Why do we Have Silent Letters?

Kosmiche · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:15

I was just wondering.

How do you get the "K" in knife? I don't hear a k when I say it, why put the K there...

Cupboard. I don't hear a P, why isn't it cuboard.

Who decided this?

estebanrey · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:18

Nobody Knows where 'knife' comes from....

knife (n.)
late O.E. cnif, probably from O.N. knifr, from P.Gmc. *knibaz (cf. M.L.G. knif, M.Du. cnijf, Ger. kneif), of uncertain origin. To further confuse the etymology, there also are forms in -p-, e.g. Du. knijp, Ger. kneip. French canif "penknife" (mid-15c.) is borrowed from Middle English or Norse.

Cupboard is fairly obvious...

cupboard (n.)
late 14c., "a board or table to place cups and like objects," from cup (n.) + board (n.1). As a type of closed cabinet for food, etc., from early 16c.

SexyGreyFox · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:18

My favourite is the P in bath

UncleRuckus · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:19

Dimple said:
My favourite is the P in bath

Dist · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:20

When it comes to silent letters I always find Queue funny

darubio · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:26

it came from this fish

Ricochet J · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:28

Pseudonym

One · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:31

It's so we can distinguish between ourselves and the lower class if we only have their written word. You see, if I had typed 'ritten' instead of 'written' you'd know I wasn't worth speaking to.

M1k3H · 3 Nov 2012 at 19:37

Ricochet J said:
Pseudonym

not sure about that, but the greek pronunciation for it is pse-vdo-ni-mo so I guess that comes from ancient greek.

doofer · 3 Nov 2012 at 20:19

The super secret 'C' at the start of Rap music.

Pawnless Endgame · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:29

Or the F that you get in art class back in school. Someone actually appended that on the door of our class

Lightnix · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:36

Eames said:
How do you get the "K" in knife? I don't hear a k when I say it, why put the K there...

You must be saying it wrong.

Pawnless Endgame · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:39

Here's an interesting one - "schedule"

Some people skip the h so it sounds like skedule.

Others skip the c so that it sounds like shedule.

Which are you? I say skedule.

Burnsy2023 · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:41

Because although poetic, English is ultimately a crap language functionally.

Burnsy2023 · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:42

Monserrat said:
Here's an interesting one - "schedule"

Some people skip the h so it sounds like skedule.

Others skip the c so that it sounds like shedule.

Which are you? I say skedule.

I say it was an I. As in itinerary.

koooowweeee · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:43

Lightnix said:
You must be saying it wrong.

ha ha

Dist · 3 Nov 2012 at 21:43

It's not just silent letters that people have issues with, some people add letters where there are none.

PardonTheWait · 3 Nov 2012 at 23:30

Dist said:
It's not just silent letters that people have issues with, some people add letters where there are none.

But the letter is there!

Best example of how daft the english language is that the made up word 'ghoti' could sound like fish.

gh as in rough
o as in women
ti as in function

What kind of sense does that make? None.

Sonea Fifer · 3 Nov 2012 at 23:49

The English language can be quite funny at times - I have a Slovakian friend who, while sitting at the dinner table asked me to pass him the Ki niff ee (say it how I've typed it

)

Fair play to him though - his English is far superior to my Slovakian

PistolPete · 4 Nov 2012 at 00:34

PardonTheWait said:
But the letter is there!

Best example of how daft the english language is that the made up word 'ghoti' could sound like fish.

Except ghoti isn't pronounced as it's completely silent:

gh as in though, o as in people, t as in ballet & i as in business.