http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/why-do-we-have-silent-letters-in-the-english-language-9952944.html
This is an interesting article explaining a few of the reasons behind some of the silent letters in the English language. I'm sure most of us are aware of the grammatical function of the silent "e" at the end of words, but what about the "k" in knight or the "t" in tsunami? This article explains that those are examples of loan words that didn't fit into the phonological rules of English, so instead of removing the letter from the spelling of the word, we just pretend it's not there when we pronounce it. There are a couple other explanations that are worth noting, so check it out if you'd like.
This article is very interesting, how they adapt some word from other languages, by using English rules. It sounds like the print press took a big effect in the silent letters, very interesting. I looks like they use the same method for the word " Hurricane".
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty cool read Scott! Good Find!
ReplyDeleteWhat was interesting to me was the diacritic letters, how the "e" effects the pronunciation of the "a" in fate. I was noticing this in the homework, and didn't catch that there was a word out there that described the concept. Pretty Cool!
Also those guys with the printing press, really set the stones for written language. I wonder if the printing press came before the dictionary - or the dictionary before the printing press....