In an
alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a
letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...
that, in a particular
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries an semantics, objective or pragmatics, practical semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of w ...
, does not correspond to any
sound
In physics, sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave, through a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or solid.
In human physiology and psychology, sound is the ''reception'' of such waves and their ''perception'' by the ...
in the word's
pronunciation
Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
. In linguistics, a silent letter is often symbolised with a
null sign
The null sign (∅) is often used in mathematics for denoting the empty set (however, the variant \emptyset seems more commonly used). The same letter in linguistics represents zero, the lack of an element. It is commonly used in phonology, mor ...
.
Null
Null may refer to:
Science, technology, and mathematics Computing
* Null (SQL) (or NULL), a special marker and keyword in SQL indicating that something has no value
* Null character, the zero-valued ASCII character, also designated by , often use ...
is an unpronounced or unwritten segment. The symbol resembles the
Scandinavian letter Ø and
other symbols.
English
One of the noted difficulties of
English spelling
English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...
is a high number of silent letters.
Edward Carney distinguishes different kinds of "silent" letters, which present differing degrees of difficulty to readers.
* Auxiliary letters which, with another letter, constitute
digraphs, i.e. two letters combined which represent a single
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
. These may further be categorized as:
** "Exocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is different from that of either of its constituent letters. These are rarely considered "silent". Examples:
*** Where the phoneme has no standard single-letter representation, as with
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s for as in ''sing'', for as in ''thin'' or as in ''then'',
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s in ''out'' or in ''point''. These are the default spellings for the relevant sounds and present no special difficulty for readers or writers.
*** Where standard single-letter representation uses another letter, as with in ''enough'' or in ''physical'' instead of . These may be considered irregular for writers, but less difficult for readers.
** "Endocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is the same as that of one of its constituent letters. These include:
*** Most
double consonants, as in ''clubbed''; though not
geminate consonant
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''Gemini (constellation), gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonan ...
s, as in ''misspell''. Doubling due to
suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can carry ...
ation or
inflection
In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and defin ...
is regular; otherwise, it may present difficulty to writers (e.g. ''accommodate'' is often misspelled), but not to readers.
*** Many vowel digraphs, as , , in ''leave'' (''cf. accede''), ''achieve'', ''eulogy'' (''cf. utopia'').
*** The discontiguous digraphs, whose second element is "
magic e
In English orthography, many words feature a silent (single, final, non-syllabic ‘e’), most commonly at the end of a word or morpheme. Typically it represents a vowel sound that was formerly pronounced, but became silent in late Middle En ...
", e.g. in ''rate'' (cf. ''rat''), in ''fine'' (cf. ''fin''). This is the regular way to represent "long"
vowel
A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s in the last
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
of a
morpheme
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful Constituent (linguistics), constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistics, linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology (linguistics), morphology.
In English, morphemes are ...
.
*** Others, such as (which is in effect the "doubled" form of ), as in ''guard'', ''vogue''; as in ''bread'', ''heavy'', etc.; , as in ''aerial'', ''oedipal''. These may be difficult for writers and sometimes also for readers.
* Dummy letters with no relation to neighboring letters and no correspondence in pronunciation:
** Some are inert letters, which are sounded in a
cognate
In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymology, etymological ancestor in a proto-language, common parent language. Because language c ...
word: e.g. in ''damn'' (cf. ''damnation''); in ''phlegm'' (cf. ''phlegmatic''); in ''practically'' (cf. ''practical''); in ''ballet'' (cf. ''balletic''). If the cognate is obvious, it may aid writers in spelling, but mislead readers in pronunciation.
** The rest are empty letters, which never have a sound, e.g., in ''h''onor, in ans''w''er, in Sara''h'', in i''s''land, in su''b''tle. These may present the greatest difficulty to writers and often to readers, as well.
The distinction between "endocentric" digraphs and empty letters is somewhat
arbitrary
Arbitrariness is the quality of being "determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity, reason, or principle". It is also used to refer to a choice made without any specific criterion or restraint.
Arbitrary decisions are not necess ...
. For example, in such words as ''little'' and ''bottle'', one might view as an "endocentric" digraph for , or view as an empty letter; similarly, with or in ''buy'' and ''build''.
Not all silent letters are completely redundant:
* Silent letters can distinguish between
homophone
A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s, e.g. ''in''/''inn''; ''be''/''bee''; ''lent''/''leant''. This is an aid to readers already familiar with both words.
* Silent letters may give an insight into the
meaning or
origin of a word; e.g. ''vineyard'' suggests
vine
A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...
s more than the phonetic ''*vinyard'' would.
