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Today we answer a question from Ahmad in Iraq. He writes:
今天我们回答来自伊拉克的艾哈迈德提出的问题。他写道：
Why do we have some silent letters in English?
为什么英语当中有些字母不发音呢？
Like these words: write, know, half, hide.
比如这几个单词：write（写）, know（知道）, half（一半）, hide（隐藏）。
So, tell me, why should we write them, although we don't pronounce them? Thank you.
所以您能告诉我，为什么我们不发这些音，但是需要写出这些字母呢？谢谢。
Dear Ahmad, That is a great question.
亲爱的艾哈迈德，这是个很棒的问题。
Like many of the unusual things about English, the answer is tied to history.
就像英语当中一些奇怪的使用方法一样，不发音字母和历史有关。
Three of the reasons for the silent letters are changes in the language, borrowing words or terms from other languages and simplification of words.
字母不发音现象的三个原因分别是语言变化、从其他语言中借用单词和术语以及单词简化。
If you pay close attention, you will find my answer to your second question: "Why should we write them?"
如果你密切关注，你就会发现第二个问题“为什么我们要写这些字母”的答案。
The first reason is that language changes over time, and as people move from place to place.
第一个原因就是语言随着时间和人们的迁徙在变化。
The English language has been written for over 10 centuries.
英语成为书面用语已经超过10个世纪了。
We all know the way speakers of English pronounce words has changed over the years.
我们都知道多年来说英语的人发音方式发生了改变。
However, the spelling of many of those words has not changed.
但是，那些单词的拼写并没有发生变化。
About 400 years ago, people said the "w" sound or /w/ at the beginning of your first example, "write."
大约400年前，人们读“write”时会发字母“w”或者音标 /w/的音，就像你举得第一个例子。
In the Northeast of Scotland, you may still hear the sound "v" at the beginning of the word.
在苏格兰的东北部，你还能听到人们发这个单词的第一个音是“v”的音。
You asked about the word "hide." That has a silent "e" because at one time, there were two syllables or separate parts to the word.
你还问到了单词“hide”。这个单词有一个不发音字母“e”，因为以前这个单词有两个音节或者两个不同的部分。
In Middle English, one might say /heed-uh/.
在中世纪英语中，有的人会读/heed-uh/。
This word was part of a big change in the way people speak English.
这个单词能体现人们说英语的方式发生了重大改变。
It came along between the years 1400 and 1700 and is called the Great Vowel Shift.
这个改变名为“元音大推移”，发生在1400到1700年之间。
The vowels -- sounds you make with an open mouth -- began to change.
此时，发声时嘴巴要张开的元音开始改变。
/Heed-uh/ became "hide." After that change, English speakers kept writing words with the silent "e" to show that the words have a long vowel sound within the word.
/Heed-uh/变成了“hide。”从那之后，说英语的人们沿用了含有不发音字母“e”的写法，表明单词中有一个长的元音音节。
Another reason for silent letters is that English has borrowed words from many other languages.
出现不发音字母的另外一个原因就是英语曾经从其他多种语言中借用词语。
Words that came from Greek may start with the letters "ph", but we say them with a "f" sound, /f/ as in "physical."
从希腊语中借用的词语开头可能是“ph”词组，但是我们发“f”的音，就像“physical”中的 /f/。
Scholars decided to write them in the Greek way to show their roots.
学者决定用希腊的写法，这样能显示出单词的来源。
You can imagine that people want to make the language they speak simpler.
你可以想象得到人们想要简化他们的语言。
That is true with pronunciation, but until today, there have been few major changes to the spelling of English words.
在发音方面的确如此，但是直到今天，英语单词的书写方面几乎没有大的改变。
Two centuries ago, Noah Webster tried to change American spelling in his dictionary.
两个世纪之前，诺亚·韦伯斯特尝试在他的字典中改变美国人的拼写。
He is the reason Americans spell "color" without the letter "u" and spell "jail" as j-a-i-l, not "g-a-o-l."
就是因为他，美国人现在拼写“color”没有字母“u”,写“监狱”是 j-a-i-l而不是“g-a-o-l。”
Ahmad, the second word you asked about -- "know" -- came from an old German word.
艾哈迈德，你问的第二个单词-“know”-来自古德语。
In Old English and in old German, the "k" sound was heard at the beginning.
在古英语和古德语中，“k”这个音经常出现在单词开头。
But to make it simpler, people started to say the "n" at the beginning.
但是为了让发音更简单，人们开始在单词开头发“n”这个音。
Today, we write the word "know" as "k-n-o-w" to show that it is different from the word spelled n-o, or "no."
现在，我们把“know”写成“k-n-o-w”，这样就和带有n-o的单词或者“no”区分开了。
The same is true for all other words that begin with the letters "kn."
这个规则也适用于其他以“kn”开头的单词。
I hope this helps you understand our strange way of writing words, Ahmad!
艾哈迈德，我希望这些能帮助你理解英语当中一些单词的奇怪写法！
And that's Ask a Teacher for this week.
以上就是本期名师答疑的内容。
I'm Jill Robbins.
我是吉尔·罗宾斯。
