Letters that are spelt but not pronounced

How to teach silent letters to EFL learners

Summary: Teaching tips and classroom activities for letters which are written but not pronounced in listen, island, knife, etc

By: Alex Case | Category: Teaching English | Topic: Spelling and Punctuation

Letters which are written but not pronounced is one of the trickiest points in English pronunciation and a common cause of mistakes, confusion and even frustration in students. However, silent letters are much easier to teach and learn than other pronunciation points like sounds that don’t exist in L1 and intonation. In fact, time spent on silent letters is probably the most efficient way to quickly improve pronunciation, and helps with spelling too. It also links in well with other pronunciation points such as homophones and minimal pairs. This article gives tips on explaining and practising silent letters, including silent letters games. There are also lists of the most useful words with silent letters on this site.

What to teach about silent letters

For a single word like “island”, students simply need to know that they shouldn’t pronounce the silent letter but they should include it in the spelling when they write it. This is sometimes more important than it might seem, as “island” will probably be confused with “Iceland” if it is pronounced “iss-land”, and “iland” is just as difficult to understand on the page.

Something worth bearing in mind is that many so-called silent letters in English are pronounced in particular dialects and/ or are often included as a joke, so students might come across exactly the pronunciation that you are telling them not to copy. For example, it’s quite common to pronounce both the W and the H in wh- words like “when” (most famously in Scotland), and numerous comedies include characters who say “sword” with “w”. It might be worth mentioning this in Advanced classes, but it could make them less motivated to learn the standard pron and/ or spelling, so I would generally only mention it if they object to your more basic explanation.

Sound combinations that don’t exist (in the same syllable) in English, meaning that one letter must be silent, include:

Note that all of these are just about pronounceable, they are just combinations that (standard modern) English doesn’t have.

Other fairly common silent letters include:

Unlike the impossible word combinations above, all of these either have exceptions or are exceptions to a simpler more general rule.

What you shouldn’t teach about silent letters

There are many things which are included in online lists of silent letters and some EFL materials but which I would deal with separately or not at all. For example, some letters are silent themselves but seem to change other sounds in the word, such as:

There are also letters which I wouldn’t necessarily describe as silent letters but rather as alternative spellings and pronunciations, such as the pronunciations of “ch” in “choir”, of “tch” in “witch”, and of “dg” in “fudge”. It’s also not worth dealing with double letters in a lesson on silent letters, as there are far too many examples in English, they are basically just an alternative spelling of a single letter, and they often change the pronunciation of the whole word by blocking the magic E and therefore stopping the vowel sound changing (as in “tinned”).

There are also some letters and syllables which can be said if you are pronouncing a word slowly and carefully but tend to be dropped in fast speech, like the middle E in “vegetable”. This is maybe worth a whole lesson on its own, but is too different from letters which are always silent to be mixed up in the same lesson.

Typical student problems with silent letters

The most common student issues with silent letters are:

Students who speak languages with extremely regular and phonetic spelling like Spanish tend to have the biggest problems with pronouncing silent letters and/ or not recognising words when they are pronounced without their silent letters. Speakers of other languages with many silent letters like French tend to find this less of a problem. However, another problem is that many silent letters in English are pronounced in the Latin, German, etc that the words came from, and so speakers of related languages might copy L1 and pronounce such letters.

How to present silent letters

Teaching techniques for explaining silent letters

Silent letters are overwhelmingly something that you should teach as you go along, when students make mistakes with pronouncing them but also as you present vocabulary that they will probably pronounce wrongly. The easiest way to do this is to put brackets around the letter which is not pronounced, as in “s(w)ord” and “(h)onest”. I find that this works better than crossing the letter out, which makes it look like a spelling mistake, or underlining it, which looks like you should make sure that you pronounce it or even stress it strongly. I sometimes also use this on worksheets presenting the new vocab, either writing the word as “crum(b)” or putting that after the word written in full (“crumb – crum(b)”, etc).

Other ways of showing the pronunciation of the word without the silent letter include writing phonemic script (for the whole word or just the part with the silent letter), writing your own approximation of how it could be spelt as it is pronounced (e.g. “sord” for “sword”), or, when possible, writing a homophone that doesn’t have the silent letter written in it.