* Silent letters may help the reader to
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
the correct
syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological "bu ...
(compare ''physics'' to ''physiques''). The final in ''giraffe'' gives a clue to the second-syllable stress, where ''*giraf'' might suggest initial-stress.
Silent letters arise in several ways:
*
Sound change
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
s occurring without a spelling change. The
digraph was pronounced in
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English p ...
in such words as ''light''.
* Sound distinctions from
foreign language
A foreign language is a language that is not an official language of, nor typically spoken in, a given country, and that native speakers from that country must usually acquire through conscious learning - be this through language lessons at schoo ...
s may be lost, as with the distinction between smooth
rho
Rho (uppercase Ρ, lowercase ρ or ; el, ρο or el, ρω, label=none) is the 17th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 100. It is derived from Phoenician letter res . Its uppercase form uses the sa ...
(ρ) and roughly
aspirated rho (ῥ) in
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
, represented by and in
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, but merged to the same in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
.
*
Clusters of consonants may be simplified, producing silent letters; e.g. silent in ''asthma'', silent in ''Christmas'' (in conservative
RP, such as that spoken by
Dame Vera Lynn
Dame Vera Margaret Lynn (; 20 March 191718 June 2020) was an English singer and entertainer whose musical recordings and performances were very popular during World War II. She is Honorific nicknames in popular music, honorifically known as ...
, the is pronounced /krɪstməs/, as opposed to /krɪsməs/ in all other dialects). Similarly, with alien clusters, such as
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
initial in ''psychology'' and in ''mnemonic'', and the much rarer clusters in ''
chthonic
The word chthonic (), or chthonian, is derived from the Ancient Greek word ''χθών, "khthon"'', meaning earth or soil. It translates more directly from χθόνιος or "in, under, or beneath the earth" which can be differentiated from Γῆ ...
'' and ''
phthalate
Phthalates (, ), or phthalate esters, are esters of phthalic acid. They are mainly used as plasticizers, i.e., substances added to plastics to increase their flexibility, transparency, durability, and longevity. They are used primarily to soften ...
''.
*
Compound word
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or sign) that consists of more than one stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. Compounding occurs when ...
s are often simplified in pronunciation, while their spelling remains the same. For example, ''cupboard'' and ''breakfast'' were once pronounced as written, but were then simplified over time. The words ''forehead'' and ''waistcoat'' have largely reverted to their
spelling pronunciation
A spelling pronunciation is the pronunciation of a word according to its spelling when this differs from a longstanding standard or traditional pronunciation. Words that are spelled with letters that were never pronounced or that were not pronounc ...
s, but were once pronounced *''forrid'' and *''weskit'', respectively.
* Occasionally, spurious letters are consciously inserted in spelling to reflect
etymology
Etymology ()The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p. 633 "Etymology /ˌɛtɪˈmɒlədʒi/ the study of the class in words and the way their meanings have changed throughout time". is the study of the history of the Phonological chan ...
(real or imagined). The in ''debt'' and ''doubt'' (from
French ''dette, doute'') was inserted to match
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
cognates like ''debit'' and ''dubitable''. A silent was inserted in ''isle'' (
Norman French
Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...
''ile'',
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''isle'', from Latin ''insula''; cognate to ''isolate'') and then extended to the unrelated word ''island''. The in ''ptarmigan'' was apparently suggested by Greek words such as ''pteron'' ('wing').
Since
accent and pronunciation differ, letters may be silent for some speakers, but not others. In
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
accents, is silent in such words as ''hard'', ''feathered''; in
''h''-dropping accents, is silent. A speaker may or may not pronounce in ''often'', the first in ''Antarctic'', in ''sandwich'', etc.
Differences between British English and American English
Pronunciation
In the US, the ''h'' in ''herb'' is silent (''an herb''), but in the UK, it is pronounced (''a herb''). The same is true for the ''l'' in ''solder''.
In parts of the UK, the ''a'' in ''dictionary'' and ''secretary'' is silent, but in the US, it is pronounced.
Spelling
In US spellings, silent letters are sometimes omitted (e.g., ''acknowledgment'' / UK ''acknowledgement'', ''ax'' / UK ''axe'', ''catalog'' / UK ''catalogue'', ''program'' / UK ''programme'' outside computer contexts), but not always (e.g., ''dialogue'' is the standard spelling in the US and the UK; ''dialog'' is regarded as a US variant; the spelling ''axe'' is also often used in the US). In most words, silent letters are written in both styles (e.g., ''debt'', ''guard'', ''house'').
