| 词条 | Silent e | ||||||||||||||||||
| 释义 |
In English orthography, many words feature a silent {{angle bracket|e}}, most commonly at the end of a word or morpheme. Typically it represents a vowel sound that was formerly pronounced, but became silent in late Middle English or Early Modern English. In a large class of words, as a consequence of a series of historical sound changes, including the Great Vowel Shift affecting long vowels, the former presence of the vowel sound represented by the {{angle bracket|e}} left its mark in the form of a change in the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. This can be seen in words such as rid {{IPAc-en|r|ɪ|d}} and ride {{IPAc-en|r|aɪ|d}}, in which the presence of the final, unpronounced {{angle bracket|e}} appears to alter the sound of the preceding {{angle bracket|i}}. A silent {{angle bracket|e}} which has this effect is sometimes called a magic {{angle bracket|e}}. The normal effect is to convert a short vowel sound to a long one, but because of the complications of the Great Vowel Shift, the long vowel is not simply a lengthened version of the corresponding short one, and in most cases (as in the example of ride) is in fact a diphthong. This vowel-altering effect of silent {{angle bracket|e}} entered into modern English orthography, and is present in new words (such as bike) in which there is no historical reason for the presence of the {{angle bracket|e}} other than the need to mark the pronunciation of the preceding vowel. Effect of silent {{angle bracket|e}} on simple vowels
An {{angle bracket|e}} when associated with a preceding vowel usually converts the preceding “short vowel” to its "long vowel" equivalent and is silent. In English, the "letter name" of a vowel is its long vowel form (except in the case of {{angle bracket|y}}, which has the same pronunciation as {{angle bracket|i}} – compare byte/bite). Depending on dialect, English has anywhere from 13 to more than 20 separate vowel phonemes, both monophthongs and diphthongs. Silent {{angle bracket|e}} is one of the ways English orthography is able to use the Latin alphabet's five vowel characters to represent so many vowel sounds. There is usually only one consonant between the silent {{angle bracket|e}} and the preceding vowel; a double consonant may be a cue that the {{angle bracket|e}} is not silent and does not affect the preceding vowel (as in Jesse and posse). Traditionally, the vowels {{IPAc-en|eɪ|_|iː|_|aɪ|_|oʊ|_|j|uː}} are said to be the "long" counterparts of the vowels {{IPAc-en|æ|_|ɛ|_|ɪ|_|ɒ|_|ʌ}}, respectively, which are said to be "short". This terminology reflects the historical pronunciation and development of those vowels, but as a phonetic description of their current values it is no longer accurate. The English values of the letters {{angle bracket|a, e, i, o, u}} used to be similar to the values those letters had in Spanish, French or Italian, namely {{IPAblink|a}}, {{IPAblink|e}}, {{IPAblink|i}}, {{IPAblink|o}}, {{IPAblink|u}}. The Great Vowel Shift leading to Early Modern English gave current English "long vowels" values that differ markedly from the "short vowels" that they relate to in writing. Since English has a literary tradition that goes back into the Middle English period, written English continues to use Middle English writing conventions to mark distinctions that had been reordered by the chain shift of the long vowels. However, the pronunciation of {{angle bracket|u}} before silent {{angle bracket|e}}, found mainly in borrowings from French and Latin, is a consequence not of the Great Vowel Shift but of a different series of changes. When final {{angle bracket|e}} is not silent, this may be indicated in various ways in English spelling. When representing {{IPAc-en|iː}}, this is usually done via doubling (employee, with employe as an obsolete spelling). Non-silent {{angle bracket|e}} can also be indicated by a diacritical mark, such as a grave accent (learnèd) or a diaeresis (learnëd, Brontë). Other diacritical marks are preserved in loanwords (résumé, café), or introduced on this pattern (maté), though these diacritics are frequently omitted. Other words have no indication that the {{angle bracket|e}} is not silent (pace, Latin loan meaning "with due respect to"). The {{angle bracket|a}} groupThe sounds of the {{angle bracket|a}} group are some of the more dialectically-complex features of contemporary modern English; the phonemes represented in modern "short" {{angle bracket|a}} include {{IPAc-en|æ}}, {{IPAc-en|ɑː}}, and {{IPAc-en|ɔː}}. See broad A and cot–caught merger for some of the cross-dialect complexities of the English {{angle bracket|a}} group. A silent {{angle bracket|e}} typically moves {{angle bracket|a}} to {{IPAc-en|eɪ}}. The {{angle bracket|e}} groupSilent {{angle bracket|e}} typically moves {{angle bracket|e}} to {{IPAc-en|iː}}. This change is generally consistent across nearly all English dialects today, though previously many dialects used {{IPA|/eː/}} instead before migrating to {{IPA|/iː/}}. Some parts of Mid-Ulster English still use {{IPA|/eː/}}. The {{angle bracket|i}} groupFor the "long vowel" represented in written English by {{angle bracket|i}}, the effect of silent {{angle bracket|e}} is to turn it into a diphthong {{IPAc-en|aɪ}}. The {{angle bracket|o}} groupShort {{angle bracket|o}} often falls in with short {{angle bracket|a}} and shares some of the complexities of that group. Variously, the written short {{angle bracket|o}} can represent {{IPAc-en|ɒ}}, {{IPAc-en|ʌ}}, and {{IPAc-en|ɔː}}. The usual effect of silent {{angle bracket|e}} on written {{angle bracket|o}} is to fix it as a long {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} sound. The {{angle bracket|u}} groupShort {{angle bracket|u}} can variably represent either {{IPAc-en|ʌ}} or {{IPAc-en|ʊ}}, as a result of the foot–strut split. Silent {{angle bracket|e}} generally turns {{angle bracket|u}} to its corresponding long version {{IPAc-en|j|uː}}, which developed from Middle English {{IPA|/ɪu/}}. Variably by dialect and even word, the {{IPAc-en|j}} in this {{IPAc-en|j|uː}} may drop (rune {{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|uː|n}}, lute {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|uː|t}}), causing a merger with {{IPAc-en|uː}}; in other cases, the {{IPA|/j/}} coalesces with the preceding consonant (issue {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|s|.|j|uː}} → {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|ʃ|uː}}), meaning that the silent {{angle bracket|e}} can affect the quality of a consonant much earlier in the word (educate ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɛ|dʒ|u|k|eɪ|t}}, nature {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|eɪ|tʃ|ər}}). Silent {{angle bracket|e}} and consonantsAlong with indicating that a preceding vowel is a long vowel, a silent {{angle bracket|e}} when it immediately follows a (c) or (g) also indicates that the (c) is a soft {{angle bracket|c}} and (g) is a soft {{angle bracket|g}}. For example:
where {{IPAc-en|s}} is the expected outcome of the {{angle bracket|ce}} digraph, and the {{angle bracket|g}} in huge is pronounced {{IPAc-en|dʒ}}. The same effect on (c) and (g), but not the preceding vowel, arises in words such as “chance”, “change” and “forge”. To stop this softening effect, a silent (u) is added before (e), as in “guess”, “guest”, “plague”, “fugue” and “catalogue”. Silent {{angle bracket|e}} is used in some words with {{angle bracket|dg}} in which it does not lengthen a vowel: rĭdgɇ, sĕdgɇ, hŏdgɇ-pŏdgɇ. Spelling such words with {{angle bracket|j}}, the other letter that indicates that sound, does not occur in native or nativized English words. The same softening effect also arises with a following (i). Truly silent {{angle bracket|e}}In some common words that historically had long vowels, silent {{angle bracket|e}} no longer has its usual lengthening effect. For example, the {{angle bracket|o}} in come (as compared to in cone) and in done (as compared to in dome). This is especially common in some words that historically had {{angle bracket|f}} instead of {{angle bracket|v}}, such as give and love; in Old English, {{IPAslink|f}} became {{IPAslink|v}} when it appeared between two vowels (OE giefan, lufu), while a geminated {{angle bracket|ff}} lost its doubling to yield {{IPAslink|f}} in that position. This also applies to a large class of words with the adjective suffix -ive, such as captive (where, again, the {{angle bracket|i}} is not lengthened, unlike in hive), that originally