5 Letter Word Begins With La

Letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the give-and-take's pronunciation

This article is about a feature in alphabetic writing systems. For the anthology by America, run into Silent Letter (album).

In an alphabetic writing system, a
silent alphabetic character
is a letter that, in a particular give-and-take, does not represent to any sound in the discussion's pronunciation. In linguistics, a silent letter is often symbolised with a nothing sign

U+2205

∅
EMPTY SET. Null is an unpronounced or unwritten segment. The symbol resembles the Scandinavian letter Ø and other symbols.

English language

[edit]

One of the noted difficulties of English spelling is a high number of silent messages. 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. ii letters combined which represent a single phoneme. These may further be categorized equally:
  • "Exocentric" digraphs, where the audio 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, every bit with consonants ⟨ng⟩ for
      /ŋ/
      every bit in
      sing, ⟨th⟩ for
      /θ/
      as in
      thin
      or
      /ð/
      as in
      then, diphthongs ⟨ou⟩ in
      out
      or ⟨oi⟩ 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, equally with ⟨gh⟩ in
      enough
      or ⟨ph⟩ in
      physical
      instead of ⟨f⟩. These may be considered irregular for writers, merely less difficult for readers.
  • "Endocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is the aforementioned as that of one of its constituent letters. These include:
    • Near double consonants, as ⟨bb⟩ in
      clubbed; though not geminate consonants, as ⟨ss⟩ in
      misspell. Doubling due to suffixation or inflection is regular; otherwise,^{[
      clarification needed
      ]}
      it may present difficulty to writers (e.g.
      accommodate
      is often misspelled), but not to readers.
    • Many vowel digraphs, as ⟨ea⟩, ⟨ie⟩, ⟨eu⟩ in
      leave
      (cf. accede),
      reach,
      eulogy
      (cf. utopia).
    • The discontiguous digraphs, whose second element is "magic east", e.thou. ⟨a_e⟩ in
      rate
      (cf.
      rat), ⟨i_e⟩ in
      fine
      (cf.
      fin). This is the regular style to represent "long" vowels in the last syllable of a morpheme.
    • Others, such every bit ⟨ck⟩ (which is in effect the "doubled" grade of ⟨k⟩), ⟨gu⟩ every bit in
      guard,
      vogue; ⟨ea⟩ as in
      bread,
      heavy, etc.; ⟨ae⟩, ⟨oe⟩ 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 word: e.g. ⟨n⟩ in
    damn
    (cf.
    damnation); ⟨g⟩ in
    phlegm
    (cf.
    phlegmatic); ⟨a⟩ in
    practically
    (cf.
    practical); ⟨t⟩ in
    ballet
    (cf.
    adroit). If the cognate is obvious, information technology may aid writers in spelling, but mislead readers in pronunciation.
  • The residuum are
    empty letters, which never have a sound, e.g., ⟨h⟩ in
    honor, ⟨w⟩ in answer, ⟨h⟩ in Sarah, ⟨s⟩ in idue southland, ⟨b⟩ in subtle. These may present the greatest difficulty to writers and often to readers, likewise.

The distinction between "endocentric" digraphs and empty letters is somewhat capricious. For example, in such words as
little
and
bottle, one might view ⟨le⟩ as an "endocentric" digraph for
/əl/, or view ⟨e⟩ equally an empty alphabetic character; similarly, with ⟨bu⟩ or ⟨u⟩ in
purchase
and
build.

Not all silent letters are completely redundant:

• Silent letters can distinguish between homophones, e.g.
  in/inn;
  exist/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 vines more than than the phonetic
  *vinyard
  would.
• Silent letters may help the reader to stress the right syllable (compare
  physics
  to
  physiques). The final ⟨fe⟩ in
  giraffe
  gives a clue to the 2d-syllable stress, where
  *giraf
  might suggest initial-stress.