Other Germanic languages
Danish
The
Danish language
Danish (; , ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are also found in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and the northern German region of Southern Schles ...
has different letters that can be silent.
The letter is silent in the conjunction ''af''.
The letter is silent in the conjunctions ''og'' and ''også''.
The letter is silent in most dialects if followed by , as in ''hvad'' (‘what’), ''hvem'' (‘who’), ''hvor'' (‘where’).
The letter is silent at the end of words if preceded by , as in ''selv'' ('self'), ''halv'' ('half').
The letter is usually (but not necessarily) silent if preceded by a consonant, as in ''en mand'' (‘a man’), ''blind'' (‘blind’). Many words ending in are pronounced with a
stød, but it is still considered a silent letter.
Faroese
The
Faroese language
Faroese ( ; ''føroyskt mál'' ) is a North Germanic language spoken as a first language by about 72,000 Faroe Islanders, around 53,000 of whom reside on the Faroe Islands and 23,000 in other areas, mainly Denmark.
It is one of five languages de ...
has two silent letters.
The letter is almost always silent. It is rendered in orthography for historical reasons (e.g. 'father' , cf.
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
). In some cases, however, the letter is pronounced , as in 'the weather' .
The letter (i.e. continuant of
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
) is usually silent between vowels or when following a vowel before a pause (e.g. 'day' , cf.
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
; 'I' , cf.
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
). Use of the silent letter in Faroese is the same as for the letter ''edd'' - it is written for historical reasons as
Faroese orthography
Faroese orthography is the method employed to write the Faroese language, using a 29-letter Latin alphabet.
Alphabet
The Faroese alphabet consists of 29 letters derived from the Latin script:
* Eth (Faroese ') never appears at the beginnin ...
was based on normalised spelling of
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...
and
Icelandic language
Icelandic (; is, íslenska, link=no ) is a North Germanic language spoken by about 314,000 people, the vast majority of whom live in Iceland, where it is the national language. Due to being a West Scandinavian language, it is most closely re ...
.
Both Faroese silent letters and are replaced by a
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* Gl ...
glide consonant
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the c ...
(, or ) when followed by another (unstressed) vowel.
German
In German, silent letters are extremely rare and occur usually in loanwords, rather than German words.
The long sound is sometimes written , with a silent , as in ''Wien'' ('
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
') or in the verb ending (e.g. ''appellieren, organisieren'').
In some words of foreign origin, the after is pronounced, e.g. ''Ambiente, ''Bakterien'' (plural of ''Bakterium''), Hygiene, Klient'', ''Spermien'' (plural of ''Spermium''), but is silent in e.g. ''Kurier, Papier, Turnier'' and all the ''-ieren'' verbs already mentioned. In ''Zeremonie'', the final is usually silent but always pronounced in its plural form ''Zeremonien''.
Words ending in can be somewhat tricky to learners:
For example, the final is pronounced in the words ''Akazie'', ''Aktie'', ''Aktinie'', ''Begonie'', ''Familie'', ''Folie'', ''Geranie'', ''Grazie'', ''Hortensie'', ''Hostie'', ''Immobilie'', ''Kastanie'', ''Komödie'', ''Kurie'', ''Lilie'', ''Linie'', ''Orgie'', ''Pinie'', ''Serie'', ''Studie'', ''Tragödie'',
while it is silent in the words ''Akademie'', ''Allergie'', ''Amnesie'', ''Amnestie'', ''Apathie'', ''Artillerie'', ''Batterie'', ''Blasphemie'', ''Chemie'', ''Chirurgie'', ''Demokratie'', ''Energie'', ''Epidemie'', ''-gamie'', ''Garantie'', ''Genie'', ''Geometrie'', ''-grafie/-graphie'', ''Harmonie'', ''Hysterie'', ''Infanterie'', ''Ironie'', ''Kavallerie'', ''Knie'', ''Kompanie'', ''Kopi''e, ''
-logie'', ''Liturgie'', ''Magie'', ''Manie'', ''Melodie'', ''Monotonie'', ''Nostalgie'', ''Orthopädie'', ''Partie'', ''Phantasie'', ''Philantropie'', ''Philatelie'', ''Philosophie'', ''Poesie'' (but the ''e'' after the ''o'' is pronounced), ''Psychiatrie'', ''Rhapsodie'', ''Sinfonie'', ''-skopie'', ''Theorie'', ''Therapie'', ''Utopie''.
