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

Because English failed at language reform. In my language, every letter is only read in one way, and every sound made only corresponds to a single letter. It makes it so easy and intuitive. While in English, the words remain to be spelled the same way as centuries ago, despite the way they are spoken has changed a lot. This lead to the same letter being pronounced differently in other words, or even parts of the same word. Every C in Pacific Ocean is pronounced differently. Why? It absolutely makes no sense. Even if English language cannot reform its vowels, at least it should standardize its consonants. There is absolutely no benefit to learning how to spell a word that is pronounced totally different, it feels like I’m learning two languages at the same time, instead of one