Philosophy
The English language is an odd mishmash of German, Dutch, Norse, French, Celtic, and Latin. So many pieces that don't fit together so well have resulted in a language that is really odd.
Consider how many words in English have utterly irrelevant letter polution. A silent letter is one that is neither (a) pronounced nor (b) operative. A letter is pronounced if its sound appears in the word in its place in the word and a letter is operative if it affects the way a word is pronounced, even if it itself is not pronounced. So the second ?s? in kiss is pronounced, but not operative ? there is an s sound at the end, but it does not depend on that ?s? being there. The ?e? in rate is silent, but operative because the ?a? would be short without it.
Below is a partial list of words (no proper nouns) with silent letters. Words in parentheses are operative, but not pronounced; and words in brackets are pronounced, but non-operative. Any help filling in the missing letters?
A ? weather
B ? bomb
C ? science
D ? (edge)
E ? lye, give
F ? [raffle]
G ? gnu
H ? rhyme
I ? waiter (I know it becomes water, but it's a degenerate pronunciation)
J ?
K ? knight
L ? [bill]
M ? mnemonic
N ? damn
O ? phoenix, double
P ? psychology
Q ?
R ? [ferry], (sommelier)
S ? scent
T ? catch
U ? building
V ?
W ? two, crow
X ?
Y ? (play)
Z ? [dazzle]
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Philosophy
Silent Letters
The English language is an odd mishmash of German, Dutch, Norse, French, Celtic, and Latin. So many pieces that don't fit together so well have resulted in a language that is really odd.
Consider how many words in English have utterly irrelevant letter polution. A silent letter is one that is neither (a) pronounced nor (b) operative. A letter is pronounced if its sound appears in the word in its place in the word and a letter is operative if it affects the way a word is pronounced, even if it itself is not pronounced. So the second ?s? in kiss is pronounced, but not operative ? there is an s sound at the end, but it does not depend on that ?s? being there. The ?e? in rate is silent, but operative because the ?a? would be short without it.
Below is a partial list of words (no proper nouns) with silent letters. Words in parentheses are operative, but not pronounced; and words in brackets are pronounced, but non-operative. Any help filling in the missing letters?
A ? weather
B ? bomb
C ? science
D ? (edge)
E ? lye, give
F ? [raffle]
G ? gnu
H ? rhyme
I ? waiter (I know it becomes water, but it's a degenerate pronunciation)
J ?
K ? knight
L ? [bill]
M ? mnemonic
N ? damn
O ? phoenix, double
P ? psychology
Q ?
R ? [ferry], (sommelier)
S ? scent
T ? catch
U ? building
V ?
W ? two, crow
X ?
Y ? (play)
Z ? [dazzle]
- Unanswered Questions
My Fellow Comedists, This weekend, let's ask questions we don't want answered. If someone who speaks with the dead is a medium, is a midget who communicates with the deceased an extra small? If someone wins an award as dental hygienist of the...
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Last night at dinner with the department, a colleague, whose native language is not English, declared that he has an accent. Someone else said that he didn't because there was no discernible difference between the way he pronounced words and the way...
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