Who gives a shite?
You can't even spell "shit" correctly, man!
ROFLMAO !!!
OH you silly and ignorant person, it's probably wise not to make comments on someone's language use unless you are a linguist... you could get yourself in more trouble.
The word "shite"/"shyte" is a bi-product of the Great Vowel Shift which occurred during the 14th and 15th centuries (1350-1500)*. As a consequence of the Great Vowel Shift and the fact that the Old English "shite" (pronounced 'shit-a' as if in an Italian accent) became a vulgar word during this time (due to the Norman conquest and the subsequent loss of prestige of English and the elevation of French words in status), most of the older pronunciations were lost in Standard Middle English, but were retained in some regional English dialects. This was the the case of Old English "shite", the two pronunciations ("shit", and "shyte") survived. This was probably due to the taboo nature of the word and a desire to find euphemisms or alternative pronunciations.
"Shit" survived primarily in southern Standard English (and was passed on to American), and "shyte" thrived more in the North of England, Scotland and Ireland although "shit" was still the more common of the two.
*This shift also produced the modern pronunciations of the words "mouse" and "mice". Before the shift, they had been pronounced somewhat like "moose" and "meese". (/moos/, /myys/)... Most American/Canadian accents are an exacerbation of old regional British/Irish accents. Therefore, the Candians pronounce "mouse" closer to the older form /moos/ ( Canadians pronounce it /mous/ as opposed to /maus/).
n.b. Interestingly, the word "shit" is a very old Germanic one. It was originally spelt "scit", before the Anglo-Saxon and Norse languages split to go their different ways. In Anglo-Saxon words, the letter combination "sc" began to be pronounced "sh", but in Norse words, it remained "sk". When the Vikings and Danish invaded England, they brought back words with the "sk" pronunciation. Therefore the Norse give us "skirt", "skip" and "skull" to add to our native "shirt", "ship" and "shell", and with slightly different meanings, therefore enriching our vocabulary. In Swedish, (a descendant of the Norse language) "shit" is "skit"...
Strangely enough, in Greek it is " skat", which is the origin of the word "scatology" the study of dung or filth... the study of shit...
Interestingly, the word "eschatology" ("the study of the last days" pronounced 'e-scat-ology') is probably closely related......
So in view of the apparent etymology of the word, it really is a useless trying to figure out the name of the beast. It's akin to studying shit.
(Wicked picture by the way Tetragod)
