The English Language!
Everything that the English language has to offer!
Silent letters, what's the point?
This is a question that I have asked myself and other family and friends. Since nobody had the answer, I decided to do a little research on my own. The results I found were extremely interesting. Get this...the French are the reason for these letters! It all started around the 14th century. When the English language was still pretty young, the French adopted this language and added a few modifications. Making the language a lot more confusing to modern day school children as these words continue to stump even the brightest of spellers!
A few examples...
Words such as knife, debt, doubt, and subtle are just a few examples of these tricky words! Now let's play a game. What I want you to do is take out a piece of paper and write down as many words with silent letters as possible! You only have a minute so be quick! The winner will be the one who has down the most words. Keep in mind that you may not use the words previously mentioned. Get ready, set, Go!
Speaking of which...how was the English language made?
This is one you won't believe! Did you know that the English language comes form 14 different languages! Celtic, French, Latin, Greek, Scandinavian, Norman, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Indian, German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Arabic were all languages used to create English. Unbelievable! One of the most spoken language in the word has basically stole the style of 14 other languages!
The first dictionary!
As I was researching, I came across a really interesting fact. The man who made the best spellers resource was Samuel Jackson! He was the creator of the very first English dictionary! He started to make it in 1766 and finally finished in 1775. It took him 9 years to make a book 42,773 word and 114,000 different examples of these words all by himself!
A final question and answer!
As this presentation comes to a close, I wanted to solve one last question. What other languages had words with silent letters? To all those reading this, I think you'll be surprised to know that 8 other seperate languages have a silent letter rule! Danish, Faroese, German, French, Spanish, Turkish, Tamil, and Malayalam are all languages that have silent letters! Overall, I found these facts quite interesting. I hope you have enjoyed this presentation!
Sources
usingenglish.com English.stockexchange.com Quora.com britishcouncil.org slate.com espressoenglish.net blog.dictionary.com