In the female names ''Amalie'', ''Emilie'', ''Otilie'', ''Zäzilie'', the final e is pronounced, but it is silent in ''Leonie'', ''Marie'' (but in compound words such as ''Mari''e''nplatz''
place in Munich ''Marienstatue''
tatue of the Virgin Mary the e is pronounced; the Virgin Mary is called ''Maria'' in German), ''Nat(h)alie'', ''Rosalie'', ''Rosemarie'', ''Stefanie'' (or: ''Stephanie''), ''Valerie''.
The e is pronounced in the names ''Ariel(le)'', ''Daniel'', ''Daniela'', ''Gabriel'', ''Gabriel(l)e'' (in ''Gabriele'', the final e is pronounced), ''Gabriella'', ''Mariele'' (the final e is pronounced), ''Mariella'', ''Muriel'', but it is silent in ''Dieter'', ''Frieda'', ''Friederich'', ''Siegfried'', ''Siegrid'', ''Sieglinde'' (the final e is pronounced), ''Wieland''.
In country names ending in ''-ien'' , the e is pronounced: ''Australien'', ''Brasilien'', ''Indien'', ''Kroatien'', ''Serbien'', ''Slowenien''.
In city names, the pronunciation of ''e'' after ''i'' varies: In ''Wien'' (Vienna), the e is silent, but in ''Triest'', it is pronounced.
A silent ''h'' sometimes indicates vowel length, as in ''Stuhl'' ('chair'), or a
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
*Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* Gl ...
, as in ''drehen'' ('to turn'). That ''h'' derives from an old in some words such as ''sehen'' ('to see') ''zehn'' ('ten'), but in other words, it has no etymological justification such as ''gehen'' ('to go') or ''mahlen'' ('to mill').
Romance languages
French
Silent letters are common in
French, including the last letter of most words. Ignoring auxiliary letters that create digraphs (such as , , , , , , and , and and as signals for
nasalized vowels), they include almost every possible letter except and .
Vowels
Final is silent or at least (in poetry and song) a nearly-silent
schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
; it allows the preservation of a preceding consonant, often allowing the preservation of a grammatical distinction between
masculine and feminine forms in writing, e.g., in ''vert'' and ''verte'' (both ‘green’); the is pronounced in the latter (feminine) but not the former. Furthermore, the schwa can prevent an awkward ending of a word ending in a consonant and a liquid (''peuple, sucre'').
After , , or , a final is silent. The spelling is pronounced just the same as that for and is entirely an etymological distinction, so in that context, the is silent.
* The digraph , used to represent before the front vowels and , has a silent . In contrast, the u is pronounced in .
* for has the same silent before and . When the is not silent it must be marked with a
trema: . Before and , the is ''not'' silent.
Consonants
* is silent outside of the digraph and loanwords such as ''hat'' or ''
hate
Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is ...
''. Numerous doubled consonants exist; French does not distinguish doubled consonants from single consonants in pronunciation as
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
does. A marked distinction exists between a single and doubled : doubled is always
voiceless
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, while an intervocalic single is
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
.
The nasal consonants and when final or preceding a consonant ordinarily nasalize a preceding vowel but are not themselves pronounced (''faim'', ''tomber'', ''vin'', ''vendre''). Initial and intervocalic and , even before a final silent , are pronounced: ''aimer'', ''jaune''.
Most final consonants are silent, usual exceptions to be found with the letters , , , and (the English word ''careful'' is
mnemonic
A mnemonic ( ) device, or memory device, is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory for better understanding.
Mnemonics make use of elaborative encoding, retrieval cues, and imag ...
for this set). But even this rule has its exceptions: final is usually pronounced /e/ (=) rather than the expected /ɛʀ/. Final is silent after even in a diphthong (''œil'', ''appareil'', ''travail''). Final -''ent'' is silent as a third-person plural verb ending, though it is pronounced in other cases.
Final consonants that might be silent in other contexts (finally or before another consonant) may seem to reappear in pronunciation in
liaison
Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together.
Liaison or liaisons may refer to:
General usage
* Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship
* Collaboration
* Co-operation
Arts and entertainment
* Li ...
: ''ils ont'' "they have", as opposed to ''ils sont'' "they are"; liaison is the retention (between words in certain syntactic relationships) of a
historical sound otherwise lost, and often has grammatical or lexical significance.
Italian
The letter most often marks a / as hard (
velar
Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum).
Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
), as in ''spaghetti'', where it would otherwise be soft (
palatal
The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity.
A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
), as in ''cello'', because of a following
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
( or ). * The digraph , used to represent before the back vowels and , has a silent . In contrast, the i is pronounced in .
* for has the same silent before and . When the is not silent it must be marked with a
trema: . Before and , the is ''not'' silent.
