Why do so many words in English begin with a silent “p” like psychiatrist or pterodactyl?
In: 1812
Because English has changed over time. A lot of words with silent letters used to actually be pronounced without the letters being silent. Ex. “knife” was pronounced something like “k-niif-eh,” “knight” was along the lines of “k-nigt,” etc.
As such, if you were to somehow time travel to England 1000 years ago, the language would pretty much be completely foreign to you. Even 500 years ago, which is considered “Modern English,” it would be radically different (think how different Shakespeare is compared to the way people speak nowadays).
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