Silent letters

[red750]

Here's one for O.M.E.

 

Do you know why there are so many "silent letters" in English? Like the 'b' in doubt and debt, the 'p' in psychology (and in swimming ) etc.

[Bruce Tuncks]

I do know that the silent "k" used to be pronounced. A few of the other silent letters ( Read vs red) I reckon help to convey more meaning in writing.

[old man emu]

8 hours ago, red750 said:

Do you know why there are so many "silent letters" in English?

Here's a place to start.

 

[facthunter]

Plumber is from Lead Pb (Plumbum).  Change spelling to Led ZED LERN and you lose word meaning .  Nev

[onetrack]

I still blame the French with their rotten language full of mangled pronunciation. We were on a bus approaching Gare Saint-Lazare, intent on jumping off to look at the Church of Sainte-Marie-Madeleine - and an old peasant French lady opposite us took great interest in us (probably our Aussie accents), and said to me, "Gah sala zah?? Gah sala zah?" - obviously intent on helping us find Gare Saint-Lazare.

 

The problem was, I couldn't understand what she was saying! I gathered she was trying to be helpful with our destination, so I just replied, "Non! - Madeleine!" and this satisfied her. We wouldn't have half the English spelling and pronunciation problems if the French had kept their lousy language to themselves!

[facthunter]

Yeah Poms told me "WOGS begin at Calais" and asked why would I go "THERE?"  Could we be confident if the situation was reversed and happened in Australie the courteous action would be duplicated. I had a French Businessman WALK two bocks with me out of his way to help me find the Spanish Consulate in Toulouse.. . Nev

[willedoo]

It's a good question for Roly Sussex.

[red750]

Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?

 

 

Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator?

[willedoo]

Just now, red750 said:

Which letter is silent in the word "Scent," the S or the C?

Neither, if you take the c as a soft c as in cent.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I know a lot of NZ'ers who who pronounce it as skent...

 

Oh.. Wait.. Now I get it; they meant they wree skint! 😉

[Marty_d]

16 minutes ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

I know a lot of NZ'ers who who pronounce it as skent...

 

Oh.. Wait.. Now I get it; they meant they wree skint! 😉

Nah, they'd pronounce that "scunt".  And I haven't put the "s" on the wrong end.

[old man emu]

12 hours ago, red750 said:

Why is there a 'D' in fridge, but not in refrigerator?

"Refrigerator" from refrigerate, which itself is from from Latin refrigeratus,  "make cool or cold."  Notice that there is no "d" before the "g". 

"Fridge"  is  shortened and altered form of refrigerator. The addition of a letter is an unusual way of word-formation in English. The  "dg" sound is a voiced, alveo-palatal, affricate consonant. 

 

It is interesting that in the word refrigerate, the "dg" sound appears, but the "d" has never been part of the spelling of the word. Without the "d", fridge would have to be pronounced something like "frig" similarly to the sound of the type of ship the frigate. Maybe sometimes the spelling of new words actually helps with their pronunciation. "Fridge" only came into the language in the 1920s when the household item we know began to be purchased more.

[pmccarthy]

I knew a frigid midget with a rigid digit.