Silent letters arise in several means:

• Sound changes occurring without a spelling alter. The digraph ⟨gh⟩ was pronounced
  [x]
  in Middle English in such words every bit
  light.
• Audio distinctions from foreign languages may be lost, as with the distinction between smooth rho (ρ) and roughly aspirated rho (ῥ) in Ancient Greek, represented past ⟨r⟩ and ⟨rh⟩ in Latin, but merged to the same
  [r]
  in English language.
• Clusters of consonants may exist simplified, producing silent letters; e.grand. silent ⟨th⟩ in
  asthma, silent ⟨t⟩ in
  Christmas
  (in conservative RP, such every bit that spoken by Dame Vera Lynn, the ⟨t⟩ is pronounced /krɪstməs/, as opposed to /krɪsməs/ in all other dialects). Similarly, with alien clusters, such every bit Greek initial ⟨ps⟩ in
  psychology
  and ⟨mn⟩ in
  mnemonic, and the much rarer clusters in
  chthonic
  and
  phthalate.
• Compound words are oftentimes simplified in pronunciation, while their spelling remains the same. For example,
  cupboard
  and
  breakfast
  were once pronounced as written, but were so simplified over time. The words
  forehead
  and
  waistcoat
  accept largely reverted to their spelling pronunciations, but were once pronounced *forrid
  and *weskit, respectively.
• Occasionally, spurious letters are consciously inserted in spelling to reverberate etymology (real or imagined). The ⟨b⟩ in
  debt
  and
  dubiousness
  (from French
  dette, doute) was inserted to match Latin cognates like
  debit
  and
  dubitable. A silent ⟨s⟩ was inserted in
  island
  (Norman French
  ile, Old French
  isle, from Latin
  insula; cognate to
  isolate) and then extended to the unrelated word
  island. The ⟨p⟩ in
  ptarmigan
  was apparently suggested by Greek words such as
  pteron
  ('wing').

Since accent and pronunciation differ, messages may be silent for some speakers, simply non others. In non-rhotic accents, ⟨r⟩ is silent in such words as
hard,
feathered; in
h-dropping accents, ⟨h⟩ is silent. A speaker may or may not pronounce ⟨t⟩ in
ofttimes, the first ⟨c⟩ in
Antarctic, ⟨d⟩ in
sandwich, etc.

Differences betwixt British English and American English

[edit]

Pronunciation

[edit]

In the US, the
h
in
herb
is silent (an
herb), but in the UK, it is pronounced (a herb). The same is truthful for the
l
in
solder.

In parts of the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland, the
a
in
dictionary
and
secretary
is silent, but in the Usa, information technology is pronounced.

Spelling

[edit]

In US spellings, silent letters are sometimes omitted (east.g.,
acknowledgment
/ UK
acknowledgement,
ax
/ United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland
axe
,
catalog
/ UK
catalogue
,
program
/ Uk
programmeme

outside computer contexts), but not ever (eastward.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

[edit]

Danish

[edit]

The Danish language has different letters that can be silent.

The alphabetic character ⟨f⟩ is silent in the conjunction
af.

The letter of the alphabet ⟨yard⟩ is silent in the conjunctions
og
and
også.

The letter ⟨h⟩ is silent in most dialects if followed by ⟨v⟩, as in
hvad
(‘what’),
hvem
(‘who’),
hvor
(‘where’).^[one]

The letter ⟨v⟩ is silent at the end of words if preceded past ⟨l⟩, as in
selv
('self'),
halv
('half').

The alphabetic character ⟨d⟩ is usually (but not necessarily) silent if preceded by a consonant, as in
en mand
(‘a man’),
bullheaded
(‘blind’). Many words ending in ⟨d⟩ are pronounced with a stød, just it is still considered a silent alphabetic character.^[2]

Faroese

[edit]

The Faroese linguistic communication has two silent letters.

The alphabetic character

edd

⟨ð⟩ is almost always silent. Information technology is rendered in orthography for historical reasons (east.g.

faðir

'father'

[ˈfɛajɪɹ], cf. Old Norse

faðir
). In some cases, however, the letter

edd

is pronounced

[ɡ̊], as in

veðrið

'the weather'

[ˈvɛɡ̊ʐɪ].

The letter of the alphabet

ge

⟨g⟩ (i.e. continuant of Old Norse

[ɣ]) is usually silent betwixt vowels or when following a vowel before a pause (e.g.

dagur

'mean solar day'

[ˈd̥ɛavʊɹ], cf. Old Norse

dagr


[ˈdaɣʐ];

eg

'I'

[ˈeː], cf. Old Norse

ek
). Use of the silent letter

ge

in Faroese is the same as for the letter of the alphabet
edd
- it is written for historical reasons as Faroese orthography was based on normalised spelling of Old Norse and Icelandic language.

