The Written Podcast: Silent Letters

The English language is commonly regarded as one of the hardest languages to learn. I’ve been a native speaker for 25 years and still not entirely sure how it works. It has many mysteries, but one in particular crops up when spelling. Silent letters can cause a heck of a lot of confusion, mainly because when the word is spelt, there is no trace of that letter’s inclusion, hence the phrase, silent letters. But when spelt, those pesky silent letters catch more people out than they wou(l)d like to admit.

When paying attention to just how many words actually have a silent letter, it’s surprising to ac(k)nowledge how many of them have a silent letter within. If you were to lis(t)en to those words, the letters are undetectable. The(i)r su(b)tle inclusion can of(t)en create c(h)aos. I do remember, years ago, back in primary sc(h)ool, during the mandatory spelling lesson, we had three levels of difficulty. The tier included the lik(e)s of silent letters, and I was not one of the fortunate people who understood how they worked, and fell for them ev(e)ry single time. Slowly but surely though, I got the hang of including silent letters in words, and now I’m a (w)riter, (w)riting blog posts and short stories and books. Inserting an unpronounced letter into a group of selected words has become second nature to me now. I remember how to spell those words, and the chosen silent letter to include within that word.

The majority of those words with silent letters thankfully only have one. But there are a few which have mor(e). The fo(u)rth tier if you will: When q(ueue)ing up at a supermarket, waiting to purchase a toy slei(gh) for (yo)ur dau(gh)ter for C(h)ristmas, and the sunli(gh)t is at the (w)rong angle, shining throu(gh) the window directly into (yo)ur eyes, (yo)u look toward (yo)ur nei(gh)bouring q(ueue)s to see if it’s worth moving over or stay where (yo)u (a)r(e) and wait for the line (yo)u’r(e) currently in to move forward and out of the li(gh)t’s line of si(ght). Once (yo)u’v(e) bou(gh)t the slei(gh) and wa(l)king home, (yo)u notice a cake shop with a scrumptious looking dou(gh)nut in the window. Temptation gets the better of (yo)u and soon (yo)u’r(e) heading home with t(w)o packets of dou(gh)nuts as well as the slei(gh) (yo)u bou(gh)t for (yo)ur dau(gh)ter for C(h)ristmas.

Makes perfect sense that, doesn’t it? (yo)u may have noticed the majority of those words with mor(e) are the same t(w)o, just within diff(e)rent words. “GH” are just there for the fun of it, I g(u)ess, as well as “YO”.

These words come with their own set of rules as they change the pronunciation into a differ(e)nt letter entirely. The letters themselves are silent, because they identify as a diff(e)rent letter. Cou(gh)ing so hard (yo)u start hiccou(gh)ing is not a nice sensation. (k)neeling on a concrete floor for a long period of time can be tou(gh); soon (yo)u have enou(gh) and resort bac(k) to standing once mor(e).

OK, I’ll stop highlighting the silent letters using brackets. Some of you may have taken one look at the article and clicked off immediately, not wanting to get in the middle of that mess. But it does make a statement on how many words have silent letters, and how often we use those words in every day speech and texts. Different accents determine which words are given the silent letter treatment. Some accents pronounce the word “different”, differently. Some include the “e”, some don’t.

But, by far the worst two words with silent letters in are: Featherstonhaugh and Woolfardisworthy. Pronounced “fanshaw” and “Woolsary” respectively. The first is a surname and the second is a place name. If you see that name written in front of you, your natural deciphering will have you attempt to pronounce it as it is written, but then, only to be corrected by the owner of the name. Confusion is undoubtedly going to strike in that moment. The same confusion will come from hearing how the place name is pronounced. Both times, we’re saying completely different words than what’s written in front of us. I thought the word “queue” was bad enough with four silent letters that are practically unnecessary as the letter on its own also comes with the sound of the word itself, anyway, but those two words take the cake, and eat it all at the same time.

The English language may have a number of fixed rules to follow, for grammatical purposes mainly, to help people understand coherently without much difficulty. But, the reason why we have silent letters is because the English language is in a constant state of flux. It has changed so many times over the years, and it’s going to change again in the many years to come.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)