Silent is also used in forms of the verb ''avere'' ('have') – ''ho'', ''hai'' and ''hanno'' – to distinguish these from their homophones ''o'' ('or'), ''ai'' ('to the') and ''anno'' ('year'). The letter is also silent at the beginning of words borrowed from other languages, such as ''hotel''.
Spanish
Despite being rather
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west ...
,
Spanish orthography
Spanish orthography is the orthography used in the Spanish language. The alphabet uses the Latin script. The spelling is fairly phonemic, especially in comparison to more opaque orthographies like English, having a relatively consistent mapping ...
retains some silent letters:
* is silent outside of the digraph and loanwords such as ''hámster'' or ''
hachís''.
* The digraph , used to represent before the front vowels and , has a silent . In contrast, the u is pronounced in .
* for has the same silent before and . When the is not silent it must be marked with a
trema: . Before and , the is ''not'' silent.
Greek
In
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
the
comma
The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
also functions as a silent letter in a handful of words, principally distinguishing (''ó,ti'', "whatever") from (''óti'', "that").
[Nicolas, Nick.]
Greek Unicode Issues: Punctuation
". 2005. Accessed 7 Oct 2014.
Slavic languages
Czech
In the vast majority of cases, Czech pronunciation follows the spelling. There are only four exceptions:
D
For example: dcera (daughter) and in srdce (heart)
/j/ + consonant clusters in some words
In most present forms of the verb ''být'' ("to be"), namely ''jsem'', ''jsi'', ''jsme'', ''jste'' and ''jsou'' (i.e. all persons but the 3rd person singular ''je''), the initial cluster /js/ is regularly simplified to a mere /s/. This pronunciation is considered correct and neutral when the verb is unstressed and used as an auxiliary. When stressed or used lexically, only the full /js/ pronunciation is considered correct. In casual speech, however, a few other highly frequent words commonly undergo similar simplification, namely all present forms of ''jít ''("to walk") beginning with /jd/ (that is ''jdu'', ''jdeš'', ''jde'', ''jdeme'', ''jdete'', ''jdou''), the noun ''jméno'' ("name") and the verb ''jmenovat (se)'' ("to name, to (''be'') call(''ed'')").
Russian
Several words in Russian omit written consonants when spoken. For example, "чувствовать" (chuvstvovat') is pronounced
t͡ɕustvəvətʲand "солнце" (solntse) is pronounced
sont͡sə
Russian letter
ъ has no phonetic value and functions as a separation sign. Before the spelling reform of 1918 this hard sign was written at the end of each word when following a non-palatal consonant.
Semitic languages
![00-Alif-Wasla](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/00-Alif-Wasla.png)
In
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
, almost all cases of silent letters are silent
aleph
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez .
These letter ...
– א. Many words that have a silent aleph in Hebrew, have an equivalent word in
Arabic language
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
, that is written with a
mater lectionis
''Matres lectionis'' (from Latin "mothers of reading", singular form: ''mater lectionis'', from he, אֵם קְרִיאָה ) are consonants that are used to indicate a vowel, primarily in the writing down of Semitic languages such as Arabic, ...
alif –
ا ; a letter that indicates the long vowel "aa". Examples:
* The Hebrew word for "no" is לֹא (sounds like "lo", spelled like "loa") and the Arabic word for "no" is لاَ (sounds and spelled like "laa").
* The Hebrew word for "left side" is שְׂמֹאל (sounds like "smol", spelled like "smoal") and the Arabic word for "north" is شَمَال (sounds and spelled like "shamaal").
* The Hebrew word for "head" is רֹאשׁ (sounds like "rosh", spelled like "roash") and the Arabic word for "head" is رَأس (sounds and spelled like "ra's").
The explanation for this phenomenon is that the Hebrew language had a
sound change
A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...
of all the mater lectionis aleph letters into silent ones (see
Canaanite shift
In historical linguistics, the Canaanite shift is a vowel shift/sound change that took place in the Canaanite languages, Canaanite dialects, which belong to the Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic branch of the Semitic languages family. ...
). Due to that sound change, in Hebrew language, there are only two kinds of aleph - the
glottal stop
The glottal plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents thi ...
(/ʔ/) and the silent one, while in Arabic language all three kinds still exist.
