century people started spelling it choir so that it would look more like Modern ish French choeur. The new spelling remained Last edited: Apr 10, Kiwiwi New Member Warsaw, Poland.

Well, keep in mind that French has evolved dramatically over the last years or more, too. How it is pronounced now is not how it was pronounced when it entered English.

The pronunciation of borrowed words can be "frozen in time", in a way, and not evolve along with the language that gave them to us. Not so dramatically, Moliere is quite readable. I believe it must have entered English even earlier than hundred years, English was under really strong French influence in the Middle Ages. The etymology shows it entering English around A. Maxwell , chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp : Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced.

The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. The church choir practices Thursday nights. Maxwell , chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp : Here, in the transept and choir , where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.

Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones are three of the choirs of angels. The great aim of this book is to secure congregational singing, which the churches must come to, at last, after a long interval of choiring.

Would you abandon him to the infamous blade Which makes the wicked fall under the headman's hand?