had -if in French. Some loanwords from French (promenade) retained their French silent {{angle bracket|e}}, called e muet or e caduc, which has no effect on the preceding vowel. Some English words vary their accented syllable based on whether they are used as nouns or as adjectives. In a few words such as minute, this may affect the operation of silent {{angle bracket|e}}: as an adjective, minúte ({{IPAc-en|m|aɪ|ˈ|nj|uː|t}}, "small") has the usual value of {{angle bracket|u}} followed by silent {{angle bracket|e}}, while as a noun mínute ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|m|ɪ|n|ᵻ|t}}, the unit of time) silent {{angle bracket|e}} does not operate. See initial-stress-derived noun for similar patterns that may give rise to exceptions. HistorySilent {{angle bracket|e}}, like many conventions of written language that no longer reflect current pronunciations, was not always silent. In Chaucer's Balade, the first line does not scan properly unless what appears to current eyes to be a silent {{angle bracket|e}} is pronounced: Hyd, Absolon, thy giltè tresses clerè Gilte ends in the same sound as modern English Malta. In Middle English, this final schwa had some grammatical significance, although that was mostly lost by Chaucer's time. It was elided regularly when a word beginning with a vowel came next. The consequences of silent {{angle bracket|e}} in contemporary spelling reflect the phonology of Middle English. In Middle English, as a consequence of the lax vowel rule shared by most Germanic languages, vowels were long when they historically occurred in stressed open syllables; they were short when they occurred in "checked" or closed syllables. Thus bide {{IPA|/ˈbiːdə/}} had a long vowel, while bid {{IPA|/bid/}} had a short one. The historical sequence went something like this:
The writing convention of silent {{angle bracket|e}} indicates that different vowel qualities had become phonemic, and were preserved even when phonemic vowel length was lost. Long vowels could arise by other mechanisms. One of these is known as "compensatory lengthening"; this occurred when consonants formerly present were lost: maid is the modern descendant of Old English mægde. In this example, the g actually became a glide {{IPA|/j/}}, so in a sense, the length of the consonant stayed where it always had been, and there was no "compensation." The silent {{angle bracket|e}} rule became available to represent long vowels in writing that arose from other sources; Old English brŷd, representing *bruʒd-i-, became Modern English bride. The rules of current English spelling were first set forth by Richard Mulcaster in his 1582 publication Elementarie. Mulcaster called silent {{angle bracket|e}} "qualifying {{angle bracket|e}}", and wrote of it: It altereth the sound of all the vowells, euen quite thorough one or mo consonants as, máde, stéme, éche, kínde, strípe, óre, cúre, tóste sound sharp with the qualifying E in their end: whereas, màd, stèm, èch, frind, strip, or, cut, tost, contract of tossed sound flat without the same E, And therefor the same loud and sharp sound in the word, calleth still for the qualifying e, in the end, as the flat and short nedeth it not. It qualifyeth no ending vowell, bycause it followeth none in the end, sauing i. as in daie, maie, saie, trewlie, safetie, where it maketh i, either not to be heard, or verie gentlie to be heard, which otherwise would sound loud and sharp, and must be expressed by y. as, deny, aby, ally. Which kinde of writing shalbe noted hereafter. It altereth also the force of, c, g, s, tho it sound not after them, as in hence, for that, which might sound henk, if anie word ended in c. in swinge differing from swing, in vse differing from vs. Mulcaster also formulated the rule that a double letter, when final, indicated a short vowel in English, while the absence of doubling and the presence of silent {{angle bracket|e}} made the vowel long. In modern English, this rule is most prominent in its effects on the written "a" series:
Digraphs are sometimes treated as single letters for purposes of this rule:
In popular culture
Who can turn a căn into a cānɇ?
See also
External links
2 : English spelling|Silent letters |
||||||||||||||||||
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。