Re: debt, doubt, island, sword and dielects.

abrigon wrote:
>
> I am not sure about the word debt and the B, since a related word the B
> is pronounced, Such as Debit.
Nope.  What happened was that when English first acquired the word from
French, it was spelled _dette_.  The "b" was added to make it closer to
the oringal Latin form, which was _debitum_.  Debit is borrowed
dirrectly from the Latin.

Same with "doubt", originally _doutte_, from Latin _dubita:re_

Island got the s by analogy with isle (Island was often misanalyzed as
isle-land)
Island itself is from Old English _i:eg-land_ , this was a compound word
from _i:eg_ (/i:ej/, or something like that), "island" and _land_,
"land" :-) - thus island-land.  _I:eg_, in turn, comes from
Proto-Germanic _aujo:_ meaning "land associated with water", and
ultimately related to Latin _aqua_

Isle was _ile_ when first borrowed from French.  The _s_ was added
because of Latin _insula_, which I've seen connected with _sal_ (salt),
the idea being "land surrounded by salt water"

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