Both Faroese silent letters

edd

and

ge

are replaced by a hiatus glide consonant (
[j],

[five]
or

[west]) when followed past another (unstressed) vowel.

High german

[edit]

In German, silent messages are extremely rare and occur usually in loanwords, rather than German language words.

⟨e⟩

[edit]

The long ⟨i⟩ audio
/iː/
is sometimes written ⟨ie⟩, with a silent ⟨e⟩, as in
Wienorthward
('Vienna') or in the verb ending ⟨-ieren⟩ (e.g.
appellieren, organisidue eastren).

In some words of foreign origin, the ⟨e⟩ afterward ⟨i⟩ is pronounced, e.thousand.
Ambientdue east,
Bakterieastdue north
(plural of
Bakterium), Hygieneast, Klient,
Spermidue eastn
(plural of
Spermium), just is silent in e.g.
Kurieastwardr, Papier, Turnier
and all the
-ieren
verbs already mentioned. In
Zeremonie
, the last ⟨e⟩ is usually silent merely e'er pronounced in its plural form
Zeremonien.^[3]

Words catastrophe in ⟨-ie⟩ can exist somewhat tricky to learners:

For case, the final ⟨e⟩ is pronounced in the words
Akazieastward
,
Aktie
,
Aktinie
,
Begonie
,
Familieastward
,
Folidue east
,
Geranie
,
Grazieast
,
Hortensie
,
Hostie
,
Immobilie
,
Kastanie
,
Komödie
,
Kurie
,
Lilieastward
,
Linie
,
Orgie
,
Pinie
,
Serie
,
Studie
,
Tragödie
,

while it is silent in the words
Akademidue east
,
Allergie
,
Amnesie
,
Amnestie
,
Apathie
,
Artillerie
,
Batterie
,
Blasphemidue east
,
Chemie
,
Chirurgie
,
Demokratie
,
Energieastward
,
Epidemie
,
-gamie
,
Garantieastward
,
Genie
,
Geometrie
,
-grafie/-graphieastward
,
Harmonie
,
Hysteridue east
,
Infanterieast
,
Ironie
,
Kavallerie
,
Knieast
,
Kompanie
,
Kopi
e,
-logieast
,
Liturgieast
,
Magie
,
Manie
,
Melodie
,
Monotonieastward
,
Nostalgieastward
,
Orthopädieast
,
Partie
,
Phantasie
,
Philantropie
,
Philatelieastward
,
Philosophieast
,
Poesie

(but the
due east
after the
o
is pronounced),
Psychiatridue east
,
Rhapsodidue east
,
Sinfonidue east
,
-skopie
,
Theorie
,
Therapieast
,
Utopidue east
.

In the female names
Amalie
,
Emilieast
,
Otilie
,
Zäzilie
, the final e is pronounced, only it is silent in
Leonie
,
Marieast

(just in compound words such every bit
Mari
eastward
nplatz
[a place in Munich],
Marieastnstatue
[statue of the Virgin Mary], the e is pronounced; the Virgin Mary is chosen
Maria
in German language),
Nat(h)alie
,
Rosalie
,
Rosemarieastward
,
Stefanie

(or:
Stephanieast
),
Valerie
.

The e is pronounced in the names
Arieastl(le),
Danie50,
Danieastla,
Gabriel,
Gabriel(l)e

(in
Gabrie50due east
, the last e is pronounced),
Gabriella,
Marieldue east

(the last e is pronounced),
Marieastwardlla,
Murie50, only it is silent in
Dieter,
Frieda,
Friederich,
Siegfried,
Sieastfiligree,
Sidue eastglinde

(the final e is pronounced),
Wieland.

In state names ending in
-ien
, the east is pronounced:
Australieastn,
Brasiliedue north,
Indien,
Kroatien,
Serbien,
Slowenidue eastnorth. In urban center names, the pronunciation of
e
after
i
varies: In
Wien
(Vienna), the e is silent, simply in
Triest, it is pronounced.

