2006-12-12 02:05:06 · 6 answers · asked by Ducky 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
There are several reasons why we have silent letters in English words.
1.) The evolution of the English language dropped sounds as people began pronouncing words differently, but not letters. For example, in New England, they say "ca" in stead of "car." If that pronunciation became more common, after a long period of time passed, people would think that is the pronunciation thus you have a "silent" letter.
2.) English borrows many words from other languages. Originally, Latin was thought to be an elite language. So, many speakers of English borrowed words from Latin attempting to maintain the same spelling. The sounds do not translate directly into English based on the "rules" of our language.
There are more, but this is really all I have time to type and it should answer the question.
2006-12-12 03:41:38 · answer #1 · answered by Princess Purple 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well I know sometimes it's because at some point the sound was pronounced and deletion of the sound later never affected the spelling. With some words there are different pronunciations for the same spelling, ignoring some letters then others ('herb', 'car'). I even heard that the consonant cluster 'kn' used to be pronounced with the k, but I'm not too confindent on that.
Other times we may have borrowed the word from another language and just adapted the spoken word to English while the written word went through a different/no set of changes.
2006-12-12 02:21:40 · answer #2 · answered by E 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Just in case any accidents happen. You should consider watching Eddie Izzard's 'Dress to Kill' stand up. He does a bit on silent letters. Very hilarious.
2006-12-12 02:14:25 · answer #3 · answered by coldblade666 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It says that it was created before the 12th century.. Back then, English wasn't exactly the top language. So I get the feeling that it came from another language and just stuck.
Like Lingerie.... go try to find THAT in the dictionary w/o knowing how to spell it!... because it came from the French.
2006-12-12 02:34:44 · answer #4 · answered by Valeria 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because in old english different letters sounded different and words were prounounced different. As language evolved different words started being pronounced differently and eventually we got to the language we use today.
2006-12-12 02:17:57 · answer #5 · answered by lonestarlady 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It's to make spelling more difficult.
2006-12-12 03:38:21 · answer #6 · answered by DavidNH 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