Silent Letters
English spelling is weird!
Why do we pronounce 'know' as 'no,' or 'eight' as 'ate.'? Sometimes this is due to changes in a language's sound over time.
In Old English (c. 450 AD to 1100 AD) some of the letters that are now silent were actually pronounced!
In Old English the word 'knight' now pronounced like 'nite' was pronounced more like 'knicht' or 'cnicht' with the k actually making a sound. This is the same with a lot of kn words, like knife and knowledge.
We also used to pronounce the g in words like gnome, and gnaw. This g sounded similar to the 'ch' in Bach.
Were you ever confused about the 'l' in would, could, and should? Because we used to pronounce that too.
When English first began to be written down a lot of the old pronunciation was still being used, and the spelling reflected that. As time passed and the way the words sounded changed, we kept a lot of the old spelling, and because of this spelling in English lags behind the actual phonetic sound of the language.
Why do we pronounce 'know' as 'no,' or 'eight' as 'ate.'? Sometimes this is due to changes in a language's sound over time.
In Old English (c. 450 AD to 1100 AD) some of the letters that are now silent were actually pronounced!
In Old English the word 'knight' now pronounced like 'nite' was pronounced more like 'knicht' or 'cnicht' with the k actually making a sound. This is the same with a lot of kn words, like knife and knowledge.
We also used to pronounce the g in words like gnome, and gnaw. This g sounded similar to the 'ch' in Bach.
Were you ever confused about the 'l' in would, could, and should? Because we used to pronounce that too.
When English first began to be written down a lot of the old pronunciation was still being used, and the spelling reflected that. As time passed and the way the words sounded changed, we kept a lot of the old spelling, and because of this spelling in English lags behind the actual phonetic sound of the language.