⟨h⟩

[edit]

A silent
h
sometimes indicates vowel length, as in
Stuhl
('chair'), or a hiatus, as in
drehen
('to turn'). That
h
derives from an old
/x/
in some words such equally
sehen
('to see')
zehn
('x'), but in other words, it has no etymological justification such every bit
gehen
('to go') or
mahlen
('to mill').

Romance languages

[edit]

French

[edit]

Silent messages are common in French, including the last letter of the alphabet of most words. Ignoring auxiliary letters that create digraphs (such as ⟨ch⟩, ⟨gn⟩, ⟨ph⟩, ⟨au⟩, ⟨eu⟩, ⟨ei⟩, and ⟨ou⟩, and ⟨m⟩ and ⟨n⟩ every bit signals for nasalized vowels), they include almost every possible alphabetic character except ⟨j⟩ and ⟨5⟩.

Vowels

[edit]

Final ⟨due east⟩ is silent or at least (in poetry and song) a virtually-silent schwa
/ə/; it allows the preservation of a preceding consonant, oft allowing the preservation of a grammatical distinction between masculine and feminine forms in writing, e.k., in
vert
and
verte
(both ‘green’); the ⟨t⟩ is pronounced in the latter (feminine) but not the old. Furthermore, the schwa can forbid an awkward ending of a word ending in a consonant and a liquid (peuple, sucre).

After ⟨é⟩, ⟨i⟩, or ⟨u⟩, a final ⟨eastward⟩ is silent. The spelling ⟨eau⟩ is pronounced just the aforementioned as that for ⟨au⟩ and is entirely an etymological distinction, so in that context, the ⟨due east⟩ is silent.

• The digraph ⟨qu⟩, used to represent
  [k]
  earlier the forepart vowels ⟨eastward⟩ and ⟨i⟩, has a silent ⟨u⟩. In contrast, the u is pronounced in ⟨cu⟩.
• ⟨gu⟩ for
  /ɡ/
  has the same silent ⟨u⟩ before ⟨east⟩ and ⟨i⟩. When the ⟨u⟩ is non silent it must be marked with a trema: ⟨ü⟩. Before ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩, the ⟨u⟩ is
  not
  silent.

Consonants

[edit]

• ⟨h⟩ is silent outside of the digraph ⟨ch⟩ and loanwords such as
  hat
  or
  detest. Numerous doubled consonants exist; French does not distinguish doubled consonants from unmarried consonants in pronunciation equally Italian does. A marked distinction exists betwixt a single and doubled ⟨s⟩: doubled ⟨ss⟩ is always voiceless
  [s], while an intervocalic single ⟨s⟩ is voiced
  [z].

The nasal consonants ⟨m⟩ and ⟨north⟩ when final or preceding a consonant ordinarily nasalize a preceding vowel only are non themselves pronounced (faim,
tomber,
vin,
vendre). Initial and intervocalic ⟨1000⟩ and ⟨n⟩, even before a final silent ⟨e⟩, are pronounced:
aimer,
jaune.

Most terminal consonants are silent, usual exceptions to be found with the letters ⟨c⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨l⟩, and ⟨r⟩ (the English word

carefu50

is mnemonic for this fix). Merely fifty-fifty this rule has its exceptions: terminal ⟨er⟩ is usually pronounced /e/ (=⟨é⟩) rather than the expected /ɛʀ/. Final ⟨fifty⟩ is silent after ⟨i⟩ 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 some other consonant) may seem to reappear in pronunciation in liaison:
ils ont

[ilz‿ɔ̃]
"they accept", equally opposed to
ils sont

[il sɔ̃]
"they are"; liaison is the retention (between words in sure syntactic relationships) of a historical sound otherwise lost, and often has grammatical or lexical significance.

Italian

[edit]

The letter ⟨h⟩ well-nigh often marks a ⟨c⟩/⟨1000⟩ as difficult (velar), equally in
spaghetti, where it would otherwise be soft (palatal), as in
cello, considering of a following front end vowel (⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩). * The digraph ⟨gi⟩, used to correspond
[dʒ]
before the back vowels ⟨a⟩ ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩, has a silent ⟨i⟩. In contrast, the i is pronounced in ⟨gì⟩.

