Why do silent letters exist?

[Averant]

English has too many silent letters? >_>

*coughfrenchcough*

Honestly, I don't know. Doesn't matter to me, I know the language.

 

[MikailCaboose]

In Finnish, all the letters are always pronounced the same way, and there aren't any silent letters.

OT: I suppose it's got something to do with the evolution of English as a language.

Dear god, English practically absorbed aspects of every major language that it came into contact with. Modern English is so far distant from Old English that the two are at times completely separate.

 

[GeorgW]

It's to differentiate homophones. Simple.

 

[jack583]

english is the "what the heck" laguage.

This was going to be my answer pretty much.

It's true. Standard English spelling is actually a haphazard amalgamation of something like a dozen different languages ranging from Gaelic to Greek, and it was all decided upon by a group of stuffy old men in suits a few centuries ago who wanted English to become a united written and spoken language, which it most definitely wasn't up until then. There are still plenty of places in Britain - English speaking places - where you'll see remnants of the alternate English words and pronunciations that existed in the middle ages. Kirk as a spelling and pronunciation of church, for instance.

....
i was mainly qouting a joke from a webcomic.
way upstage a guy....

 

[Purple Shrimp]

how is it possible that only like 4 people in this thread know the actual answer, I thought everyone knew this

 

[BENZOOKA]

In Finnish, all the letters are always pronounced the same way, and there aren't any silent letters.

OT: I suppose it's got something to do with the evolution of English as a language.

Dear god, English practically absorbed aspects of every major language that it came into contact with. Modern English is so far distant from Old English that the two are at times completely separate.

I'm no god. You must've confused me with someone else.

Languages evolve and change. That's something which can't be stopped by set rules, as it is the people who use the language that make it fit their uses better. Finnish has come quite a long way as well.

 

[Dags90]

In Finnish, all the letters are always pronounced the same way, and there aren't any silent letters.

OT: I suppose it's got something to do with the evolution of English as a language.

So I'm guessing there isn't much in the way of spelling bees?

That proper spelling is a competition in English speaking countries is pretty /facepalm.

 

[Zechnophobe]

In Finnish, all the letters are always pronounced the same way, and there aren't any silent letters.

OT: I suppose it's got something to do with the evolution of English as a language.

So I'm guessing there isn't much in the way of spelling bees?

That proper spelling is a competition in English speaking countries is pretty /facepalm.

Man, that's a real eye opener isn't it? that other countries might not need to have such competitions? Seriously. Wow.

English is a melting pot language, pure and simple. No good reason for not having a 1 to 1 sound to spelling ratio.

 

[chif-ii]

I never understood the points of silent letters? All they do is make English a harder language to learn.

Edit:sorry I already made this thread but my computer didn't fully load the page so I didn't think it would go through.

Here's the link to the other thread:http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.256366-Why-do-silent-letters-exist#9608681

When people invented the English language, they did it solely to piss people like you off.

...now that I've satisfied the troll in my head that tells me to burn things, English is sorta a piecemeal language, always pulling in stuff from other languages. The base material is pretty much 2 parts Germanic and 1 part French (maybe some latin, but that's mostly through the Normans). Plus, the Oxford English dictionary hasn't been around forever.

 

[CarpathianMuffin]

Ninja letters exist to counter pirate letters.

Other than that english is the magpie language. That looks cool, I am gonna add it to my dictionary.

Those pirate letters are a real problem on the streets.

Seriously though, most of English is "Hey, this word looks and sounds cool. I'm going to say that and make it as incomprehensible as possible to somebody without an English major!"

 

[BENZOOKA]

In Finnish, all the letters are always pronounced the same way, and there aren't any silent letters.

OT: I suppose it's got something to do with the evolution of English as a language.

So I'm guessing there isn't much in the way of spelling bees?

That proper spelling is a competition in English speaking countries is pretty /facepalm.

Yeah, it's a shock there aren't any. You'd know how to pronounce or spell any word if you either saw or heard it, respectively.

The phenomenon of spelling bees has always seemed rather, um, interesting, I must say. Even as a kid I wondered what's the point of it.