Why do we have some silent letters in English?
Today we answer a question from Ahmad in Iraq. He writes:
今天我們回答了來自伊拉克的Ahmad提出的一個問題。他寫道：
Question:
問題：
Why do we have some silent letters in English? Like these words: write, know, half, hide. So, tell me, why should we write them, although we don't pronounce them?
為什麼英語中有些字母不發音？就像這些詞：write、know、half、hide等。請告訴我，儘管它們不發音，為什麼我們還要寫出來？
Thank you – Ahmad, Iraq.
謝謝伊拉克的Ahmad。
Answer:
回答：
Dear Ahmad,
親愛的Ahmad，
That is a great question. Like many of the unusual things about English, the answer is tied to history. Three of the reasons for the silent letters are changes in the language, borrowing words or terms from other languages and simplification of words.
這是個很好問題。就像英語中有很多不尋常的東西一樣，這個問題與歷史有關。字母不發音的三個原因包括：語言的變化、從其他語言中的借用詞或術語、單詞的簡化。
If you pay close attention, you will find my answer to your second question: "Why should we write them?"
如果你仔細觀察，你會發現我對你的第二個問題的回答：「我們為什麼要寫它們？」
Language changes
語言的變化
The first reason is that language changes over time, and as people move from place to place. The English language has been written for over 10 centuries. We all know the way speakers of English pronounce words has changed over the years. However, the spelling of many of those words has not changed.
第一個原因是語言會隨著時間而發生改變，也會因人們從一個地方遷移到另一個地方而發生變化。英語已經有1000多年的歷史了。我們都知道，這麼多年來，說英語的人發音的方式已經發生改變。然而，其中很多單詞的拼寫並沒有改變。
About 400 years ago, people said the "w" sound or /w/ at the beginning of your first example, "write." In the Northeast of Scotland, you may still hear the sound "v" at the beginning of the word.
大約400年前，人們在讀write一詞時，會發/w/這個音。在蘇格蘭東北部，你仍然可以聽到write一詞開頭的/v/音。
You asked about the word "hide." That has a silent "e" because at one time, there were two syllables or separate parts to the word. In Middle English, one might say /heed-uh/. This word was part of a big change in the way people speak English. It came along between the years 1400 and 1700 and is called the Great Vowel Shift. The vowels -- sounds you make with an open mouth – began to change. /Heed-uh/ became "hide." After that change, English speakers kept writing words with the silent "e" to show that the words have a long vowel sound within the word.
你問了hide這個詞。該詞中的e不發音，因為曾經，這個單詞有兩個音節，即有兩個單獨的部分。在中古英語中，人們可能會說/heed-uh/。這個詞是人們說英語方式變化較大的一類詞。這出現在1400年到1700年之間，被稱為元音大轉移。元音——開著口發出的音——開始發生變化。/Heed-uh/變成了hide。在這一變化之後，以英語為母語的人繼續使用不發音的e來書寫單詞，用以說明單詞內有一個長元音。
Borrowed words
借來的詞
Another reason for silent letters is that English has borrowed words from many other languages. Words that came from Greek may start with the letters "ph", but we say them with a "f" sound, /f/ as in "physical." Scholars decided to write them in the Greek way to show their roots.
字母不發音的另一個原因是英語從其他很多語言中借用了一些詞。來自希臘的單詞可能以ph開頭，但我們發/f/，如physical這個詞。學者們使用希臘文書寫，用以顯示它們的根源。
Make it simpler
使其更簡單一些
You can imagine that people want to make the language they speak simpler. That is true with pronunciation, but until today, there have been few major changes to the spelling of English words. Two centuries ago, Noah Webster tried to change American spelling in his dictionary. He is the reason Americans spell "color" without the letter "u" and spell "jail" as j-a-i-l, not "g-a-o-l."
你可以想像一下，人們都想讓他們說的語言更簡單一些。發音也是如此，但直到今天，英語單詞的拼寫幾乎沒有什麼大的變化。兩個世紀前，Noah Webster試圖在他的詞典中改變美式英語的拼寫。正是因為他，美國人才會在拼寫color時不帶字母u，而且把jail拼寫成j-a-i-l，而不是g-a-o-l。
Ahmad, the second word you asked about -- "know" -- came from an old German word. In Old English and in old German, the "k" sound was heard at the beginning. But to make it simpler, people started to say the "n" at the beginning. Today, we write the word "know" as "k-n-o-w" to show that it is different from the word spelled n-o, or "no." The same is true for all other words that begin with the letters "kn."
Ahmad，你問的第二個單詞know來自一個古德語單詞。在古英語和古德語中，k這個音在開頭是聽的到的。但為了使其更簡單一些，人們開始在單詞的開頭說n。今天，我們把know寫成k-n-o-w，用來表示它與no這個詞不同。其他所有以kn開頭的單詞也是如此。
I hope this helps you understand our strange way of writing words, Ahmad!
Ahmad，我希望這能幫助你理解英語單詞奇怪的書寫方式。
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