extra letters

[joko]

What was the thinking behind all the silent and useless letters that litter our language?

Words like should, could, though, thought, know, etc etc

Why are they there? is there some long lost logic?

Thanks

[jno]

yes, long lost pronunciations. All those letters would once have been pronounced. They still are in related German words and, more faintly, in some Scots speech. Know would have been something like kinnow, and so on.

There are a few letters that have appeared by accident - when compilers of dictionaries inserted them, having assumed they derived from foreign words that were in fact unrelated. There never used to be a C in scissors or an S in island.

[Peter Pedant]

blimey - that s a pretty short answer from jno. Any book on historical linguistics covers this. Short answer - Potter history of our language. Long answer, any book with linguistics in the title.

vecht in Dutch still has the guttural but in fight this became a glottal stop and then nothing.

however debt gained a b because they felt it was not from Norman French dette but latin Debitum.

could gained an el like should and would but comes from coud which in Dutch is still pronounced like cow with a t on the end.

those are just two to get you started....