Why Does “Island” Have a Silent “S”? Because Scholars Couldn’t Stop Themselves

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, I’m Allie, and I’m calling from Wisconsin, Waukesha.

I have a question since I was in, like, fourth grade.

Why is it island always spelt like island, and why do we always pronounce it like island?

Oh, what a good question.

Why does island have an S in it, and why is it pronounced with a long I?

And you said you’ve had this question since fourth grade?

How long has that been?

Well, about like four or five years now.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

So you’re in eighth or ninth grade?

Eighth.

So why don’t we pronounce the yes then, you’re saying?

Yes.

Do you have any theories?

It’s because of our language.

Yeah, the language is all messed up.

Yeah, it’s true.

Or it’s something that has just appeared suddenly.

Yeah, that too.

It’s a little complicated, but I’m going to try to streamline this,

And we’ll get to the bottom of it.

In Old English, the word was very similar.

It was I-G-L-A-N-D.

And the first part meant either water or watery land,

Depending which reference word you check.

But that first part, that I-G,

Was later, by the time Old English turned into Middle English,

Was changed to be spelled as I-L-A-N-D or Y-L-A-N-D.

For some reason, some people misunderstood, some scholars misunderstood,

And thought that instead of being connected to the other Germanic languages,

Which had very similar words that meant water or watery land, that first part, that I-G,

Decided that it was instead connected to I-S-L-E, the French word, which means island.

They were wrong, but it seemed logical to them that it was probably connected.

And so they started spelling it as Isleland, I-S-L-E-L-A-N-D, or later, I-S-L-A-N-D.

And so that’s how we got that spelling, which is fine.

So by the 17th century, that spelling had changed.

And so that’s the short version of the story.

But the strange thing about this is the French didn’t spell Isle with an S either.

Originally, but they spelled it I-L-E or Y-L-E. So how did that S get there? There was another

Whole batch, different batch of scholars who tried to improve French by making it more like Latin,

And they noted that I-L-E, meaning island, was derived from the Latin insula, which meant island,

And so they changed I-L-E to be spelled I-S-L-E, and that’s what was borrowed into English to give

As our word island today, but that didn’t last.

And later the S, because it was no longer

Pronounced in French, they got rid of it.

And now they went back to spelling isle as I-L-E.

And they put a little circumflex,

Which is like a little upside down hat over the I

To indicate that the S was once there.

So we don’t pronounce the S in island

Because the French don’t pronounce the S in isle.

And that is the word that we borrowed from the French.

That’s interesting.

We have a lot of these kind of historical remnants in our language.

When you see something curious, like a letter not being pronounced,

It is a really strong clue, Allie, that there’s a story there.

And in this case, it tells us that the island came to us from French.

And so we have this little note that says there’s a word history here.

Island has a little bit of French history.

The S is not pronounced in French.

Therefore, we don’t pronounce it in this word island.

I’m going to recommend a book.

It’s by Erika Okrent, O-K-R-E-N-T.

It’s called Highly Irregular, Why Tough, Through, and Doe Don’t Rhyme,

And Other Oddities of the English Language.

It’s a very accessible book.

There are cute cartoons in it.

And it tells you a lot of these stories, like why there’s an H in the word ghost, for example.

So you might look for that book.

That actually sounds really interesting.

Well, Allie, good luck in school.

Thank you for your call.

We really appreciate it.

And keep your enthusiasm going.

It’ll get you far.

And thank you for allowing me to be on the show.

Oh, our pleasure, as always.

Glad to have you.

Yeah, take care now.

Bye-bye.

So pick up that phone and call us, 877-929-9673.

We’d love to talk with you about your language question.

Or send it to us an email, words@waywordradio.org.

Thank you.