Design - Dezine

For some reason today I had been thinking about "silent letters". Words like know, debt, psychology, rhyme, what, etc. Now why, or should I spell it "y", do they even exist, is it just so we can misspell them? They neglect the conventional way of sounding out to spell a word and confuse young children just learning how to spell. In my search I came across the concept known as "etymology", the study of the history of words and how their form and meaning have changed over time. Silent letters serve as clues revealing the history and origin of the word, relating them back to their Latin ancestors. I knew that certain words had Latin roots, but I didn't know all silent letters were related to that idea. I'm not sure who thought of this idea but as annoying as it can be at times, it is interesting to witness the evolution of words. This brings to light the continual transformation of words today. The "txt" that has developed online and in cell phone messages continues to take over. Cyber words such as "googling" and "lol" have become popular phrases in song and conversation. Many of the other words we use online or when texting ignore silent letters and it becomes more about speed than proper spelling. I wonder how today's society will lead to a deeper morphing of the English language. Linguistics proves to be a wide and interesting subject and especially since "words" are among our most powerful weapons.

Here is one guy that is also curious about silent letters. Warning offensive Language.