Homophones are great for showing pronunciation even when the homophone word itself is not so useful and/ or too high level for the class, like “rote” for “wrote”. However, if you have classes that insist on asking about or memorising every word, you might want to avoid particularly obscure examples like “mite” for “might”. Also, some homophones have spelling that is confusing in other ways, so it might not help to write “witch” to show the pronunciation of “which”.

It can also be useful to write another word which has the same silent letter, preferably one they already know. For example, if you are explaining the spelling and pronunciation of “crochet”, you could also write the familiar words “ballet” and/ or “buffet” to show the silent final T in French words, something that they’ve already been using without realising it.

If you want to do a whole lesson on silent letters, you can combine the useful teaching techniques above with the specific presentation activities below.

Silent letters presentation activities

Spotting silent letters

The easiest presentation activity for silent letters is for students to see the spelling and hear the pronunciation of words with silent letters and put brackets around the letters which aren’t pronounced. In the most intensive but easiest version, students are given a list of words which all have silent letters and the teacher reads through the list in the same order, maybe very quickly to add a bit of interest and challenge and to prompt them to ask checking/ clarifying questions like “Can you repeat that?” and “Did you say… or…?” The same thing can also be done in pairs if one student has just the spellings and the other student has the same words with the silent letters in brackets.

A trickier version is to put the words with silent letters in a list of similar words where the same letters are actually pronounced (“listen” with “listicle”, etc), meaning that the students also have to spot which words do and don’t have silent letters as they read and listen. Alternatively, they can listen to a whole text such as a dialogue and listen out for the words with silent letters in it.

After finishing, students can analyse which letters are often silent and in which positions/ combinations with other letters, try to remember the same silent letters without being able to listen to help and/ or try to put the silent letters back into words spelt wrongly without them (“lisen”, etc).

Silent letters list dictation

This can also be used as an easy practice activity, but I would usually use it as the first stage of a whole lesson on silent letters. The teacher or a student reads out a list of words with something in common such as the same silent letter until someone in class correctly guesses how those words are similar, perhaps with points for correct guesses but points off for wrong guesses. You can also include other similarities such as all words with silent first letters and all words originally from French.

Students could then be asked to find the same missing letters in a mixed-up list of the same words and/ or try to remember what positions and combinations those letters were silent in.

How to practise silent letters

Silent letters simplest responses games

If you are particularly focusing on one or a couple of silent letters, you can play a game in which students listen to words and raise their hand only if they hear a word with a silent letter in it. For example, if you are practising “wh” words, they raise their hand if they hear “where”, “whoever”, “nowhere”, etc, but keep their hands down if they hear “wearing”, “hoover”, “blowhard”, etc.

Silent letters pelmanism and snap

Make a pack of cards with at least four cards for each missing letter, e.g. “write”, “wrap”, “wriggle” and “wrist” for silent W. For pelmanism (also called “pairs” or “the memory game”), students turn all the cards face down and take turns trying to find two that match by having the same silent letter. For snap, they deal out the cards but don’t look at them, take turns putting their top card face up on the table, then race to shout “Snap!” if the last two cards to be turned face up have the same silent letter.

Before, after or between those games, students can work together to match the cards up by silent letter.

Missing silent letters

Give students words with the silent letters taken out like “clim” and “sene” and ask them to spell them correctly by adding silent letters. This looks like a spelling activity, but I find it to be just as useful for getting students to remember that those letters don’t help with the pronunciation.

Silent letters storytelling

Students take turns using words with silent letters to tell a story, placing down cards with those words written on or crossing off those words from a list as they do so. Note that most words with silent letters don’t work well in this activity, so the words on the list or cards will need to be chosen carefully. Good ones include action words like “climb” and “wrap”, objects like “biscuit” and “bomb”, places like “aisle” and “isle”, and adjectives like “foreign” and “glistening”.

Practising checking/ clarifying with silent letters

Silent letters are a great resource for getting students to check things with questions like “How do you spell…?”, “Is that… (or…)?”, “Do I need… (between… and…)?” and “How do you pronounce…?” You can add another level of difficulty and so make it more necessary to use the questions if you include some homophones without silent letters, such as including both “wait” and “weight”. If possible, it’s best to put the words into whole sentences, for example in phone messages like “Can you tell him that the weight of the delivery was wrong?” Alternatively, you could give the students single words but ask them to put them into sentences as they say them to their partners.

