2223: How a Scrivinal Error Changed a Word's Pronunciation Jan 15, 2021

Spelling is not particularly connected to pronunciation, as is obvious to anyone who's looked at English even a minute or two. It has, however, made an impact on those of adopted words over the years. For instance, another name for a 'gharial'—a type of Indian crocodile—is a 'gavial'. It is not because V and R have much to do with each other phonetically, but rather that 'gavial' emerged simply from a scrivinal error. The word in Hindi is 'ghaṛiyāl' but it is believed that the R became a V when a French scribe at the time wrote it wrong.