eli5: Why are there “silent letters” in words if they’re not meant to be pronounced? E.g. Why spell it “plumber” instead of “plummer”?

Question

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

Answer 1

Everyone is right about the pronunciation being different in the past, but no one has mentioned why the spelling was standardized in that form. The reason that happened was the introduction of the printing press to Europe. It made many, many more books to be made, and they were also being printed in many more local languages. So instead of the Bible only being produced in Latin, it was also translated into English and printed for the masses. The people that owned the printing presses at that time essentially crystallized how the language was spelled. Specifically this is usually attributed to William Caxton, who introduced the printing press to England and translated many historical works into English.