Why do we need silent letters?

Blame the French. They took all the vowels and made them meaningless.

It’s just one of those slightly irritating things in life that make the good bits just that slightly better.

Because “psyllium” comes from Greek, and in Greek, the “p” is pronounced, along with the “s”. English has a tendency of simplifying consonant clusters found in other languages (like Greek) that we don’t have. For example, words like “mnemonic”, “pneumonia”, “pterodactyl”, “chthonic”, “gnostic”, etc. all come from Greek and in Greek, each letter would be pronounced, there’d be no “silent letters”, but in English, we change the pronunciation of these words to better match sounds we have in English, but maintain the same spelling.

Bottom line is: English words come from a variety of different sources and languages and English has a tendency to maintain the spelling of the word, but “Anglify” the pronunciation (which often includes things like reducing consonant clusters at the beginning of words, many of which are Greek in origin). Not to mention, English went through a major vowel shift where basic English words (like “hear”, “see”, “read”, etc.) underwent a shift in pronunciation, but the spelling remained the same, thus there is a disconnect between the spelling and the pronunciation of many English words. If any pronunciations change over time for whatever the reason, rarely do the spellings change along with them.

To differentiate a plume from a plum.

What @DominicX said. I might also add that while pronunciation can change, the written word is a lot more static. If you say something differently, people chalk it up to “accents” or “language is alive,” but change the spelling and nowadays, people think you’re illiterate for spelling it wrong, or mutter something about “kids these days.”

This was not true in Shakespeare’s day, but we have standardized spellings since then.

People are trying to psych you out.

this is in social, right?

So I’m not thinking you want a serious answer about how the Ps words derived. Plus I think I know you well enough @ETpro, to believe you already have a good idea how the psilliness evolved so maybe you’re asking how standard spelling will change with txtspk?

I think it’s funny how it already looks like Old English, here. Get rid of duplicate consonant sounds and eliminate unnecessary vowels. Nobody will mistake the meaning of “mm k, thnx”.

Evolution isn’t always progressive especially if you’re a dinosaur, but you live and evolve or die bitter and angry.

It’s an anachronism from the origin on the word.

@Blueroses mm k, thnk. You nailed it.

@Blueroses Voila! (Which sounds like wala).

@SoupDragon Thanks, but they will never drive me crazy with this lame attempt at psillyness. I can’t be driven crazy—I’m already there.

@DominicX Thanks for an exhaustive and accurate answer.

@Mariah That makes sense. I’d much rather eat a plum than a plume, and decorate my Yankee Doodle hat with a plume and not a plum.

@laureth Excellent point on pronunciation versus spelling. I know it rankles me when people misues your for you’re and there for Their.

@zenvelo Ha! They’ll never succeed. Sike.

@Rarebear I’ve got to get me an anachrometer to detect those pesky things.

Let’s hear it for the silent majority…...

Because no one had the guts to undergo a spelling reform like the Italians did.

@ucme What’s that you say?

@mattbrowne Maybe for good reason. It makes spelling bees all the more interesting. And it also keeps me out of them. :-)

Quiet in the cheap seats, if you please ;¬}

@ETpro – Interesting way to look at it. But I guess first grade teachers see things differently. My mother taught first grade for more than 40 years. And when Germany had the second major spelling reform in 1996 she was enthusiastic about it (the first major reform was in 1903), and she saved a lot of time teaching irregularities, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_orthography#History_of_German_orthography

Compared to that little was changed for English in recent times, see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_spelling_reform#1906_onward

@mattbrowne Very interesting. Most reasonable for the 1996 modification to orthography required only in schools. They let it phase in.

Here in the English speaking world you would never get to the hed of the class with frends that spelt like the SR1 Proposal. “In 1969 Harry Lindgren proposed Spelling Reform 1 (SR1), which calls for the short /ɛ/ sound (as in bet) to always be spelt with <e> (for example friend→frend, head→hed). ”

@ETpro – Do you see any realistic chance of implementing this is the US or the UK?

@mattbrowne @ETpro that does not solve the problem: what do you do with lead, a soft grey metal, and led, the past tense of lead, to direct from the front? Both would be spelled led .

@zenvelo Either way, the soft grey metal is spelled the same as some tense of lead. It causes less confusion to spell the metal the same as the tense it actually sounds like. I think Led Zeppelin proved that.

@mattbrowne Not immediately, but txt-speak and such are slowly having their impact.

@zenvelo Let’s see, we can’t spell the metal lead with the short e, making it led. Because that would get it confused with the past tense of lead as in leading a discussion on spelling. So then why doesn’t the metal lead lead to confusion with the verb, lead? I’m with @Blueroses on this one.