Silent letter

In an alphabetic writing system, a silent letter is a letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation. Silent letters create problems for both native and non-native speakers of a language, as they make it more difficult to guess the spellings of spoken words or the pronunciations of written words. Newly developed alphabets for previously unwritten languages and for planned languages such as Esperanto are thus typically designed to have no silent letters.

Related Topics:
Alphabetic writing system - Pronunciation - Planned languages - Esperanto

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