Well, most languages read vowels somewhat similarly. It’s English that differs from the norm and therefore often has „weird“ spellings, especially for onomatopoeia.
Yeah English teachers in my country start the first lesson by telling you that in English you don’t pronounce words exactly as written. Because in Estonian, each letter has exactly one sound. Grammatical context can change the length of the sound, but not really the sound itself.
Huh, we also spell it like that in Germany. Surely this is the same for entirely normal reasons…
Well, most languages read vowels somewhat similarly. It’s English that differs from the norm and therefore often has „weird“ spellings, especially for onomatopoeia.
See Great Vowel Shift
Yeah English teachers in my country start the first lesson by telling you that in English you don’t pronounce words exactly as written. Because in Estonian, each letter has exactly one sound. Grammatical context can change the length of the sound, but not really the sound itself.
Also it’s spelled mjäu.