why do we use "silent" letters in words ?

Question

why do we use them when they have no bearing on the word? can we have more than one silent letter? what is the origin of using "silent" letters? as an aside ,the use cannot be related to creating difference in spellings as words with same spellings are allowed to exist...

Answer 1

Old English was 90% phonemic (words sound the same as they look). But from the beginning of the 15th century, we began to borrow words from other languages. Because grammar and usage rules are different in other languages, adopted words did not follow the rules of English pronunciation.

The English language "borrowed" the Latin alphabet, and so we only have 26 letters to represent around 41 different significant sounds. This means that we must attempt to use combinations of letters to represent sounds.

In the Middle English Period William Caxton brought the printing press to England. As time passed, pronunciation continued to change, but the printing press preserved the old spelling. That's why today we have words that end in a silent "e" or have other silent letters in the middle, such as "might." In fact, modern day English is only 40% phonemic.

Answer 2

English has a lot of different influences. Despite being a Germanic language we've picked up quite a bit from the Romance and Greek languages. Those are the main influences though. The British were conquerors, so a nice chunk of our words are picked up from other languages that have different spelling rules. (Example: chipotle: Aztec word)

For example, words spelled with a 'ph' as an f sound are most likely from the greek language, where phi is a letter. The greek letters psi and mu are respsonsible for the silent letters in words like psychology and mnemonics.

Certain silent letters indicated how other letters should sound. The silent 'e' in make, take, poke, kite, cute, mete are indicators that the preceding vowel is long rather than short.

Those are just a few reasons though... English is notorious for use of silent letters.

Answer 3

Think about it, if we didn't then either we wouldn't meet online, or we wouldn't have meat for dinner, one has a silent "a", the other a silent "e". So they do have a bearing on the word, you can't/don't tell the sun "good-night", you're son isn't in the solar system.
So it's to distingush certain words that sound the have to be spelled diffrenlty to have the proper meaning, even if it means having a silent letter. You think the english language is one of the hardest now, try going a day without using words with silent letters. That will be rough.

Answer 4

All of these answers have validity, but I blame it on Daniel Webster. Latin languages are actually easier to spell - f = f and that is that, no ph or gh or ff. Up till Daniel Webster 'standardized' English spelling, there were many variations as people tried to 'sound out ' spelling in their own ways. It's true that English has borrowed from many other languages, but that is only part of the explanation. Another part of the explanation is that the same word has evolved through the centuries, especially American English , for example, the word 'been' used to be pronounced as it is spelled, but now it has evolved into something more like 'bin' or 'ben' ; 'which' used to be pronounced as spelled, but now we say more like 'wich' . When I was in school we had to memorize a bit of Chaucer to get a taste of what English was like way back when. "Whan that Aprile with its shores soota"?
I think the craziest thing in English spelling is 'through, tough, bough, ought'. What were you thinking, Daniel Webster???

Answer 5

Silent letters have worth in English! For instance...using the 'silent e' at the end of the word changes the vowel sound in the middle.

bit (i is short sound)

add the 'bossy e' and the vowel now says its name...

bite (i is long)

And many more reasons!

Answer 6

Thankfulness

Answer 7

thats just english for you.. it has these little quirks in spelling and grammar at times!