论单词为什么不能短一点

Spelling: Why can't we officially remove silent letters from English words and otherwise make English more consistent?

为什么不把英语中不发音的字母移除然后让英语变得更加连贯？

原文地址：https://www.quora.com/Spelling-Why-cant-we-officially-remove-silent-letters-from-English-words-and-otherwise-make-English-more-consistent

Elizabeth H. Simmons：

As others have already noted, silent letters in English often do have an impact:
正如其他人所言，不发音字母在英语中有它的作用：

• They may change the pronunciation of a nearby vowel (e.g., mop vs. mope, at vs. ate). This often drastically changes the meaning, as you can see.

• 不发音字母能够改变临近的元音的读音（比如：mop vs. mope, at vs. ate）。而这点通常能够带来单词意义上的极大变化。

• They may indicate a word's origin within another language and thereby give clues to its meaning (e.g., the silent p at the start of words like "psychology" reminds us of the Greek origin of the word and the connection to the story of Cupid & Psyche -- which hints at the meaning).

• 不发音字母能帮助我们了解一个单词在其他语言中的来源并帮助我们猜测单词的涵义（比如：在“psychology”中不发音的 P 能让我们知道这个单词来源于希腊关于丘比特与普塞克的故事，并由此能让我们猜测单词的涵义。）

In addition, a silent letter that doesn't change the sound of a word can still affect its meaning or usage. For instance:
除此之外，不发音字母虽然不改变单词的读音却可以影响其涵义和用法，比如：

• pleas (a plural noun)
• pleas (复数名词，请求)
• please (a verb)
• please (动词，请)

Not only would it be difficult to erase all the silent letters from English (as others have convincingly argued), but I think we'd lose a great deal culturally and linguistically by doing so.
删除单词中的不发音字母不但是一件困难的工作（正如其他人所言），而且我认为这样同样会使得单词丧失文化和语义上的内涵。