Silent E. [English]

[Externet]

Words like

like

blue
orange
there
voltage
George
tube
range
and hundreds more, to the point of boring overdose.

With all the passion for shortening writing in english, why is the silent e not eliminated ?

 

[studiot]

Here are a few examples of what the silent e does.

say tube  now say tub

say range  now say rang

say orange  now say  orang

say voltage now say votag

 

Does this help ?

[swansont]

 

[Externet]

Excellent, gentlemen, thanks.

Now am more convinced English has  really absurd rules. 😮

A silent ending 'e' changing the sound of a previous vowel.  It shows there is no language regulating entity. 😮

[studiot]

8 minutes ago, Externet said:

It shows there is no language regulating entity.

Only the users  -  It is a democracy.

9 minutes ago, Externet said:

A silent ending 'e' changing the sound of a previous vowel.

Yes but it doesn't change it.
The silent e means that the previous vowel or sometimes consonant has its 'proper' sound  - That is the sound of its name in the alphabet.

This is brought out by my examples.

Though, like other rules in English, it is not always adhered to.

[John Cuthber]

It's not just the E that makes the difference

It's sometimes  the lack of a double consonant after a vowel.
Mating is not the same as matting.

It's entertaining to get a natural born first-language speaker of English to read this:
I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword

Well done! And now if you wish, perhaps

To learn of less familiar traps,

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird. A

nd dead: it’s said like bed, not bead–

For goodness sakes don’t call it deed.

Watch out for meat and great and threat,

They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

And here is not a match for there,

And dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s dose and rose and lose–

Just look them up–and goose and choose,

And do and go, then thwart and cart.

Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!

I’d mastered it when I was five.

 

[swansont]

Comments I've run across regarding the English language:

 

English was a language invented by Norman invaders to pick up

Anglo-Saxon barmaids. It retains much of this character.

     --- Either from H. Beam Piper or Paul Drye's English professor Peter Newman

 

English doesn't "pick up" loan words, it consciously stalks them.

     --- Andrew Moffatt-Vallance

 

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that the English language is as pure as a crib-house whore.

 

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages

down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

     --- James D. Nicoll

[Sensei]

21 hours ago, Externet said:

Now am more convinced English has  really absurd rules. 😮

A silent ending 'e' changing the sound of a previous vowel.  It shows there is no language regulating entity. 😮

You have similar thing in French. If you have a vowel, the letter "s" followed by the next vowel, although part of the next word in a sentence, changes the pronunciation of "s" to "z". As in this example:

"parlez vous anglais?" (put it in Google Translate and press the speaker icon). It has "u", "s", and "a" in two different words.

then try:

"parlez vous japonais?" (listen to Google Translate: s becomes silent!)

Edited October 14, 2020 by Sensei

[studiot]

Sometimes in English it is even worse since you need the pronunciation to understand the meaning.

What do you think this means?

I had a row with my boss at lunchtime.

Spoiler

One of the good perks of working at a boating lake.

 

[John Cuthber]

English is not the only culprit

Un sot avait pour mission de faire parvenir le sceau d'un seigneur à son roi.

Il le mit dans un seau et partit à cheval.

Le cheval fit un saut et les trois (word) tombèrent.


How do you spell the word in brackets which sounds like the English word "so" or, if you like, "sew".