why not just go without
2006-11-03 08:35:32 · 11 answers · asked by BASS TARD 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Remnants of the fact that English comes from many other languages. In many cases, the pronunciation changed, but, unfortunately, the spelling didn't.
2006-11-03 08:39:06 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
They are the remnants of the old languanges from which modern ones derived.
It's been a while but I recall a HS teacher once handed out a paragraph written with removed silent letters, single letters for double letters, F's where PH, or GH made the F sound, K for Q and C(in the hard sound), S for the soft C's, and so on. The result was a mangled and ugly mess, but rather funny.
This was back before the internet, but I'm sure an enterprising soul could track it downonline.
2006-11-03 09:18:06 · answer #2 · answered by janssen411 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some silent letters are needed, like an e at the end of a word.
But, I agree with you:
Psycho? Why not sycho
Colonol? Why not Kernol
House? Could be Hows
Damn? Come on! We don't need that stinkin n! Dam!
2006-11-03 08:45:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
To sum up, English is a language that grew from many conquering languages and then borrowed words from other languages either to be pretentious or because they did a better job of describing the situation. Unfortunately, all English speaking people are very poor at putting effort into learning the correct pronunciation of foreign words and so we had spelling from one language with pronunciation which suited the speaker. This gives us a rich and flexible language which drives non-speakers buggy. And our grammar is no better since the rules never even were intended for English.
2006-11-03 08:48:56 · answer #4 · answered by St N 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Because that silent letter is there to let us know how to pronounce the other vowels. Like "a" in the word State.
2006-11-03 08:37:41 · answer #5 · answered by CheezyYumYums 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because of some pretentious, self-important , purveyors of the english language thought it that it would just be the coolest thing.
2006-11-03 08:38:54 · answer #6 · answered by cabjr1961 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
it is confusing and I see why at times foreigners have a difficult time speaking the American English....
2006-11-03 08:39:43 · answer #7 · answered by StarShine G 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
there can be a number of explainations:
1. maybe the people who invented the english language didn't like immigrants, so they made it harder for them to learn english.
2. teachers have fun with it
3. the people who made the language were drunk...
2006-11-03 08:39:17 · answer #8 · answered by brookbabe90 5 · 0⤊ 3⤋
We have ways of making you talk.
2006-11-03 08:37:58 · answer #9 · answered by Isis 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you have discovered why English is the most retarded language in the world
2006-11-03 08:37:18 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