Why do they write 'h' in Latin languages, if they don't read it?

Question

Also, why do they write 'gh' in Engligh if they don't read it? ie. Light

Answer 1

Actually, H is used for a number of purposes, even if not pronounced as such.

It can be an etymologycal marker, as in "th" standing for theta in words derived from the Greek, or the h at the start of words derived from the Greek that have a "rough spirit" (sorry, I'm not sure just what's the English is for that one) on the initial vowel, or Germanic words that did have an aspiration, even if it's become mute in languages like French.

It can also be used as a modifier as in "ch", or "th" which is a sound represented by no single letter.

This applies both ways to "gh" where it's both a modifier (it used to be pronounced /x/ as in German "Bach" or Scottish "loch", and an etymological marker for Germanic words that have evolved in a certain way.

All in all, it comes from trying to use the Latin alphabet to transcribe languages for which it was not designed without adding new and nonstandard letters.

Answer 2

Don't know about Latin, although it may be similar to one of the two approaches the French treat the H: the glottal and the silent.

They will pronounce them differently depending on whether the h is glottal or not. For example: L'echelonnement des Haies (the hedgerow) is a case where the normally pronounced "liason" s in "des" will NOT be pronounced because the h in "Haies" is glottal, where as in the phrase "des Heures Persanes", the Persian hours, the s IS pronounced because the h in "Heures" is silent.

In English the gh used to be pronounced. That means that "rough" was not pronounced "ruff", but rough, as in a gutteral sound at the end like in coughing, or as in the ch in the Yiddish word "chutzpah". So bow and bough were never intended to be pronounced the same.

But the reason that they and other words are pronounced the same despite the differences in spelling is either that the foreign people absorbed into the British/American language groups came from linguistic traditions where such "gh" and "th" sounds were unknown (mainly the latin-speaking world and those of celtic regions where such sounds as "th" were shortened to "t"), OR that people have in general become lazy and stupid and have not passed down these differences from generation to generation.

You will note that in some dialects in Scotland they still say lichkktht for light and brichkkt for bright, only changing the hard I into soft i but maintaining the rest of the correct original pronunciation that includes the gutteral "throat-clearing" "gh".

So the answer is that the ignorant/lazy people originally skipping the "gh" has caused the majority to follow suit and erode yet another part of the language. I fully expect the next generation to start to spell such words as "rough" phonetically, which, I am hopeful, I will not have to live to see.

By the way, in the main Filipino dialect of Tagalog they also have opening glottal letters that are not pronounced, much the same as the Ng sound in Vietnamese. Korean also has this. A lesson to be learned, perhaps?

Answer 3

The New Testament used to be written in Greek. There is a few Aramaic vocabulary transliterated into Greek, however Greek however. Jesus generally spoke Western Aramaic (Aramaic written in Hebrew characters), principally if he stayed on the whole within the nation-state or had Pharisaic coaching. But there used to be an overly big Greek populace within the important towns and cities (whatever with a marketplace-position, fairly), so he most probably knew a bit Greek. Latin used to be no longer good represented in that vicinity, apart from management, and it didn't determine into New Testament culture till the apostolic challenge of Paul, however once more the fashionable language in Rome within the early centuries used to be additionally Greek (I recognize, it sounds wierd, however the populace of Rome used to be as a rule immigrants). The earliest we pay attention approximately viable Latin copies of whatever from the New Testament is an early 3rd century account of martyrs who had been killed in North Africa someday round 168 AD that had apostolic letters in Latin on them, however this isn't proven. It is viable that he knew a few Hebrew, however now we have not anything to verify this. It used to be in simple terms an educational language on the time, and despite the fact that Jesus knew the Old Testament good it had already been translated into Greek by means of his day (a textual content referred to as the Septuagint). Because many Jews in the course of the Diaspora had been much more likely to grasp Greek than Hebrew, the Septuagint grew to be a principal textual content and used to be endowed with divine authority. In Palestina at the moment any commentaries or exegetical works at the Old Testament had been written in Aramaic, in order that the average individuals would appreciate it.

Answer 4

Languages evolve over the centuries, hence some letter combinations (which had specific sounds when pronounced in words borrowed from other languages), are retained - especially in English, a language that has been described as the 'vernaculars of vernaculars'. Since English is a language in which elements of Anglo Saxon, Nordic, Norman French, Indian, German, etc., are present, then it is inevitable that some words will be spelled differently from the way they are pronounced. Just enjoy its quirkiness, richness and flexibility!

Answer 5

Tradition

Answer 6

Maybe it looks funny... but its the proper way... its just like the sounds of vocals here, all different, for a Hispanic its just crazy and we ask why Amerasians can read the way the letters sound...
I just will love to unified ideas.

Answer 7

the gh just evolved to a breath sound. just say "gh" like "gu-hh" quikly over and over again and slowly make it change into the breath noise which it is used for today. you can see how it naturally evolved from "gu-hh" into "hh." it's just like "sh." on its own it looks like it would be pronounced "seh-hh" but, because its evolved over time, it has become our modern "sh" dipthong.

Answer 8

it helps the pronunciation. any language containes words with extra letter to help people understand the word better or so words cann`t be confused with others.

Answer 9

Your school must be American!

As far as I remember, they don't write an 'h' without pronunciation of it.

Answer 10

The "h" is also unpronounced in French.