Silent letters hangman

I’m not generally a fan of hangman, but it does work well for silent letters. To start with, you or the student in the teacher role could give the players more help and point out the silent letters by putting brackets around one of the gaps that they have to guess letters into, e.g. “__ __ __ ___ (__) ___ ___” for “glisten”. You can then move onto doing the same but only adding the brackets after they guess and/ or mix it up with words without silent letters such as homophones of them like “soared” (which is a homophone of “sword”).

You can also play a game similar to hangman in which the students can only guess the next letter and only once before it is given to them, which is good for raising awareness of what letters go before and after silent letters.

Homophones of words with silent letters activities

Homophones are perhaps the best of all ways of learning silent letters. Perhaps the best way of using them is to include them in another activity above such as checking/ clarifying or storytelling. Students can then be tested on their memory by being given the ones with silent letters and being asked to write the homophones without silent letters. There are also some more specific homophones activities below.

Silent letters and homophones reversi

For super-intensive practice of this point, you can make cards with “which” on one side and “witch” on the other for students to guess or remember the other side of. For example, if they see a card with “Knows” on it, they should pronounce it, say “N, O, S, E” as the spelling of the homophone on the other side, then turn over to check. There are many possible rules for this game, but I usually just get them to do as many as they can each time until they make a mistake, leaving any that they get right the other way up for the next person to guess in the opposite direction (e.g. from “Nose” to “K, N, O, W, S”).

Silent letters the same or different

Make a list of words with silent letters and accompanying homophones, minimal pairs, and other common confusions like “Iceland” with “island”. Perhaps after a listening stage where they hold up cards saying “The same” or “Different”, students label each line with “S” for the same or “D” for different, depending on the pronunciations of the two words given. They can then be tested on their memories of the homophones.

Silent letters secret message

Students find the silent letters in a list of words and check what the letters spell when they are put together in the same order. For example, if the words are “vehicle”, “artistically”, “damn” and “sandwich” then the silent letters are H, A, N and D, and the secret message is “hand”. Longer messages such as whole sentences are better, with instructions like “Stand up” probably the best.

Silent letters odd one out

Students read or listen to lists of words and work out which one word in each list is different. This can be because it is the only one with a silent letter, the only one without a silent letter, the only one with a different silent letter, etc.

Silent letters Call My Bluff

Give students a mix of words with silent letters and words with the same letters pronounced, all of which could be useful but they almost certainly won’t know. One student chooses one of the words at random and then secretly flips a coin to see if they can look at the definition (heads) or if they should be pretend to be looking at the definition but actually look at something else (tails). After they finish looking at the dictionary, Google, etc, they then explain the true or made up definition and pronunciation.

Silent letters discussion questions

Give students lists of discussion questions like “Should governments spend money on ballet if it is mainly of interest to rich people?” and/ or give them similar words which they can make their own discussion questions out of like “Christmas” and “wrestling”. Students ask each other questions without showing the words or questions to each other, being careful with their pronunciation. After a few minutes of that, they can work together to find all the silent letters.

Copyright © 2020 Alex Case

Silent Letters in English

Definition and Examples

Alex Wong / Getty Images

In English pronunciation, a silent letter—a term used informally—is a letter or letter combination of the alphabet that is usually not pronounced in a word. Examples include the b in subtle, the c in scissors, the g in design, the t in listen, and the gh in thought.

Many words contain silent letters. In fact, according to Ursula Dubosarsky, author of The Word Snoop, «roughly 60 percent of words in English have a silent letter in them,» (Dubosarsky 2008). Keep reading to learn the types of silent letters as well as how they affect pronunciation and English language learning.

Types of Silent Letters

Edward Carney, author of A Survey of English Spelling, categorizes silent letters into two groups: auxiliary and dummy. He breaks down the two groups as follows.

Auxiliary Letters
«Auxiliary letters are part of a group of letters that spell a sound that does not have a usual single letter to represent it. For example,

Dummy Letters

«Dummy letters have two subgroups: inert letters and empty letters.

Inert letters are letters that in a given word segment are sometimes heard and sometimes not heard. For example,

«Empty letters do not have a function like auxiliary letters or inert letters. For example, the letter u in the word gauge is empty. Here are some examples of silent consonants:

Empty letters are more difficult to predict in new words than other silent letters. Strausser and Paniza, authors of Painless English for Speakers of Other Languages, comment: «There are no rules that we can apply to words with empty letters[;] you just have to use them and remember their spelling,» (Strausser and Paniza 2007).

