I think it is a feature rather than a bug that words with similar meanings sound different. Imagine if to, too and two meant similar things and could be used in the same situation. Then it would be difficult to hear what exactly a speaker is saying and it would take effort to learn the distinctions. Eventually, they would likely merge into a single word.
I might argue that the language would be better off without homophones altogether; having words that sound the same but mean different things is confusing!
Yes, there typically isn’t an advantage in two particular different words sounding the same. Instead, that is a result of having many words and wanting to keep them short. My point is that as long at they are used in completely different situations (either grammatically or in different topics) is not much of a problem.
I think it is a feature rather than a bug that words with similar meanings sound different. Imagine if to, too and two meant similar things and could be used in the same situation. Then it would be difficult to hear what exactly a speaker is saying and it would take effort to learn the distinctions. Eventually, they would likely merge into a single word.
I might argue that the language would be better off without homophones altogether; having words that sound the same but mean different things is confusing!
Yes, there typically isn’t an advantage in two particular different words sounding the same. Instead, that is a result of having many words and wanting to keep them short. My point is that as long at they are used in completely different situations (either grammatically or in different topics) is not much of a problem.