Reading log

Title:

The Real Reason Some English Words Have Silent Letters

Source:

Nowak, C. (n.d.). The Real Reason Some English Words Have Silent Letters. Retrieved
from https://www.rd.com/culture/silent-letters-english-language/

Answering questions

1. What’s it about?
It is about a brief explanation why most of the words in English contain silent
letters, which makes them difficult to pronounce in many cases. According to
this article, these words were not initially intended to be confused for people,
since indeed the most of them were pronounce. However, this all changed in
Middle Ages, when the Great Vowel Shift came to the southern England. Then,
this provoked a major change in the pronunciation of the English language over
time. For instance in the case of the words “ride” and “rid”, the silent “e” play an
important role. Because you don’t pronounce the “e” in “ride”, but affects the
pronunciation of the first syllable, so this marks the difference the pronunciation
between of “ride” and “rid”. Another reason for why the silent letters exist is the
influence of other cultures (e.g. psychology and tsunami).
The silent letters, sometimes, may seem useless and senseless. But they are very
important for the English language, since about 60 percent of its words contain a
silent letter.
2. Did you like it? Why? Why not?
Yes, I did. Because the learning a new language is not only about getting new
words or grammar. But is about knowing its evolution and why it is like this. At
least now I know a kind of the history of English pronunciation.