Many words contain letters for which there are no corresponding sounds
in the spoken words. Thus, in the spoken word _though_ there are only
two sounds, the _th_ and the _o_; _u_ and _g_ and _h_ are silent. There
are a great many words in the English language which contain these
silent letters. There has been a movement inaugurated for the purpose of
simplifying the spelling of these words, omitting these silent letters.
Some writers have adopted this method of simplified spelling, and so in
some magazines and books which you read you will find these silent
letters dropped; for example, you will find _though_ spelled _tho_,
_through_ spelled _thru_.
This method of simplified spelling has not been universally adopted and
we have not followed it in these lessons because we feared that it would
be confusing. Probably in most of your reading you will find the old
method of spelling followed and all of these silent letters included. No
doubt, as time goes on, we shall adopt this simplified method of
spelling and drop all of these silent and useless letters.
In our spelling lesson for this week we have a number of words
containing silent letters.
+MONDAY+
In a number of words you will find _ea_ pronounced as short _e_. The
board of simplified spelling has suggested that we drop the _a_, which
is a silent letter, from these words. If we adopted their suggestion,
words like _head_ would be spelled _hed_. Note the spelling of the
following words in which _ea_ is pronounced as short _e_ and the _a_ is
silent.
Spread, stead, threat, meant, pleasant, stealth.
+TUESDAY+
We have a number of words ending in _ough_ in which the _gh_ is silent.
1. In some of these words the _ou_ is pronounced like _ow_. We have
already changed the spelling of a few of these words, for example, we no
longer use _plough_, but write it _plow_.
2. In other words ending with _ough_ the _ugh_ is silent and the words
end with a long _o_ sound, as in _though_. Many writers have dropped the
silent letters ugh and spell this simply _tho_.
3. A few other words ending with _ough_ end with a _u_ sound and those
who adopt the simplified spelling have dropped the _ough_ and used
simply _u_, as in _through_; many writers spell it simply _thru_.
Observe the spelling of the following words and mark the silent letters:
Bough, through, thorough, furlough, borough, though.
+WEDNESDAY+
We have a number of words ending in _mn_ in which the _n_ is silent.
Note the spelling of the following words:
Autumn, solemn, column, kiln, hymn, condemn.
+THURSDAY+
We have a number of words containing a silent _b_. Notice the spelling
of the following words:
Doubt, debt, dumb, limb, thumb, lamb.
+FRIDAY+
A number of words end with silent _ue_ after _g_. Some writers omit the
ue and probably after a while we will drop this silent _ue_, but you
will find it used now in most of your reading. These are such words as:
Catalogue, demagogue, decalogue, tongue, league, harangue.
+SATURDAY+
We have a number of words ending with _gh_ in which the _gh_ has the
sound of _f_, as in the following words:
Trough, rough, enough, laugh, tough, cough.