The silent Arabic alif is marked with a
wasla
The ''waṣla'' ( ar, , lit=an instance of connection) or (, 'hamza of connection') is an Arabic diacritic resembling part of the letter () that is sometimes placed over the letter at the beginning of the word (). The ''ʾalif'' with ''waṣla ...
sign above it (see picture), in order to differentiate it from the other kinds of alifs. An Arabic alif turns silent, if it fulfils three conditions: it must be in a beginning of a word, the word must not be the first one of the sentence, and the word must belong to one of the following groups:
*
Verb
A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s that start with the
prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
"ʔi-", due to their
conjugation
Conjugation or conjugate may refer to:
Linguistics
* Grammatical conjugation, the modification of a verb from its basic form
* Emotive conjugation or Russell's conjugation, the use of loaded language
Mathematics
* Complex conjugation, the chang ...
and
derived stem.
* Ten specific
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s that begin with "ʔ":اسم, است, ابن/ابنة, اثنان/اثنتان, امرؤ/امرأة, اَيمن الله/اَيْم الله. Some of these words have a Hebrew word equivalent, and that equivalent had totally lost the beginning aleph. Examples: اسم (ʔism), meaning "a name" (in Maltese the word ''isem''), sounds like "ism" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "sm" if not; its Hebrew equivalent is שֵׁם (shem). إبن (ʔibn) (in Maltese the word ''iben''), meaning "a son", sounds like "ibn" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "bn" if not; its Hebrew equivalent is בֵּן (ben), in Maltese ''bin''.
* The alif of the word اَل (ʔal), meaning "
the
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
" - sounds like "al" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "l" if not.
Besides the alif of the Arabic word ال (ʔal, meaning "
the
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
"), its
lām
Lamedh or Lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew Lāmed , Aramaic Lāmadh , Syriac Lāmaḏ ܠ, Arabic , and Phoenician Lāmed . Its sound value is .
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin ...
(the letter L) can also get silent. It gets silent if the noun that word is related to, starts with a "
sun letter". A sun letter is a letter that indicates a
consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
that is produced by stopping the air in the front part of the mouth (not including the consonant M). The Hebrew equivalent to the Arabic word ال (ʔal, meaning "
the
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
") had totally lost its L.
In Maltese għ can be silent e.g. għar - meaning cave - and pronounced "ahr", or a voiced HH if it is followed by the or if it is at the end of a word e.g. qlugħ (q-glottal stop: ).
Uralic languages
The
Estonian and
Finnish language
Finnish ( endonym: or ) is a Uralic language of the Finnic branch, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish is one of the two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish ...
s use double letters for
long vowel
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
s and
geminate consonant
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''Gemini (constellation), gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonan ...
s.
Turkish
In the
Turkish language
Turkish ( , ), also referred to as Turkish of Turkey (''Türkiye Türkçesi''), is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, with around 80 to 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. Significant sma ...
, often has no sound of its own, but lengthens the preceding vowel, for example in ''dağ'' ("mountain") . In other surroundings, it may be pronounced as a
glide
Glide may refer to:
* Gliding flight, to fly without thrust
Computing
*Glide API, a 3D graphics interface
*Glide OS, a web desktop
*Glide (software), an instant video messenger
*Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr ...
.
Persian
In
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, there are two instances of silent letters:
* The letter
he after a short vowel, unless in a monosyllabic word, has no sound of its own. It is only written because according to spelling rules a word cannot end in a short vowel.
* The
Silent Vav is always written but not spoken in Standard Persian. It used to represent the
labialization
Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve ...
of the
voiceless velar fricative
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English, e.g. in ''loc ...
, which no longer exists in the standard dialect, making it an archaic remnant of the old standards of pronunciation.
Indic languages
Unconventional to
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
and Proto-Indo-European root languages, some Indic languages have silent letters. Among
Dravidian language
The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant i ...
s,
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
and
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...
have certain distinct styles of keeping few of their letters silent.
Tamil
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
is a classical language phonetically characterized by
allophones
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
,
approximants
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
,
nasals
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
and
glottalised sounds. Some words, however, have silent letters in them. The words அஃது (while that is), and அஃதன் (that) contain the ''
Āytam'' or '', which is not pronounced in Modern Tamil. It is explained in the ''Tolkāppiyam'' that ''āytam'' could have
glottalised the sounds it was combined with, though some may argue it sounded more like the Arabic '' (). That being said, modern words like ஆஃபிஸ் (Office) use '' and '' in sequence to represent the sound, as the ''āytam'' is nowadays also used to transcribe it and other foreign phonemes.
Another convention in
Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) is the use of silent vowels to address a mark of respect when beginning proper nouns. The
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
was one such text where the word ''
Ramayana
The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...
'' in Tamil always began with '', as in
இராமாயணம் (), though it was not pronounced. The name கோபாலன் () was so written as உகோபாலன் prefixed with an ''.