Silent Consonants

Silent consonants make pronunciation much more difficult, especially for English language learners. Authors of A Practical Course in English Pronunciation create rules for pronunciation in the presence of silent letters for learners of English. «Silent consonant letters constitute one of the problem areas in respect to pronunciation of English words. To solve some of the problems of the learners, a few spelling sequences containing silent letters are discussed below:

The History of Silent Letters

Silent Letters and Spelling Reform

Because silent letters have been in place for centuries, some wonder whether they shouldn’t be reformed to fit modern English. Edward Carney defends their use—especially silent e—in his book A Survey of English Spelling. «Empty letters are naturally a target for spelling reformers, but one should not rush in with the scissors too hastily. A favorite target is final [-e].

Silent Letter Jokes

Silent letters, known for being frustrating and seemingly unnecessary, have long been the subject of comedy routines and punchlines. These examples poke fun at silent letters.

«A man walked into a travel agency in New Delhi, and said to an agent, ‘I wish to purchase an airplane ticket to the Netherlands. I must go to the Haig-you.’
‘Oh, you foolish man. Not ‘Haig-you.’ You mean ‘The Hague.»
‘I am the customer and you are the clerk,’ replied the man. ‘Do as I ask, and hold your tung-you.’
‘My, my, you really are quite illiterate,’ laughed the agent. ‘It is not ‘tung-you.’ It is ‘tongue.’
‘Just sell me the ticket, you cheeky fellow. I am not here to arg,'» (Cohen 1999).
Mr. Loobertz: «We put the ‘cool’ in ‘school.’
Special Agent G. Callen: Wouldn’t that be ‘chool’?
Mr. Loobertz: The ‘h’ is silent.
Special Agent G. Callen: I’m in ell,» («Full Throttle»).
«Who would shoot a gnome? And why is the ‘g’ silent?» («Charmed Noir»).
Lt. Randall Disher: «First letter, ‘t’ as in ‘tsunami.’
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: Tsumani?
Lt. Randall Disher: Silent ‘t.’
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: What? No. ‘T’ as in ‘Tom.’ Just say ‘Tom.’
Lt. Randall Disher: What’s the difference?
Captain Leland Stottlemeyer: It doesn’t. The ‘t’ is silent.
Lt. Randall Disher: It’s not completely silent. ‘Tsumami,'» («Mr. Monk and the Daredevil»).

guinlist

Advanced Grammar and Vocabulary in Academic & Professional English

155. Silent Consonants

75% of English consonant letters sometimes appear in the spelling of a word without being pronounceable

THE PROBLEM OF SILENT CONSONANTS

One of the many peculiarities of English spelling is its occasional use of consonant letters that are not pronounced when the word is spoken. This phenomenon is likely to be encountered by learners of English even at very elementary levels, in such words as knee, night and talk. A common reason for it is that the unexpected spellings once did represent the way their word was pronounced, but they stopped doing so because the pronunciation of the word changed as a result of the natural evolution that all languages undergo. The spellings of the words have not changed because the invention of printing made spellings in general more standardized and fixed.

Many words with a silent consonant actually do not seem to be much of a learning problem. However, a fair number can cause erroneous pronunciation of the consonants in speech, and some can cause spelling errors (see 188. Causes of Common Spelling Mistakes). In this post I wish to survey and classify the wide variety of words that contain one or more silent consonants, in the hope that raised awareness might assist some readers to improve their pronunciation or spelling of English.

DEFINITION OF SILENT CONSONANTS

It is important to distinguish silent consonants from a variety of other consonant letters that are not pronounced in their typical way. Of these latter, an important group is consonant letters that combine with a neighbouring letter either to make a sound that neither would make by itself or to remove ambiguity about how the other letter should be pronounced. If this other letter is a vowel, the indicated sound will also be a vowel; otherwise it will be a consonant.

Typical consonant letters that combine with a vowel for these purposes, so that they cannot be considered silent, are “h”, “w” and “y”, as in oh, cow and toy. The letter “r” is also one in Australian and Southern British English, for example in cart and term (it only ever has the /r/ sound at the start of a syllable), but is clearly pronounced in the USA, Ireland and Scotland. Two consonant letters that commonly combine with particular other consonant letters in one way or another are “h” in words like choice, phrase, show and think, and “k” after “c” (back, check, ticket etc.).

