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Why is "high" pronounced "hiy" but is not spelled as the latter, but the former?

Wouldn't "high" be read as "heeg-h" or "haig-h"?

The other possible duplicate's examples all have a "t" prefixing, and also, the accepted answer for that question does not address why GH is occasionally pronounced out.

Example's of other words starting with "GH" is Ghillie, or ending with GH as in Edinburgh.

jackiepenal
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  • different word that has a "t" behind – jackiepenal May 25 '18 at 00:33
  • Well, it's true that "-igh" and "-ight" aren't exactly the same spellings, but don't you think John Lawler's answer there applies just as well to "high" as it does to "night"? In both cases, the explanation is "the word used to be pronounced with /x/ in Middle English, but this consonant sound was lost", so the modern English words high and night are not in fact read as "hig-h" or "nig-h-t". – herisson May 25 '18 at 00:36
  • @sumelic updated the question to address the possible dupp thingy – jackiepenal May 25 '18 at 00:37
  • Why do you think that we spell things as we do? It isn't about their pronunciations. – tchrist May 25 '18 at 00:37
  • " the accepted answer for that question does not address why GH is occasionally pronounced out." – jackiepenal May 25 '18 at 00:37
  • @tchrist bruh im just asking a question because this is a question site – jackiepenal May 25 '18 at 00:38
  • I think you're confused about spelling and pronunciation. They are unrelated in English. Think of it like Chinese. – tchrist May 25 '18 at 00:38
  • Hmm, can you give an example of what you mean by talking about GH that is "pronounced out"? Are you talking about words that start with a GH that is pronounced as /g/, like the ones mentioned in this question: Is there any English word starting with “gh” and “gh” is not pronounced as /ɡ/? – herisson May 25 '18 at 00:39
  • Yes, like "Edinburgh" as in the question you linked, and "Ghillie" – jackiepenal May 25 '18 at 00:39
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    GH used to be the spelling for the velar fricative [x] allophone of /h/. When English lost [x], its pronunciation either disappeared (as in high or through), or changed into a non-velar fricative, like trough, tough, or cough. There are other possibilities; this is what happens in language change, and sometimes all the words don't change, for some random reason, like great, which should have become /gri:t/ like meat. But didn't. – John Lawler May 25 '18 at 03:19
  • @sumelic: The OP’s statements seem to be a little contradictory.   They criticize the closing as a duplicate because the other question is about –ight and this one is about –igh, but then mention “out” which can manifest in –ought words like “drought”, but not (AFAICT) in syllables that don’t end with –t. – Scott - Слава Україні May 25 '18 at 06:35
  • @jackiepenal: Face it, the pronunciation of “gh” in English is a can of worms.  Consider “bough”, “cough”, “dough”, “rough”, and “through”, all of which end with –ough, and no two of which rhyme.  And the fact that “weight” rhymes with “eight” and not “height”.  The first 500 pages are pronunciation “rules”, and the second 500 pages are the exceptions and special cases. – Scott - Слава Україні May 25 '18 at 06:35

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