Malayalam
Inheriting
elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
,
approximant
Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough nor with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a ...
s and
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
s from
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
, in Malayalam, except for Sanskrit words, words ending in the vowel '' () become silent at the end and if not compounded with words succeeding them, replace the '' vowel by the schwa . However, it is considered disrespectful to change this pronunciation in the simple present verbs, when using imperatives and using what can be termed as Imperative-Active voice in Malayalam, where the second person is respectfully addressed with his or her name instead of നീ (, you) or നിങ്ങൽ (, yourselves). For example, in the sentence, രാകേശ് പണി തീർക്കു (, Rakesh, finish your work), the use of the second personal pronoun is avoided with the name രാകേശ് (, Rakesh), but this sentence sounds less respectful if the '' in തീർക്കു (, finish} is replaced by the schwa or , as in "തീർക്കു!" (, Finish!) which sounds like an order. Notice the at the end of the name Rakesh which is pronounced after being added to the Sanskritic name.
Zhuang-Tai languages
Thai
Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
has a
deep orthography like English and French. Unlike the two languages, however, the
Thai script
The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน ...
is an
abugida
An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
rather than a true alphabet. Nonetheless, silent consonants, vowels, and even syllables are common in Thai. Thai has many loanwords from Sanskrit and
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...
, and rather than spell aforementioned words according to Thai phonics, the script tends to maintain the etymological spellings. For example, a romanization of the word ประโยชน์ that reflects Thai orthography is , but it would be pronounced as , where the extra letter for ''-n'' is completely silent. Another example is the Thai word มนตร์, which is sometimes written as ''mantra'' like it would be in Sanskrit, but it is only pronounced in Thai. Though the second syllable is pronounced in Sanskrit, it is completely absent when pronouncing the word in Thai. In such words, the diacritic , known as (), is used to mark silent letters.
Also, different letters can be used for the same sound (for example,
ʰcan be spelled as , , , , , or ) depending on which class the consonant is, which is important for knowing which tone the syllable will have, and whether or not it is a loanword from Sanskrit or Pali. However, some letters written before low class consonants become silent and turn the low class syllable into a high class one. For example, even though the high class letter is used to write the sound /h/, if the letter comes before a low class letter in a syllable, the letter will become , which will make the letter silent and it will turn the syllable into a high class syllable. For example, the word is a low class syllable because its initial consonant is a low class consonant. The syllable is pronounced (with a long vowel and mid tone) and it means "field". However, the word is a high class syllable, despite it containing a low class consonant in the
onset
Onset may refer to:
*Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound
*Onset, Massachusetts
Onset is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Wareham, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2010 census.
Geog ...
. The syllable is pronounced (with a long vowel and a rising tone) and it means "thick".
Lao
Like Thai,
Lao also has a letter that becomes silent if it comes before a low class consonant. The letter is ''ho sung'' ຫ, which would represent the sound /h/ if it were not paired with another low class consonant. However, unlike Thai, the digraphs beginning with the aforementioned letter can sometimes be written as a
ligature
Ligature may refer to:
* Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure
** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry
* Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...
.
Zhuang
In the
standard Zhuang language, written in the Latin script, the last letter of every syllable is typically silent due to it representing the tone of the syllable. The digraphs mb and nd also have silent letters, representing the phonemes ɓ and ɗ respectively.
Korean
In the
Hangul Orthography
''Hangeul matchumbeop(한글맞춤법)'' refers to the overall rules of writing the Korean language with Hangul. The current orthography was issued and established by Korean Ministry of Culture in 1998. The first of it is Hunminjungeum(훈민정 ...
of the
Korean language
Korean ( South Korean: , ''hangugeo''; North Korean: , ''chosŏnmal'') is the native language for about 80 million people, mostly of Korean descent. It is the official and national language of both North Korea and South Korea (geographic ...
, the letter ⟨ㅇ⟩ is silent when written in the syllable-initial position, and represents the sound /ŋ/ when written in the syllable-final position. For example, in the word 안녕 (
Yale Romanization: ) (meaning "hello"), composed of the letters "ㅇㅏㄴㄴㅕㅇ", the first ⟨ㅇ⟩ is silent, and the last ⟨ㅇ⟩ is pronounced as /ŋ/. The reason for this can be found in 15th-century Hangul orthography. In the 15th century, the letter ⟨ㅇ⟩ originally represented /∅~ɣ/ (a
lenited
In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
form of ㄱ /k/), while the letter ⟨ㆁ⟩ unconditionally represented /ŋ/. But because in Middle Korean phonology, ⟨ㆁ⟩ was not allowed in syllable-initial position, and ⟨ㅇ⟩ was not allowed in syllable-final position, it formed a complementary distribution of the two letters. Because of this and due to the fact that the letters look very much alike, the two letters merged.
