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Subtle, Doubt, Receipt
Why are the p's(b) in the words above silent?
Is there a particular reason or rule why this occurs? Can you name any other words in which this phenomenom repeats?
as I know, your examples are a norm.But there are a lot of words people (in California) pronounce with some silent letters, which no dictionary shows:
San(t)a-Clara, iden(t)ity,twen(t)y (twony)...The latter is recorded though.
No, no, no J.
You misunderstood my message. My question is about the silent b or p that occurs in certain words when such letters are followed by a t. I'm quite familiar with the whole Sanna Clara, Innerupt thing, since I reside in the states. It's just that it took me a long time after I came to this country to realize that the b(p) in those words I mentioned is dropped.
Certain words that harbor silent letters reflect the spelling and sound of cognates in the language(s) from which they originated. The examples that you stated are all Latin; 'doubt' comes from the Latin verb 'dubitare', 'receipt' from 'recipere' and 'subtle' from 'subtilis'.
Letters can be silent for a variety of reasons: to distinguish meaning between homophones (e.g., 'night' and 'knight'), create a long vowel ('rid'/'ride') or a hard consonant ('guest'/'gest'), or to allow a word to retain the spelling of the language from which it was adopted ('champagne'). Often, a silent letter's sound simply drops out as the language evolves, while the spelling of the word remains the same (e.g., 'light' and 'hope'). These letters- which in contemporary language are there for no particular reason- are called empty letters. Helpful?
2bahamawhistler:
Just in case, do you know by what rule silent letters happens in "balm" and "palm"?
Often a silent letter in an English word is evidence of some former pronunciation of that word. In the case of "debt,'' however, the story is quite different. The word "debt'' is derived through Middle English "dette'' from Old French "dette'' or "dete.'' The letter "b" was added to the spelling in both French and English in the late Middle Ages by scholars who wished to reflect the ultimate origin of the word in Latin "debitum.'' No "b'' was ever pronounced in either French or English, but the spelling gained acceptance nonetheless. While Modern French spelling reform has eliminated the "b" in this position, the English form has become petrified, leaving schoolchildren with another silent letter that must be memorized.
The artificial alteration of spelling under the influence of other forms can also be seen in "doubt," "plumb," "plumber," "subtle," "indict," "receipt," "island," "isle" and "aisle." Source: http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0803/dictionary_men072803.asp
j, Fri Jun 02, 2006 9:15 am GMT:
"Just in case, do you know by what rule silent letters happens in "balm" and "palm"?" 'Palm' comes from the Latin 'palma',-ae, f., hand, and 'balm' from 'balsamum' -i, n., the word for the balsam tree. My's argument could be made citing these words too, as they both lost the 'l' in Old French. I've come across that etymological tidbit before, however, as such words passed into Old French <i>from the Latin</i> before misplacing their 'b's', 'p's' and 's's', regardless of when or by whom they were put back in it is fair to say that these silent letters are a result of the spelling in the language from which the words originally derived.
Ack, I forgot to enter my name.
Scratch the <i>/</i> around Latin. Guess there'll be no tags today.
The short answer is that there is no such thing as a "silent letter."
You're erroneously conflating a written convention (spelling) with the spoken language.
In Afrikaans several of the "silent" letters found in their English cognates are pronounced. For example in "knie" (knee), "palm" (palm) and "knop" (knob) the K or L that is silent in English is pronounced. This could suggest the English pronunciation has for some reason dropped the pronunciation of the letters since the two languages diverged.
Reasons for 'silent' letters
*distinguishing whole from hole, plum from plumb, hour from our, etc *showing long vowels rid/ride, 'hard' consonants guest/gest connecting different forms of the same word resign/resignation. Causes of 'silent' letters *historical change: the sound has dropped out of the word over time but the spelling has not changed: light, hope, knot *addition of letters: the letter was added to make the spelling more 'French' or 'Latin': debt, victual, island *difficult sound combinations: The sound combination difficult to say: handkerchief, sandwich *borrowings: the word was originally borrowed from another language, complete with spelling: champagne, khaki, myrrh http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/EnglishSpellingSystem/SilentLetters.htm
I don't know about anyone else, but I personally pronounce the l in palm and balm (and calm and alm and psalm)
I don't pronounce the L in those "-alm" words. For me, they're [p_hAm], [bAm], [sAm], etc.
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