Word of the Day

[mathhobbit]

Water

Butter, wetter, batter, hotter, better why not watter?

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Hm...not because of what's an s vs a t in German, based on your examples.

[kelkyag]

I use different sounds for the "a"s in "batter" and "water". Given English, that is probably 1) not why and 2) variable by dialect. :)

[sauergeek]

I also use two different A sounds in those words. But given English spelling (non-)rules, the more likely answer is that the two words came to English from two different languages.

Initial searching on Google suggests my guess is correct. "batter" came to English from Latin through French. "water" is English from Old English and proto-German before that.