Korean's syllable structure is CGVC, and Korean's writing system,
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
, reflects this structure. The only possible consonant cluster in a single syllable must contain a
glide
Glide may refer to:
* Gliding flight, to fly without thrust
Computing
*Glide API, a 3D graphics interface
*Glide OS, a web desktop
*Glide (software), an instant video messenger
*Glide, a molecular docking software by Schrödinger (company), Schr ...
and they must occur in the
onset
Onset may refer to:
*Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound
*Onset, Massachusetts
Onset is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Wareham, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 1,573 at the 2010 census.
Geog ...
. However, sometimes a cluster of two consonants are written after the vowel in a syllable. In such situations, if the next syllable begins with a vowel sound, then the second consonant becomes the first sound of the next syllable. However, if the next syllable begins with a consonant sound, then one of the consonants in the cluster will be silent (sometimes causing
fortition
Fortition, also known as strengthening, is a consonantal change that increases the degree of stricture. It is the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a stop (i.e. becomes or becomes ). Al ...
in the following consonant). For example, the word 얇다 (meaning "thin") is written as (
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
: ''yalp.ta''), but the word is pronounced as if it was written ''yal.tta'' because the second syllable begins with a consonant sound. However, the word 얇아서 (also meaning "thin") is written as (
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
: ''yalp.a.se'') and it is pronounced as ''yal.pa.se'' because the second syllable begins with a vowel sound.
Mongolian
Interestingly, the native
Mongolian script
The classical or traditional Mongolian script, also known as the , was the first writing system created specifically for the Mongolian language, and was the most widespread until the introduction of Cyrillic in 1946. It is traditionally writte ...
has much more
orthographic depth
The orthographic depth of an alphabetic orthography indicates the degree to which a written language deviates from simple one-to-one letter–phoneme correspondence. It depends on how easy it is to predict the pronunciation of a word based on its s ...
than
Mongolian Cyrillic
The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet ( Mongolian: , or , ) is the writing system used for the standard dialect of the Mongolian language in the modern state of Mongolia. It has a largely phonemic orthography, meaning that there is a fair degree ...
. For example, the letter ''Gh'' or ''γ'' (ᠭ) is silent if it is between two of the same vowel letters. In that case, the silent consonant letter combines to two written vowel into one long vowel. For example, the Mongolian word ''Qaγan'' (ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ) should be pronounced ''Qaan'' (ᠬᠠᠠᠨ). In Mongolian Cyrillic, however, it is spelled ''хаан'' (''haan''), closer to the actual pronunciation of the word. Words in the Mongolian script can also have silent vowels as well. For Mongolian name of the city
Hohhot, it is spelled ''Kökeqota'' (ᠬᠥᠬᠡᠬᠣᠲᠠ) in Mongolian script, but in Cyrillic, it is spelled ''Хөх хот (Höh hot)'', closer towards the actual pronunciation of the word.
See also
*
Apheresis (linguistics)
In phonetics and phonology, apheresis (; en-GB, aphaeresis) is the loss of a word-initial vowel producing a new form called aphetism (e.g. ''American'' > '' 'Merican''). In a broader sense, it can refer to the loss of any initial sound (includin ...
*
Elision
In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
*
List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations
This is a set of lists of English personal and place names having spellings that are counterintuitive to their pronunciation because the spelling does not accord with conventional pronunciation associations, or because a better known namesake wit ...
, many with multiple silent letters.
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Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages
Schwa deletion, or schwa syncope, is a phenomenon that sometimes occurs in Assamese, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Kashmiri, Punjabi, Gujarati, and several other Indian languages with schwas that are implicit in their written scripts. Languages like ...
, explains rules of Modern Indo-Aryan languages that delete the schwa sound.
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Silent e
In English orthography, many words feature a silent (single, final, non-syllabic ‘e’), most commonly at the end of a word or morpheme. Typically it represents a vowel sound that was formerly pronounced, but became silent in late Middle En ...
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Silent k
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Syncope (phonology)
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Three letter rule source of some common English silent letters.
References
{{Reflist
Spelling
English orthography
Letter
Letter, letters, or literature may refer to:
Characters typeface
* Letter (alphabet), a character representing one or more of the sounds used in speech; any of the symbols of an alphabet.
* Letterform, the graphic form of a letter of the alphabe ...