Why does the English language have so many words where one or more letters are silent. For example why couldn’t “Knife” be simply written as nife or whatever combination of letters that make pronunciation obvious.

Question

Why does the English language have so many words where one or more letters are silent. For example why couldn’t “Knife” be simply written as nife or whatever combination of letters that make pronunciation obvious.

In: 2529

Answer 1

I highly recommend “The history of the English Language podcast”. You can find it on iTunes or Spotify, or here: https://historyofenglishpodcast.com/episodes/
It’s extremely detailed and shows how and why the language morphed over the years and tells of important historical events that influenced the language. I listen to it when I go for walks. It’s very relaxing as well. There’s about 170 episodes, and each one is about an hour. Have fun!