ABSTRACT
[Abstract: English is notorious for its silent letters, that is, letters that represent nothing in the pronunciation. A brief historical look at the origins of silent letters is followed by a three-way categorization of silent letters. Empty letters have no sound and no function (e.g. the i of friend). Auxiliary letters have no sound, but work in combination with other letters to represent sounds (e.g. the h in chase, phew, shock and thinker). Inert letters have no sound in the word under consideration, but do have a sound in morphologically related words (e.g. the g of sign, versus signature).]