Another type of consonant letter that is not silent despite being pronounced in an unexpected way is, in certain positions, the letters for the so-called “plosive” consonants (/p, t, k, b, d, g/). These letters are often only partially pronounced before other plosive sounds (as in stop doing and log cabin) and at the end of sentences (see 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud). It is easy to think they are completely silent in such situations when in fact they are not.

Thirdly, I am not considering any letters within a doubled consonant to be silent. Although it is true that most doubled consonants in English are pronounced no differently from single ones, so that logically one of the pair could be called “silent”, doubled consonants are so common in English (see 248. When to Double a Consonant), and the rule for pronouncing them is so simple, that nothing seems likely to be gained from listing all the possibilities.

Repetition of the same consonant at the end of one word and the start of the next, as in can never, while looking and turned down, is even less of interest, since here the double occurrence does make a pronunciation difference. Although the two identical letters are pronounced as a single sound, they need more time to be pronounced than if they were just a single letter (see “lengthening” in 91. Pronunciation in Reading Aloud). Similar to these are neighbouring consonants in the same word that are spelled differently but represent a single sound, such as -nm- in environment and and -db- in handbag (see 243. Pronunciation Secrets, #1). Here, the first letter is not pronounced, but it still increases the time needed to say the second.

COMMON SILENT CONSONANTS IN ENGLISH

The following categories of silent consonant are identifiable:

1. The Letter “k”

This seems to be silent only and always at the start of words (even words within longer words) where there is a following “n” (knack, knead, knee, breadknife, knight, knock, know, knuckle etc.).

2. The Letter “h”

At the start of a word, this letter is silent in honour and its derivatives (honourable, honorific, honorarium etc.) and also honest. In addition, there are hour and heir.

In most varieties of English, “h” after a starting “w” is silent, as in wheat, when, where, whether, whet, whey, while, whistle and why.

Finally, “h” is silent after “c” in words of Greek origin, such as choir; it does not change the sound of “c” in any way (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Other examples are anarchy, anchor, character, cholesterol, chorus, Christmas, chrome, epoch, orchestra, psychology and scheme.

3. The Letter “p”

Words of Greek origin beginning “ps-”, “pt-” or “pn-“ tend to be pronounced without the /p/ (see 90. The Greek Impact on English Vocabulary). Examples are combinations with psych- (psychology, psychic) and pseudo- (pseudonym, pseudopod), as well as psalm, pterodactyl and pneumatic.

Elsewhere, three notable words are receipt (/rɪ ‘si:t/), coup (/ku:/) and corps (/kɔ:/), the latter two being borrowings from French.

4. The Letter “b”

A major context for the silence of this letter is after “m” at the end of a word, as in bomb, climb, comb, crumb, dumb, lamb, limb, tomb and womb. The “b” remains silent even after the addition of -ing, -ed or -er (bombing, combing, dumbing, lambed, dumber), but not in the verbs crumble (which is like humble and tumble) or limber (like timber).

In addition, there are some words where a silent “b” is followed by “t”, e.g. debt, doubt and subtle.

5. The Letter “l”

The main locations where this is silent are inside the three modal verbs could, would, should; between “a”/“o” and “k” in words like stalk, talk, walk, folk and yolk; and between “a” and “m”, e.g. alms, calm, palm, psalm and salmon.

6. The Letter “s”

A few words of French origin have a silent “s” at the end (corps, debris, fracas, rendezvous). Words with it in the middle include isle, aisle, island and viscount. The “i” is pronounced /ɑɪ/ in all of these (see 86. The Pronunciation of “e” and “i”).

7. The Letter “t”

This letter is usually silent when sandwiched between “s” and “le”, as in bustle, castle, epistle, pestle, rustle and thistle, and often silent between “f” (or “s”) and “en” in words like often, soften, listen, glisten, fasten and hasten.

Words that end in “-et” tend to be borrowings from French. Some must be pronounced in the French way, ending in the vowel /eɪ/ without “t”, some not (see 135. French Influences on English Vocabulary). The former include ballet, beret, bidet, bouquet, buffet (= self-service food), cachet, chalet, croquet, duvet, ricochet, sobriquet, tourniquet and valet. Two other French-derived words with a silent final “t” are depot and rapport.

