SEVENTH YEAR.
[Fifth Month.]
SILENT LETTERS.
Silent letters have at least four uses:
1. To modify sounds of other letters in the same syllable.
Drop final silent e from such words as the following and note the effect on the sound of the other vowel in the same syllable: bare, pure, ripe, lame.
2. To indicate pronunciation.
In the four words last given, for illustration, the pronunciation changes when the final silent e is dropped.
Another class of words ending in ce and ge retain the final silent e on adding a suffix beginning with a or o to preserve the soft sound of c and g, and with it the correct pronunciation of the word; as, serviceable, noticeable, changeable, courageous.
3. To show the meaning of words.
Illustrations: clime, climb, plumb, belle, butt, dyeing, singeing, guilt, damn.
4. To show the derivation of words.
Numerous illustrations are found in words derived from the Greek. In chronic, and chronology, the h is silent, but serves to indicate that the root of those words is identical with the Greek root chron, which means time. Similarly the g in gnostic, the e in eulogy, p in pneumonia, the h in chromatic.
In honour and favour u is silent, and therefore a useless letter, so far as sound is concerned. The u signifies that the word came to us through the French, instead of directly from the Latin. The question is, whether we shall go to the trouble of writing the extra letter in a large class of such words for the sake of the historical association. Perhaps one in a thousand would choose to do so, but others of us are more intent on saving time and ink. When the spelling reform idea becomes operative with English speaking people, a great many silent letters will go the way of the u in labour, favour, and the like.
The following are some of the numerous classes of silent letters together with the principle found to be operative through them.
[Sixth Month.]
“E final is silent when preceded by another vowel in the same syllable.”
| change | sense | adverse | Chinese | condense |
| brace | quite | bade | oppose | deceive |
| force | scribe | burlesque | embrace | machine |
| crease | measure | canine | emerge | endorse |
| cease | absolve | caprice | examine | advise |
[Seventh Month.]
“B is usually silent before t or after m in the same syllable.”
| lamb | tomb | numb | debt | bomb |
| comb | thumb | dumb | doubt | crumb |
| limb | climb | plumb | redoubt | jamb |
[Eighth Month.]
“C is silent before k in the same syllable. C is silent in czar, victuals, muscle, corpuscle, indict, and Connecticut.”
| back | deck | lack | stack | Patrick |
| buck | duck | hack | stick | reckon |
| burdock | chick | luck | suck | thicken |
| clock | click | lick | beckon | Cossack |