gh?

[miffy63]

Why do we have 'gh' in many of our words, weight etc, were they always silent?

[jno]

no, they'd have been pronounced in earlier times, then gradually become silent. They still are pronounced in languages like German - eg weight is gewicht, and the ch is somewhere between a 'sh' sound and 'kkk', if you see what I mean.

[Peter Pedant]

there must be a citation for this....

Does it help if I saythat weg (vechchch) is way in Dutch and Fight is vecht ?

Sort of demonstrating (in the way I think which is usually not straightforward) that they were pronounced and had a chchchc sound the same one that the scots have in 'loch'

You know how the awful Essex crowd say wha' and bo''le in stead of bottle ? = glottal stop
well the gh became a glottal stop
and then silent

Happens a lot. you know when Cromwell massacred the whole of drog-heeder, well everyone says drockedder
and we were told it was drawder (fifty years ago)
but I havent recently met an Irishman who says that now.

[miffy63]

The English language is fascinating. Apparently, many words that we have stopped using are used in America, they are the closest we get to old English.

Do you think that the silent 'gh' will die out, as well as the 'h' in what, where etc?

[Quizmonster]

Actually, In the Scottish dialects of English, 'gh' in words such as 'weight' and 'fight' is still pronounced 'ch' as in the German composer's name, Johann Sebastian Bach. Thus, the above two words are pronounced 'wecht' and 'fecht' and north of the border it might, therefore, be said of a boxer, "'e couldn'a mak' 'e wecht for 'e fecht." (He couldn't make the weight for the fight.)

[jno]

the Americans tried a bit of spelling reform in the 19th century; it didn't completely stick but thru is still commonly used (more as an abbreviation than as the 'real' word, I think) and town names usually end in boro instead of borough.

Even today gh isn't always silent - as in tough. Bernard Shaw once invented the word ghoti - pronounced fish; sh as in tough, o as in women, ti as in station.