8. The Letter “w”

There are two striking contexts for this silent letter. One is words beginning “wr-”, such as wrangle, wreck, wrestle, wring, write, wrong, wrought and wry. The other is a few words (usually place names) ending in “-wich” or “-wick”, for example Greenwich and Harwich (but not Midwich) and Chiswick and Warwick (but not Gatwick or Northwick).

Another notable place name is Southwark (pronounced /’sʌ ԺƏk/), and “w” is also silent in two, who, whole, sword and awry.

9. The Letter “c”

One silent use of this letter is after “s” in words like ascent, crescent, irascible, miscellaneous, nascent, reminisce, scene, sceptre (but not sceptic), science and visceral. This group does not include rescind because the “c” there is changing the pronunciation of the neighbouring “s” into /∫/. Another use is before unstressed “es” in such British place names as Leicester, Worcester, Bicester and Gloucester. One other notable silent “c” is in indict.

10. The Letter “g”

This letter is commonly silent between “i” and “n” in words like align, benign, deign, feign, foreign, malign, reign, sign and sovereign. However, it is not silent in poignant (since it changes the following /n/ to /nj/) nor in benignant and malignant. Other notable words are champagne, gnaw, gnome, gnu and phlegm. Recognise seems to allow a choice about pronouncing the “g”.

11. The Letters “gh”

These are well-known silent letters before “t” in words like bright, fight, might, tight, ought, brought, sought, thought, caught, taught, eight, height and weight. They also occur without the “t” in though, through, bough, plough, high, weigh, neighbour etc. (however, they are less “silent” in cough and tough because the consonant sound /f/, though unexpected, exists where they occur).

12. Other Letters

There is a silent “n” at the end of autumn, column, condemn, hymn and solemn, while at the start of mnemonic it is the “m” that is silent. In iron, the “r” is silent, in yacht the “ch” and in Wednesday the first “d” (along with the following “e”). Some borrowed French words, such as laissez-faire and rendezvous, contain a silent “z”.

It is probable that some interesting examples of silent consonants are missing from these lists. Readers who are aware of any are invited to mention them via the comment facility below.

Test on theoretical phonetics of the English language

I. Chose the correct term for the definition below.

1. A stress and pitch combined

2. The syllable in the word which is effected by a change in pitch direction

b) accentual nucleus

3. Grammatical rules about the changes in the form of words connected with different modifications of their sound nature

4. Adaptation to different adjacent sounds

d) mutual assimilation

5. The sounds formed during the separation of the articulating organs: in their articulation the complete closure gradually and uninterruptedly opens into a flat-slit narrowing

b) labial sounds

c) medial sonants

6. Quantitative variants of a phoneme

c) combinatory allophones

7. Qualitative variants or members of one and the same phoneme, which never occur in identical positions, but are said to be in complementary distribution

a) combinatory allophones

8. Variants of a phoneme which appear in speech as a result of assimilation and adaptation or of the specific ways of joining sounds together

c) combinatory allophones

9. Allophone of one and the same phoneme, pronounced by different people

c) combinatory allophones

10. A slight puff of breath which is heard after the explosion of /p, t, k/ in initial position

c) progressive assimilation

11. The result of adaptation of one sound to another

a) regressive assimilation

b) reciprocal assimilation

c) progressive assimilation

12. Bilateral assimilation of two sounds when in the result they give a new sound

d) regressive assimilation

13. Assimilation when one of the two adjacent sounds fully coincides with the other

b) complete assimilation

c) reciprocal assimilation

14. Sounds articulated by the tip and the blade of the tongue raised against the back slope of the teethridge

a) lateral sounds

15. The sound which is made softer due to additional articulatory work

a) silent letter

d) medial sonant

16. A close connection between a short checked vowel and a consonant which follows it

17. An articulation of two neighbouring sounds when the first stage of the second sound takes place already during the medial stage of the first sound

b) close transition

d) complementary distribution

18. An arrangement of allophones of one and the same phoneme, which occurs in different contexts, but in a definite set of them

b) complementary distribution

c) close transition

d) free variations

c) glottal sound

d) intrusive sound

20. A gradual lowering of the voice pitch

c) descending scale

21. A combination of two letters equivalent to one phoneme

a) free variations

c) positional allophones

22. A vowel phoneme which consists of two elements: a nucleus and a glide

a) free variations

d) positional allophones

24. A slight shifting of the organs of speech position within the articulation of one and the same vowel (these organs are mostly — the tongue, the lips and the lower jaw)

