Re: Silent E

In a message dated 10/4/01 7:18:14 PM, CHalvrson@AOL.COM writes:

<< Do any other languages (I am sure there are at least a few) have a silent
letter or especially a silent modifying letter (as in English "ate", the e is
 silent and makes the a long)???  Where does this come from??  Do any of ur
conlangs have this?? >>

    Since no language uses the IPA or anything like it, just about every
language has a character or two that can have multiple pronunciations or none
at all.  Spanish /h/, for example, makes no sound, though historically it
did.  Irish is dreadful orthagraphically.  It's got all sorts of letters that
make no sound in some places, make a bunch of different sounds, change the
sounds of other characters...  I've never studied, so I can't give specifics,
though I've seen some here and there; it's wicked.  I don't think a language
ever created an orthography with the intention of, say, adding a letter that
had a sound in some positions which would make no sound if you put after
another vowel but would change that vowel, like English's silent "e"; these
things just happen over time if your orthography doesn't keep up with the
sound changes.

-David

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