Silent Letters
- Thread starter Cornholio
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Many English words (prefixes and suffixes) are derived from foreign words. We retain the native spellings, yet we have customised the pronunciation to make them sound less foreign. This may have created silent letter sounds.
Our alphabet was also a lot smaller in the past, and I expect silent letters may have been used to modify the sounds of letters that had ambiguous sounds, rather like accents do in other languages.
Our alphabet was also a lot smaller in the past, and I expect silent letters may have been used to modify the sounds of letters that had ambiguous sounds, rather like accents do in other languages.
Some silent letters are put there since every syllable must have a vowel and a vowel sound. The silent letters are put there to qualify for that vowel, so to speak.
You have to remember that English was created by assembling many other languages together, so there are words with Greek, Latin, German, French, and other origins, each which also came with their own grammatical rules.
You have to remember that English was created by assembling many other languages together, so there are words with Greek, Latin, German, French, and other origins, each which also came with their own grammatical rules.
now you now whywhat's the point of silent letters?
anyone know?
What other languages besides English has silent letters?
Gaelic (both Scots and Irish versions)?
It's probably shorter to list languages that don't have silent letters.
You are probably right - I know that Icelandic doesn't.
It's always been my presumption that they're in there to make words look less funny. I'm sure it's because we Americans, and to some degree the English, have muddied the language over the centuries but part of me just think it's part of making words look appealing. I mean "haf" as opposed to "half" just doesn't look as good.
The only one I can't reason-out is Wednesday. I've no idea how we fucked that one up.
The only one I can't reason-out is Wednesday. I've no idea how we fucked that one up.
The h is silent in Spanish.
Some years ago I was told that in Italian, one pronounces every letter, which would suggest there are no silent letters in Italian. But since I know very little Italian I can't confirm that one way or the other.
ok, this part confused me a bit:
the rest of what you said makes sense though.
so you're sayin' that it's kinda like a placeholder? kinda like a zero is used sometimes?
umm, not really, but I'm think I'm gettin' closer to understanding.
and there's one in Connecticut too.
I never could figure that one out either. maybe it's the exception to the rule. if there is a rule for this stuff.
there's a silent h in my RL first name. and for some reason, people are always tryin' to stick an h in my last name even though it doesn't have one.
the rest of what you said makes sense though.
so you're sayin' that it's kinda like a placeholder? kinda like a zero is used sometimes?
now you now why
umm, not really, but I'm think I'm gettin' closer to understanding.
and there's one in Connecticut too.
I never could figure that one out either. maybe it's the exception to the rule. if there is a rule for this stuff.
there's a silent h in my RL first name. and for some reason, people are always tryin' to stick an h in my last name even though it doesn't have one.
Italian definetely has silent letters.
The silent letter in knight gives the sound "N" instead of "K'N". I do not mean the silent letter by itself has a sound, but the sound of the syllable/phoneme it helps to form.
To elaborate with a made up example, let's say 'knight' was a foreign word and that was how the foreigners spelt it. Let's say they also pronounced it K'NITE .
Now, English person takes the word and spells it the same "knight", but doesn't like saying K-NITE because it doesn't sound English, so gradually softens the k, until it is completely silent, and spoken NITE.
Old spelling remains. Pronunciation is modified.
In French, as in many languages, the letter H is silent. And terminal consonants are silent unless the following word begins with a vowel.
Not to mention business, Greenwich and Worcestershire. And all those nautical terms like gunwale (“gun-əl”), forecastle (“foke-səl”) and boatswain (“bo-sən”).
Or halfpenny (ha'penny).
Silent letters are the appendices of language evolution; no longer useful, but not quite dead yet.
German does.
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