I loved episode 460 of "99% Invisible," entitled "Corpse, Corps, Horse, and Worse." It discusses a number of interesting details about the history of English. Among them: the reason why English spelling is so much more chaotic than other languages has an answer. All languages have gone through periods of rapid change. The problem is that English was going through a period of rapid change _at the same time_ as printing was being developed. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/corpse-corps-horse-and-worse/