• ⟨ci⟩ for
  /tʃ/
  has the aforementioned silent ⟨i⟩ earlier ⟨a⟩ ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩. When the ⟨i⟩ is not silent it must be marked with a trema: ⟨ì⟩. Before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩, the ⟨i⟩ is
  not
  silent.

Silent ⟨h⟩ is likewise 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 ⟨h⟩ is also silent at the first of words borrowed from other languages, such as
hotel.

Castilian

[edit]

Despite being rather phonemic, Spanish orthography retains some silent messages:

• ⟨h⟩ is silent exterior of the digraph ⟨ch⟩ and loanwords such as
  hámster
  or
  hachís.
• The digraph ⟨qu⟩, used to represent
  [thou]
  before the forepart vowels ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩, has a silent ⟨u⟩. In contrast, the u is pronounced in ⟨cu⟩.
• ⟨gu⟩ for
  /ɡ/
  has the same silent ⟨u⟩ before ⟨e⟩ and ⟨i⟩. When the ⟨u⟩ is not silent information technology must be marked with a trema: ⟨ü⟩. Before ⟨a⟩ and ⟨o⟩, the ⟨u⟩ is
  not
  silent.

Greek

[edit]

In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter of the alphabet in a handful of words, principally distinguishing

ό,τι

(ó,ti, "whatever") from

ότι

(óti, "that").^[4]

Slavic languages

[edit]

This section needs expansion. You lot can assistance by calculation to information technology. (July 2018)

Czech

[edit]

In the vast bulk of cases, Czech pronunciation follows the spelling. There are only four exceptions:

D

For case: dcera (daughter) and in srdce (eye)

/j/ + consonant clusters in some words

[edit]

In near nowadays forms of the verb
být
("to be"), namely
jsem,
jsi,
jsme,
jste
and
jsou
(i.e. all persons but the tertiary 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, just the full /js/ pronunciation is considered correct. In casual spoken language, 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 (exist) phone call(ed)").^[5]
[6]

Russian

[edit]

Several words in Russian omit written consonants when spoken. For case, "чувствовать" (chuvstvovat') is pronounced [ˈt͡ɕustvəvətʲ] and "солнце" (solntse) is pronounced [ˈsont͡sə].

Russian letter of the alphabet ъ has no phonetic value and functions as a separation sign. Earlier the spelling reform of 1918 this hard sign was written at the stop of each word when following a non-palatal consonant.

Semitic languages

[edit]

In Hebrew, almost all cases of silent letters are silent aleph – א.^[7]
Many words that have a silent aleph in Hebrew, have an equivalent word in Arabic language, that is written with a mater lectionis alif –ا ; a letter that indicates the long vowel "aa". Examples:

• The Hebrew discussion for "no" is לֹא (sounds similar "lo", spelled similar "loa") and the Standard 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'due south").

The explanation for this phenomenon is that the Hebrew linguistic communication had a audio change of all the mater lectionis aleph letters into silent ones (encounter Canaanite shift). Due to that sound change, in Hebrew linguistic communication, there are just 2 kinds of aleph - the glottal stop (/ʔ/) and the silent one,^[eight]
while in Arabic language all three kinds nevertheless exist.^[nine]

The silent Arabic alif is marked with a wasla sign above it (see picture), in society to differentiate it from the other kinds of alifs. An Standard arabic alif turns silent, if it fulfils three atmospheric condition: it must be in a showtime of a word, the word must non exist the first ane of the judgement, and the discussion must belong to one of the following groups:

• Verbs that offset with the prefix "ʔi-", due to their conjugation and derived stem.
• Ten specific nouns that begin with "ʔ":اسم, است, ابن/ابنة, اثنان/اثنتان, امرؤ/امرأة, اَيمن الله/اَيْم الله. Some of these words accept a Hebrew give-and-take equivalent, and that equivalent had totally lost the start aleph. Examples: اسم (ʔism), meaning "a name" (in Maltese the word
  isem), sounds similar "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), significant "a son", sounds similar "ibn" if it is in the offset of the judgement and "bn" if not; its Hebrew equivalent is בֵּן (ben), in Maltese
  bin.
• The alif of the word اَل (ʔal), pregnant "the" - sounds like "al" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "l" if not.