a) constrictive sonants

b) monophthongized sounds

c) positional allophones

26. A substitution of one sound for another, similar in tamber but different articulatorily.

27. Dropping off of a vowel in initial or terminal position

28. An unstressed word or syllable, which refers to the preceding stressed word or syllable

c) glottal sound

29. Bilateral assimilation, when two assimilating sounds equally influence each other.

a) historical assimilation

b) mutual assimilation

c) reciprocal assimilation

30. Variants of individual pronunciation — interidiolectal variants.

a) free variations

b) free accentual variants

c) positional allophones

31. Intraidiolectal and interidiolectal variations which are spontaneous, unintentional, non-functional, non-distinctive

a) free accentual variants

b) free variations

c) positional allophones

32. The type of accent which is characterized by the free accidence of the word accent; in different words of the language different syllables can be stressed — the first, the second, the third.
a) pitch

b) free word accent

c) free accentual variant

33. That part of a diphthong which constitutes its additional element, the full articulation of which is not accomplished.

d) intrusive sound

34. When the glottis is narrowed during exhalation, the air, passing out of the mouth cavity, produces an /h/ like sound

a) glottal sound

c) intrusive sound

35. A sound which reminds a slight cough and is articulated by the vocal cords, before a vowel sound is heard, in cases of
emphatic speech.

a) glottal sound

c) intrusive sound

36. An orthographic unit with which a phoneme can be correlated

37. A written sign which may be equivalent to a sound, syllable, or a whole notion.

38. Softening of consonants, which results from the secondary place of articulation — front-secondary focus, it takes place when the middle part of the tongue is raised to the hard palate and the air passage is narrowed or constricted, which gives the consonant soft colouring

39. Sound changes, which are the result of the historical development of the language.

a) mutual assimilation

b) reciprocal assimilation

c) historical assimilation

40. An articulatory similarity of two sounds, which is based on similar articulatory work of the speech organs.

d) mutual assimilation

41. Words that are similar in orthography but different in pronunciation and meaning.

b) positional allophones

d) free variations

42. Words that are similar in pronunciation but different in orthography and meaning.

c) free variations

d) positional allophones

43. A passage of small width or length.

44. The loss of qualitative and tembral characteristics of vowel sounds in unstressed positions.

c) glottal sound

45. Either a narrowing or a complete closure of the speech organs in articulation

46. A complete obstruction made by the speech organs, as in /p, t, k/.

47. A component of the phonetic structure which is viewed in the narrow meaning as pitch variations, or speech melody.

48. Alien to the word sounds.

a) labial sounds

b) lateral sounds

c) intrusive sounds

d) glottal sounds

49. Sounds articulated by the lips.

a) labial sounds

b) glottal sounds

c) lateral sounds

d) intrusive sounds

50. Lip rounding.

51. Sounds in the articulation of which the air passages (or passage) are formed at the lateral sides of the tongue. At the same time the contact is made by the tip of the tongue pressed against the teethridge as in /i/ articulation.

a) lateral sounds

b) labial sounds

c) intrusive sounds

d) glottal sounds

52. Gradual weakening in the articulation.

53. Sounds articulated with theair-passage through the middle part of the tongue. For example: /w, r, j/.

a) medial sonants

b) constrictive sonants

c) intrusive sounds

d) labial sounds

54 In the articulation of these sounds the narrowing for the air passage is not wide enough to eliminate the noise or friction completely; on the other hand it is wide enough to make the cavity function as a resonator.

