This community is for (lay)people to ask questions about linguistics. It is not for linguistic debates, memes, etc. Please follow the commenting and posting guidelines in the pinned post and sidebar. Also see the wiki for our FAQ.
Orthography
Why's the interjection eh spelt thus, even though it's pronounced "ay" /eɪ̯/ with the ꜰᴀcᴇ vowel? While the spelling ⟨eh⟩ isn't too common in English in the first place, I generally associate it with ᴅʀᴇss /ɛ/. That seems to be its use when spelling out onomatopœia too (meh, heh). Similarly, the Wikipedia English respelling key which is used to indicate pronounciation of English terms alongside IPA, uses ⟨eh⟩ to write ᴅʀᴇss /ɛ/ too, why I assume it to be the "expected" pronounciation.
Sort by:
Best
Open comment sort options
Best
Top
New
Controversial
Old
Q&A
I found this very confusing as a kid in New Zealand! I did not realise, reading British books, that 'eh' was that interjection - kid me just assumed it was some weird olden days thing English people said. Most people in New Zealand spell it as "ay". I don't know why "eh" is standard?