Too the alif of the Arabic word ال (ʔal, meaning "the"), its lām (the alphabetic character L) can also get silent. It gets silent if the substantive that word is related to, starts with a "sun letter of the alphabet". A sun alphabetic character is a letter that indicates a consonant that is produced by stopping the air in the forepart role of the mouth (not including the consonant Thousand). The Hebrew equivalent to the Arabic word ال (ʔal, meaning "the") had totally lost its L.

In Maltese għ tin 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 cease of a word e.thousand. qlugħ (q-glottal cease:

qluh
).^[10]

Uralic languages

[edit]

The Estonian and Finnish languages use double letters for long vowels and geminate consonants.^[11]

Turkish

[edit]

In the Turkish language, ⟨ğ⟩ often has no audio of its own, but lengthens the preceding vowel, for example in
dağ
("mount")

[daː]. In other surroundings, information technology may be pronounced as a glide.

Persian

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In Farsi, in that location are two instances of silent letters:

• The letter of the alphabet he after a short vowel, unless in a monosyllabic give-and-take, has no audio of its own. Information technology is only written because co-ordinate to spelling rules a discussion cannot end in a short vowel.^[12]
• The Silent Vav is always written but not spoken in Standard Farsi. It used to represent the labialization of the voiceless velar fricative, which no longer exists in the standard dialect, making it an primitive remnant of the old standards of pronunciation.^[13]

Indic languages

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Unconventional to Sanskrit and Proto-Indo-European root languages, some Indic languages have silent letters. Amongst Dravidian languages, Tamil and Malayalam have sure distinct styles of keeping few of their letters silent.

Tamil

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Tamil is a classical language phonetically characterized by allophones, approximants, nasals and glottalised sounds. Some words, even so, take silent letters in them. The words அஃது (while that is), and அஃதன் (that) contain the
Āytam
or '
ஃ
', 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 fence it sounded more than like the Arabic '
خ
' (/10/). That being said, mod words similar ஆஃபிஸ் (Office) use '
ஃ
' and '
ப
' in sequence to represent the audio, as the
āytam
is nowadays besides used to transcribe it and other foreign phonemes.

Another convention in Middle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) is the use of silent vowels to address a marker of respect when beginning proper nouns. The Ramayana was one such text where the give-and-take
Ramayana
in Tamil always began with '
இ
', as in இராமாயணம் (/ɾɑːmɑːjʌɳʌm/), though it was not pronounced. The proper noun கோபாலன் (/ɡoːbɑːlʌɳ/) was then written equally உகோபாலன் prefixed with an '
உ
'.

Malayalam

[edit]

Inheriting elision, approximants and allophones from Tamil, in Malayalam, except for Sanskrit words, words ending in the vowel '
ഉ
' (/u/) become silent at the end and if not compounded with words succeeding them, supercede the '
ഉ
' vowel by the schwa
/ə/. 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 2d person is respectfully addressed with his or her proper name instead of നീ (/n̪i:/, you) or നിങ്ങൽ (/n̪iŋaɭ/, yourselves). For example, in the judgement, രാകേശ് പണി തീർക്കു (/ɾʲaːkeːɕə paɳi ti:ɾʲku/, Rakesh, finish your work), the use of the 2d personal pronoun is avoided with the proper noun രാകേശ് (/ɾʲaːkeːɕ/, Rakesh), simply this judgement sounds less respectful if the '
ഉ
' in തീർക്കു (/ti:ɾʲku/, finish} is replaced by the schwa or
/ə/, equally in "തീർക്കു!" (/ti:ɾʲkə/, Stop!) which sounds like an order. Notice the
/ə/
at the stop of the name Rakesh which is pronounced afterward being added to the Sanskritic name.

