The fact that English spelling is not always in harmony with English pronunciation can be partially explained by describing language changes. Historically, the sounds within some words have changed, but the spelling of these words has not. For example, in Chaucer's time (late 14th century), the word “name” would have been pronounced [nama]. In Shakespeare's time (1564-1616), seam was pronunced [sam] and did not rhyme with dream, as it does now. The к in knife was pronounced, as were the g in gnaw and -gh in night. Another reason for the inconsistency between the spelling and pronunciation of English is related to the invention of the printing press in England around 1476. The printed forms of the word tended to be standardized, while the pronunciation varied and continued to change.
Language change also helps account for irregular forms in English, such as some plurals, like children and mice, and past tense verb forms, like bought and went. The past tense of many common verbs of Old English was indicated by vowel change, such as sing/sang, drive/drove, and get/got, rather than by adding the standard past tense suffix -ed as in walk/walked. Many of these verbs have retained their old forms to this day. We now consider them "irregular" verbs. So it’s always about history of English language. In japan we also find “Wa” for “I” that was written “Ka” in Katakana.
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