Why do many words have silent letters when even without them the word would sound the same, like ‘island’ and many others.

Question

I tried asking my English teacher back in school but even she did not have an answer.

In: 157

Answer 1

Loads of Americans seem incapable of pronouncing “t” in words. “Waer” instead of water. Etc.

This happens all the time and leads to… silent letters.