Zhuang-Tai languages

[edit]

Thai

[edit]

Thai has a deep orthography like English and French. Unlike the ii languages, however, the Thai script is an abugida rather than a true alphabet. Yet, silent consonants, vowels, and even syllables are common in Thai. Thai has many loanwords from Sanskrit and Pali, and rather than spell aforementioned words according to Thai phonics, the script tends to maintain the etymological spellings. For case, a romanization of the word ประโยชน์ that reflects Thai orthography is

prayochṅ
, but information technology would be pronounced equally

prayot
, where the extra alphabetic character for
-north
is completely silent.^[14]
Another case is the Thai word มนตร์, which is sometimes written as
mantra
like it would be in Sanskrit, but it is only pronounced

mon

in Thai. Though the second syllable is pronounced in Sanskrit, information technology is completely absent when pronouncing the word in Thai. In such words, the diacritic

◌์
, known as

thanthakhat

(Thai:
ทัณฑฆาต), is used to marking silent letters.

Also, different letters tin be used for the aforementioned sound (for example, [tʰ] can be spelled equally

ฐ
,

ฑ
,

ฒ
,

ถ
,

ท
, or

ธ
) depending on which class the consonant is, which is important for knowing which tone the syllable volition have, and whether or not information technology is a loanword from Sanskrit or Pali. Withal, some letters written before low grade consonants become silent and turn the depression class syllable into a high grade one. For example, even though the high course letter

ho hip


ห

is used to write the sound /h/, if the letter comes before a low class letter in a syllable, the alphabetic character will become

ho nam
, which will make the alphabetic character silent and it volition turn the syllable into a high course syllable. For instance, the word

นา

is a low class syllable because its initial consonant is a low class consonant. The syllable is pronounced
/nā:/
(with a long vowel and mid tone) and it means "field". However, the word

หนา

is a high form syllable, despite it containing a low form consonant in the onset. The syllable is pronounced
/nǎ:/
(with a long vowel and a rising tone) and it means "thick".

Lao

[edit]

Like Thai, Lao likewise has a letter that becomes silent if it comes earlier a depression 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, different Thai, the digraphs starting time with the same letter can sometimes be written as a ligature.

Zhuang

[edit]

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 besides have silent letters, representing the phonemes ɓ and ɗ respectively.

Korean

[edit]

In the Hangul Orthography of the Korean language, 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:

annyeng
) (meaning "how-do-you-do"), composed of the letters "ㅇㅏㄴㄴㅕㅇ", the first ⟨ㅇ⟩ is silent, and the concluding ⟨ㅇ⟩ is pronounced as /ŋ/. The reason for this can exist found in 15th-century Hangul orthography. In the 15th century, the letter ⟨ㅇ⟩ originally represented /∅~ɣ/ (a lenited form of ㄱ /k/), while the letter ⟨ㆁ⟩ unconditionally represented /ŋ/. Merely because in Centre Korean phonology, ⟨ㆁ⟩ was non allowed in syllable-initial position, and ⟨ㅇ⟩ was not allowed in syllable-final position, it formed a complementary distribution of the two messages. Because of this and due to the fact that the messages look very much alike, the 2 letters merged.^[15]

Korean'due south syllable structure is CGVC, and Korean's writing organisation, Hangul, reflects this structure. The just possible consonant cluster in a single syllable must incorporate a glide and they must occur in the onset. However, sometimes a cluster of 2 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 adjacent syllable. However, if the next syllable begins with a consonant sound, then ane of the consonants in the cluster will be silent (sometimes causing fortition in the following consonant). For example, the word 얇다 (meaning "sparse") is written as (Yale:
yalp.ta), but the word is pronounced every bit if it was written
yal.tta
because the second syllable begins with a consonant audio. However, the word 얇아서 (as well meaning "sparse") is written as (Yale:
yalp.a.se) and it is pronounced every bit
yal.pa.se
because the 2nd syllable begins with a vowel audio.^[sixteen]

Mongolian

[edit]

Interestingly, the native Mongolian script has much more orthographic depth than Mongolian Cyrillic. 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 instance, 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 give-and-take. Words in the Mongolian script can also have silent vowels likewise. For Mongolian proper noun 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.

Encounter also

[edit]

• Apheresis (linguistics)
• Elision
• Listing of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations, many with multiple silent letters.
• Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages, explains rules of Modern Indo-Aryan languages that delete the schwa audio.
• Silent e
• Silent k
• Syncope (phonology)
• Iii letter rule source of some common English language silent letters.

References

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