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Why does the word Wednesday read as Wenzday? Where do its roots grow? All the other days of the week read as they are written but not Wednesday.

Why hasn't the spelling changed over the years?

SovereignSun
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    You're asking the wrong question. The right question is; why is the English word /'wɛnzde/ spelled Wednesday? The word came before the spelling, not the other way around. English spelling still retains Middle English sounds that were lost in Modern English. Wednesday was originally 'Wodan's day", just as Tuesday was "Tiw's day", and Thursday was "Thor's day", after other Germanic gods. – John Lawler May 10 '17 at 20:30
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    English is a non-syllabic language (and a can of worms, spelling-wise). In Spanish, you pronounce what you see. In English, there are some rules but there are thousands of words that do not follow any rules. Ergo, you have to heard it before you can pronounce it. And all the other days of the week could be have been written: Fryday, (in AmE) Twosday Thursday: Thirsday :) The others do all have only two syllables though except for Saturday, Saterday?. That's true. Yes, words often come to exist before their spelling. – Lambie May 11 '17 at 00:06

2 Answers2

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In terms of spelling, Old English Wōdnes dæg (Woden's day), mutated into Wēdnesdæg, then Middle English Wednesdai, which became Wednesday.

In terms of pronunciation, there were multiple paths to the simplified pronunciation. Besides English, for example, Old Frisian wōnsdei, and Middle Dutch wōdensdach became Dutch woensdag. When honoring of mythical gods stopped being a thing, there was a natural tendency to simplify pronunciation.

Once the modern spelling became established, there was not a push to modify it when it could simply be pronounced differently.

source: American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition, Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition, and Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, all via TheFreeDictionary.com

fixer1234
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It's simple elision of the alveolar triconsonantal cluster in the Early Modern English (EModE). Lots of cluster simplifications took place in EModE. One of them was the reduction of triconsonantal cluster in handsome and wednzday. The spelling retained the d, however.

This can be verified at Irregularities in Modern English by W. Hansen and Hans Frede and Trask's Historical Linguistics.

Void
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