This is true for a lot of words and I don’t understand what the point of including letters if they’re not supposed to be pronounced.
In: 6
derived from the Latin word ‘plumbum’, meaning lead (as in lead pipes). The word plumber gradually came to mean a person who installs pipes. It’s pronounced as it’s spelled. We’ve just decided over time that plummer was better than plum-ber
derived from the Latin word ‘plumbum’, meaning lead (as in lead pipes). The word plumber gradually came to mean a person who installs pipes. It’s pronounced as it’s spelled. We’ve just decided over time that plummer was better than plum-ber
In many cases, the words were pronounced as they were spelled many many many years ago. But over time, the way we say the words changed, but the way we spelled them did not. So you end up with words whose spelling no longer reflects their pronounciation.
In other cases, the words are borrowed from other languages with different rules for spelling.
They were pronounced in the language the words come from. If you see silent letters in a word, look at the etymology of the word and it will probably make sense.
In the case of plumber is comes from the old French word plummier, which doesn’t have the b in it, but the French word plummier actually comes from the Latin word plumbarius. So, during the renaissance when they realized the Latin origin word had a b in it, they added it to the written language but it wasn’t ever pronounced with the b in French, and both the written form and spoken form were carried over to English giving us a silent b.
Usually silent letters are left over from an era when those letters were pronounced. If you read Chaucer, every letter in “knighte” (which is how he spelled “knight”) is pronounced. Scribes kept that same spelling even after people stopped pronouncing all the letters. The same is true of plumb, numb, and dumb, where people stopped pronouncing the “b” but the spelling remained the same.
In many cases, the words were pronounced as they were spelled many many many years ago. But over time, the way we say the words changed, but the way we spelled them did not. So you end up with words whose spelling no longer reflects their pronounciation.
In other cases, the words are borrowed from other languages with different rules for spelling.
Depends on the word.
In a lot of words, the silent letters *were* pronounced at one point in the past, but either (a) the spelling was borrowed for a word that was pronounced differently or (b) the pronunciation drifted after the spelling was standardized.
In your specific example, the Latin root was *plumbum* (literally “lead”, as in the metal, for its use in pipes), pronounced exactly as you’d expect for its spelling. English actually borrowed it without the *b* to fit English pronunciation (Old English *plom* or *plomme* depending on usage), but it was re-added in the 14th century. I can’t find anything on why, but my best guess is that because Latin was seen as the “proper” way to do things (as opposed to “vulgar” non-Latin languages), the Latin spelling was more “high-status”.
A few other loanword examples include *tsunami* (where most English speakers don’t distinguish /ts/ from /s/ at the start of a word, but Japanese – the origin of the word – does make that distinction) and *pterodactyl* (where Greek allows *pt* at the start of a word but English usually doesn’t).
When it comes to native words, English has [a wide range of common consonant-simplificiations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonant_clusters) that show up in many different words. (I don’t know, but I would guess, that this is because English is unusually consonant-heavy and it’s easy to have a pileup, especially in compounds.) And English vowel spelling is a nightmare thanks to the [Great Vowel Shift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift), where English vowels nearly all drifted at almost the exact same time English spelling was being standardized.
Usually silent letters are left over from an era when those letters were pronounced. If you read Chaucer, every letter in “knighte” (which is how he spelled “knight”) is pronounced. Scribes kept that same spelling even after people stopped pronouncing all the letters. The same is true of plumb, numb, and dumb, where people stopped pronouncing the “b” but the spelling remained the same.
After 2 years of Latin I can tell you this answer. Some words have silent letters due to their origins and the evolution of language over time. In the case of “plumber,” the word comes from the Latin word “plumbum,” which means lead. Plumbing used to use lead piping. The “b” in “plumber” is a remnant of its Latin origin. Over time, the pronunciation of the word changed, but the spelling remained the same, resulting in a silent “b.” Spelling it as “Plummer” would not accurately reflect its historical roots.
Depends on the word.
In a lot of words, the silent letters *were* pronounced at one point in the past, but either (a) the spelling was borrowed for a word that was pronounced differently or (b) the pronunciation drifted after the spelling was standardized.
In your specific example, the Latin root was *plumbum* (literally “lead”, as in the metal, for its use in pipes), pronounced exactly as you’d expect for its spelling. English actually borrowed it without the *b* to fit English pronunciation (Old English *plom* or *plomme* depending on usage), but it was re-added in the 14th century. I can’t find anything on why, but my best guess is that because Latin was seen as the “proper” way to do things (as opposed to “vulgar” non-Latin languages), the Latin spelling was more “high-status”.
A few other loanword examples include *tsunami* (where most English speakers don’t distinguish /ts/ from /s/ at the start of a word, but Japanese – the origin of the word – does make that distinction) and *pterodactyl* (where Greek allows *pt* at the start of a word but English usually doesn’t).
When it comes to native words, English has [a wide range of common consonant-simplificiations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_consonant_clusters) that show up in many different words. (I don’t know, but I would guess, that this is because English is unusually consonant-heavy and it’s easy to have a pileup, especially in compounds.) And English vowel spelling is a nightmare thanks to the [Great Vowel Shift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift), where English vowels nearly all drifted at almost the exact same time English spelling was being standardized.
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