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

To summarize what others have said from a slightly different angle: written words have meaning that is based on the components of the words. So a plumber is someone who works with lead (plumbum) and not someone who works with plums. Regional pronunciation can differ, but the written word reflects the specific meaning.

Then you get words like goodbye which comes from “may god be with ye” which was a traditional “passing of the peace” phrase in the English church. And there’s hello, which is a fabricated word based on haloo (a hunting call) that carried well over the original telephone system.

So at least with English, you get a fascinating combination of words that haven’t changed since they were first recorded in a dictionary, and words that have taken on new meanings or spellings over time in popular culture (just look up the many historical meanings of the word “nice” sometime).