Silent letters can be found in a lot of words. “Roughly 60% of words in English have a silent letter in them,” according to Ursula Dubosarsky, author of The Word Snoop (Dubosarsky 2008). Continue reading to learn about the many sorts of silent letters and how they affect pronunciation and language development in English.
A silent letter in an alphabetic writing system is a letter that in a word does not match to any sound in the word’s pronunciation.
A silent letter—a term used informally in English pronunciation—is a letter or letter combination of the alphabet that is frequently not uttered in a word. The b in subtle, the c in scissors, the g in design, the t in listen, and the gh in thinking are all examples.
Once you understand the rules, most languages that use phonetic alphabets are rather simple to read and pronounce. Simply put, you speak what you see. Some languages, such as English and French, do, nevertheless, utilize a lot of silent letters. This is a list of letters that have been written but not spoken. These letters are frequently left over from when the term was pronounced differently than it is now. [1] Silent letters can be mastered by understanding the laws of the language and remembering typical silent letter words. You can seek up the pronunciation or ask a native speaker if you’re still unsure whether a letter in a word is silent.
The History
So, where did the silent letters originate? They are Classical period relics, according to author Ned Halley. “As the Classical world’s influence grew stronger in the 15th century, English scholars wanted to remind their readers that the majority of the language’s vocabulary came from Latin and Greek. They added the b to show off their understanding of doubt, which was then written ‘dout’ because it came into medieval English via French doute and was derived initially from Latin dubitare. It was a nationalistic act in a sense, reasserting English’s Classical beginnings over the Dutch, French, German, and Norse influences of the millennium since Roman dominance diminished in Britain in the fifth century and Anglo-Saxon languages began to invade.”
Ursula Dubosarsky also has some thoughts on how silent letters have evolved: “Another thing to keep in mind is that many of today’s silent letters were not always silent. The word knight, for example, was once pronounced with the k and the gh sounded out (ke-nee-g-hht), as were many silent e’s and l’s in English.
And the silent w in terms like wreck or write was added to depict a comical Old English r sound that was different from the regular r. However, the way people spoke English changed over time, even if the spelling remained the same. Not to mention The Great Vowel Shift…”
Pronunciation of GH words
For example, in eight, weight, and neighbor, the combination ‘eigh’ is pronounced /e/ (the sound in ‘wait’ or ‘hate’). Height, which is pronounced /hat/ (and rhymes with ‘white’) is the lone exception (among regularly used nouns). Why could two terms with similar spellings and representing equivalent notions, such as weight and height, have distinct pronunciations? The answer probably certainly has something to do with the origins of the word.
This is true of terms like “caught,” “taught,” “daughter,” and “distressed.” However, the sounds /f/ (UK spelling) and /f/ (US spelling) are used in the words draught(y) and laugh(ter) (US).
Silent letters g, h, and gh
The majority of causes for silent letters in English have to do with the word’s origins. The word “knight,” for example, has two silent sounds: K and GH. This word comes from the German word “knecht,” which means “servant,” and each letter is spoken separately. Many words in English finish in a silent E, which modifies the previous vowel sound. For example, in the word “hate,” the last silent E lengthens the preceding vowel A. Some of these words with the silent final E date back to Chaucer’s period, when the final E was voiced, making terms like “bite” a two-syllable word.
The word “bite” was pronounced “bi te,” with the last E sounding like a long E. English speakers must either memorize these uncommon word spellings and pronunciations or consult internet dictionaries on a frequent basis.
There are four more silent letter rules in American English that involve the letters G, GH, H, and K.
When the letter G occurs before the letter N, it is usually not pronounced.
Champagne, foreign, symbol, pretend, design, align, and cognac are some examples.
Magnet, igneous, cognitive, and signature are examples of Silent G exceptions.
Silent GH: For silent GH, there are two rules.
Rule 1: When GH follows a vowel, it is not spoken.
Consider the following words: thought, drought, thorough, borough, daughter, light, might, sigh, right, fight, weigh, weight.
Compound words are the most common exceptions to this rule: Bighead, doghouse, and foghorn
Rule 2: The letter GH is sometimes pronounced like the letter F.
Rough, tough, chuckle, enough, cough, draught are some examples.
Exceptions: See rule 1 for examples.
When the letter H is silent, there are three rules to follow.
Rule 1: When H follows after W, it is not pronounced.
What, when, where, whether, and why are some examples.
Rule 2: In many words, the letter H is not pronounced at the beginning.
Hour, honest, honour, and heir are some examples.
Hill, history, height, happiness, and hereditary are examples of exceptions.
Rule 3: When H follows after C, G, or R, it is frequently mispronounced.
Chorus, ghastly, ghoul, aghast, echo, rhinoceros, rhythm are some examples.
Note: * A reminder regarding using the articles “a” and “an” before H-words: When the H is quiet, use “an,” and when the H is articulated, use “a.” Consider the following scenario: It’s been an hour since class began. We also climbed a hill.
