What is the purpose of silent letters?

Question

dont give me some crap answer.

Answer 1

It looks like people are focusing on the ORIGINS of the silent letters more than any "purpose" or value to them. Well the two are connected.

Silent letters are largely the result of:

a) changes in pronounciation AFTER the spelling was established (e.g., in OLD English the k and gh of 'knight' were pronounced, as the related German word "Knecht" continues to pronounce them). The changes may be large ones where entire sounds are lost to the language (like the loss of the /gh/ sound of Old English), or small shifts from things like where the accent falls in a word (which is the origin of many chnages in vowel sound, including silent vowels).

b) borrowing words from MANY different languages with different spelling conventions and/or with distinctions that may not exist (and so ultimately are lost) in English.

c) trying to use the Latin alphabet witch lacks single letters for many sounds found in English (esp. vowel sounds)

So in most cases, those who established the spelling of English words did not intentionally include silent letters! And the 'decision' to keep the old spelling after the pronunciation changed was usually tradition/habit. Nevertheless, keeping the older spellings DOES

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"Purposes" (or values) in silent letters:

1) The 'magic e' of words like "cane" and "code" --originally it was pronounced separately, but now it helps to mark the first vowel as "long" (and so to distinguish these words from "can" and "cod"). Some prefer not to label this use of e as "silent e" because it DOES have an effect on the pronunciation.


Something similar might be said for doubled letters -- technically only one is pronounced, but the doubling helps to mark the preceding vowel as short. Compare 'hoped' (with the 'magic e') and 'hopped' (with the double consonant).

2) Help us distinguish words that sound the same: night/knight, in/inn, lent/leant.

3) Silent letters may keep a record of part of the word's history. Keeping the spelling may help to show us relationships between words: when 'soft' adds '-en' (-> soften) the 't' become silent, but we can see that the words are related (cf. haste > hasten; oft > often; fast [meaning 'secure'] > fasten; nest > nestle); lean > leant (not 'lent'); in other cases, the suffixed form pronounces a letter that is silent in the simple form damn (with silent n) > damnable; vehicle (silent h) > vehicular (restores the h because it is in the accented syllable). Incidentally, learning words as PAIRS or clusters (soft WITH soften) can make it much easier to get the correct spelling for the one with a silent letter

This is also useful when learning foreign languages (like learning to read French or German and RECOGNIZING related English words from the spelling) or other English words borrowed from foreign languages.

4) Some letters are commonly silent in certain English dialects, not in others (e.g., initial h- or final -r); keeping the same spelling, even if our own dialect treats a letter as silent makes it possible for us to communicate across English dialects. (These dialectal/accent differences, by the way, are a MAJOR barrier to "spelling reform", because it would only really work for some groups, and make the written word totally confusing and non-phonetic for many others.)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_letter

a list of common silent letters in English
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/silentletters01.html

Answer 2

Actually it has to do with how English evolved. English is a Germanic language and modern English (think what you hear daily all the way back to Shakespeare) evolved from Middle English (think Chaucer) which came from Old English (I don't know any examples but it's a completely different language, just think of it that way).

Anyway, at this time there was no standard spelling because few people wrote. As Old English evolved into Middle English people (think Guttenberg) started trying to make spelling standardized. However, when the switch from Old to Middle took place (it was gradual of course) some of those Old words that have "e"s on the end just kept them.

At one point "e"'s on the end of words were prononced so they wern't silent. For example, in Monty Python and the Holy Grail they say Ka-***-it (for Knight...they say all the letters). That's actually how the word was said -- ah, interesting fact to share with your friends!

Between the 1500's and 1700's (I think) there was something called the Great Vowel Shift which gave vowels the jobs they have today (and made them act/sound as we know them). Some silent letters were removed but some stayed on. Today, they help function in telling us how to say words differently (like the example already given of can v. cane). Hope this helped!

Answer 3

usually silent letters are vowels most commonly "e" the silent "e" can change the sound of other letters or make a short vowel a long vowel... same you don't hear the "e" but it changes the word to sound like "saym" without the "e" it would change the word to sam "säm" also the word "whole" which means having all of its effects and parts. you don't say the "w" but it lets you know its a new word with a new meaning instead of the word hole which means an opening through something check ya later ♥

Answer 4

Silent letters are carry-overs when a word changes to a new language and the pronunciation is changed. For example, in german, a "kn" is prounounced "kuh-nuh-", whereas in english this is rarely if ever the case. Don't ask me about words in their original language that are silent though (esp. French) - I'm sorry, but I have no idea.

Answer 5

The purpose of silent letters is to, no wait sorry, you said no crap answers. ( I almost blew it , there) Anyhow the Germanic Language answer nailed it.

Answer 6

to change the vowel sound of an earlier vowel

example: can or cane

Answer 7

to signify if the vowel preceding is long or short.

Answer 8

that is a very weird way to spell james

Answer 9

stealth ... words can be sneaky ...

Answer 10

there pretty LOL