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.
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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.
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.
There are tons of great answers on this thread but they all boil down to the fact that English pretends to be a phonetic language but it isn’t one.
There are tons of great answers on this thread but they all boil down to the fact that English pretends to be a phonetic language but it isn’t one.
On the periodic table, the abbreviation for “lead” is “Pb”, which comes from the latin word “Plumbum”, where the “b” was pronounced. Lead was widely used for water supply and drainage pipes and conduits, as well as waterproofing roofs and many other purposes. People who worked with “Plumbum” were known as “Plumbers”.
The overwhelming majority of the time that a letter is silent in one word, that letter is part of a root word, and certain other words with that same root will pronounce that letter.
Consider “Pterodactyl”. The “P” is silent. “Pter” is the latin word for “Wing”. When you attach two wings together in opposite direction and spin them, you get a helical wing, or helico-pter. You definitely pronounce the “p” in “helicopter”, even though you don’t pronounce it in pterodactyl.
How about the “g” in “Resign”? Spelling it “resine” or “rezine” loses the connection to the closely related “resignation”.
On the periodic table, the abbreviation for “lead” is “Pb”, which comes from the latin word “Plumbum”, where the “b” was pronounced. Lead was widely used for water supply and drainage pipes and conduits, as well as waterproofing roofs and many other purposes. People who worked with “Plumbum” were known as “Plumbers”.
The overwhelming majority of the time that a letter is silent in one word, that letter is part of a root word, and certain other words with that same root will pronounce that letter.
Consider “Pterodactyl”. The “P” is silent. “Pter” is the latin word for “Wing”. When you attach two wings together in opposite direction and spin them, you get a helical wing, or helico-pter. You definitely pronounce the “p” in “helicopter”, even though you don’t pronounce it in pterodactyl.
How about the “g” in “Resign”? Spelling it “resine” or “rezine” loses the connection to the closely related “resignation”.
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).
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).
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.
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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