b) glottal sounds

c) medial sonants

d) constrictive sonants

55. To acquire equal quality.
a) narrow

56. A word consisting of one syllable.

c) close transition

57. An abrupt separation of speech organs at the place of articulation.

58. Variants of a phoneme which are used in definite positions due to the tradition of a language pronunciation

a) positional allophones

b) free variations

c) free accentual variants

59. The process when the first of the two neighbouring sounds influences the second and makes it similar to itself.

a) regressive assimilation

b) reciprocal assimilation

c) progressive assimilation

d) mutual assimilation

60. Bilateral assimilation, when the neighbouring sounds are equally affected by assimilation.

a) regressive assimilation

b) reciprocal assimilation

c) progressive assimilation

d) mutual assimilation

61. The process when the second of the neighbouring sounds influences the first one and makes •it similar to itself.

a) regressive assimilation

b) reciprocal assimilation

c) progressive assimilation

d) mutual assimilation

62. The sounds of a whistling or hissing nature.

b) silent letters

c) glottal sounds

63. Letters that are spelt but not pronounced.

a) silent letters

c) glottal sounds

64. The sounds in the production of which voice prevails over noise.

a) labial sounds

b) lateral sounds

65. A vowel sound that consists of three elements, the first element is a diphthong and the second — a neutral vowel /ə/.

65. Formation of the back-secondary focus which makes the sounds «dark» in tamber

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Is there a term for the silent letters in a word?

Is there a phonetical term for them?

6 Answers 6

Wikipedia references linguist Edward Carney’s (Senior Lecturer in Phonetics at the University of Manchester) A Survey of English Spelling in this explanation on silent letters, so the names of these various terms are not standardized. He distinguishes between two types of ‘silent letter’: auxiliary and dummy:

Auxiliary letters, paired with another letter, constitute digraphs which represent a single distinct sound. These auxiliary letters are further classified into exocentric digraphs—where the collective sound of the digraph is different from the individual sound of each of its two letters. The individual letters are rarely considered silent because each letter contributes to the overall sound of the digraph. There are two categories of exocentric digraph:

—and endocentric digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is the same as that of one of its letters, which are classified into three groups:

Other forms of silent letters:

consonant cluster silent letters: silent 〈th〉 in asthma

spurious silent letters: silent letters that are added to adopted words post factum to more accurately reflect even earlier origins, such as

silent letters in compound words: compound words are often simplified in pronunciation, while their spelling remains the same. For example, cupboard and breakfast were once pronounced as written, but were then simplified over time.

The Wikipedia section goes more in-depth on the purpose of silent letters and how they originate in words.

In phonetics, I find three terms used to designate a silent letter (or letters):

‘zero sound’, or simply ‘zero’.

Of these, ‘silent letter’ (1) appears to be most common. The uses, however, might be said to be colloquial, rather than technical and specific to phonetics.

‘Mute letter’ (2) is also used. The term is attested in use with a special sense for grammar and phonetics, as shown in OED Online:

mute, adj. and n.
.
4. Grammar and Phonetics
.
b. Of a letter: not pronounced, silent.

[«mute, adj. and n.3». OED Online. June 2016. Oxford University Press. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/124309 (accessed July 18, 2016).]

Attestation ranges from 1638-2005. The publications cited are not, however, exclusively devoted to phonetics, but are more general: Barnabæ Itinerarium (1638); Hist. Druids (a1722); Proc. Philol. Soc. (1840); Dict. Mod. Eng. Usage (1926); Understanding French Verse (2005).

This sense of ‘mute’ is invariably adjectival.

Other—but obsolete, historical and rare—senses of ‘mute’ used as a noun and adjective in phonetics are given. These obsolete senses do not offer an answer to the question, because even if they were not obsolete, etc., they refer only to ‘silent’ consonants:

4. Grammar and Phonetics.
†a. Of a consonant: plosive, stopped. Obs.
.
†c. Of a consonant: voiceless. Obs.
.
B. n. 3
1. Phonetics. A mute or stopped consonant; a plosive. Now hist. and rare.

‘Zero sound’ (3), also ‘zero’, however, promises to offer a complete and direct answer to the question. The term and the (absence of) sound it denotes is represented in IPA with ∅.

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. Phonetic transcriptions that better depict pronunciation and which note changes due to grammar and proximity of other words require a symbol to show that the letter is mute. Handwritten notes use a circle with a line through it and the sound is called «zero».

While I was at first incredulous (for philosophical reasons, among others), I quickly uncovered support, that is, attestation for the sense, in a wide range of publications specifically dealing with phonetics. I offer a somewhat random selection from those publications:

If the sound that should cover the phonological /r/ slot is not present, tier 2 will simply indicate zero. The symbol adopted in the picture is [Ø].

This group can also yield j and zero sound, but these cases are very easy to explain and therefore will not be dealt with at length in this article.

. mainly to facilitate making the distinction between glottal stop and zero as in [a?e] versus [ae].