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In analphabetic writing system, asilent letter is aletter that, in a particularword, does not correspond to anysound in the word'spronunciation. In linguistics, a silent letter is often symbolised with anull signU+2205 ∅EMPTY SET, which resembles theScandinavian letter Ø. Anull or zero is an unpronounced or unwritten segment.

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One of the noted difficulties ofEnglish spelling is a high number of silent letters.Edward Carney distinguishes different kinds of "silent" letters, which present differing degrees of difficulty to readers.

• Auxiliary letters which, with another letter, constitutedigraphs; i.e., two letters combined which represent a singlephoneme. These may further be categorized as:
  • "Exocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is different from that of either of its constituent letters. These are rarely considered "silent". Examples:
    • Where the phoneme has no standard single-letter representation, as withconsonants⟨ng⟩ for/ŋ/ as insing,⟨th⟩ for/θ/ as inthin or/ð/ as inthen, ordiphthongs⟨ou⟩ inout or⟨oi⟩ inpoint. These are the default spellings for the relevant sounds and present no special difficulty for readers or writers.
    • Where standard single-letter representation uses another letter, as with⟨gh⟩ inenough or⟨ph⟩ inphysical instead of⟨f⟩. These may be considered irregular for writers, but less difficult for readers.
  • "Endocentric" digraphs, where the sound of the digraph is the same as that of one of its constituent letters. These include:
    • Mostdouble consonants, as⟨bb⟩ inclubbed; though notgeminate consonants, as⟨ss⟩ inmisspell. Doubling due tosuffixation orinflection is regular; otherwise,^{[clarification needed]} it may present difficulty to writers (e.g.,accommodate is often misspelled), but not to readers.
    • Many vowel digraphs, as⟨ea⟩,⟨ie⟩,⟨eu⟩ inleave (cf.accede),achieve,eulogy (cf.utopia).
    • The discontiguous digraphs, whose second element is "magic e"; e.g.,⟨a_e⟩ inrate (cf.rat),⟨i_e⟩ infine (cf.fin). This is the regular way to represent "long"vowels in the lastsyllable of amorpheme.
    • Others, such as⟨ck⟩ (which is in effect the "doubled" form of⟨k⟩),⟨gu⟩ as inguard,vogue;⟨ea⟩ as inbread,heavy, etc.;⟨ae⟩,⟨oe⟩ as inaerial,oedipal. These may be difficult for writers and sometimes also for readers.
• Dummy letters with no relation to neighboring letters and no correspondence in pronunciation:
  • Some areinert letters, which are sounded in acognate word; e.g.,⟨n⟩ indamn (cf.damnation);⟨g⟩ inphlegm (cf.phlegmatic); the second⟨a⟩ inpractically (cf.practical);⟨t⟩ inballet (cf.balletic);⟨b⟩ in subtle (cf.subtility). If the cognate is obvious, it may aid writers in spelling, but mislead readers in pronunciation.
  • The rest areempty letters, which never have a sound; e.g.,⟨b⟩ in doubt,⟨h⟩ inhonor,⟨w⟩ in answer,⟨h⟩ in Sarah,⟨s⟩ in island. These may present the greatest difficulty to writers and often to readers, as well.

The distinction between "endocentric" digraphs and empty letters is somewhatarbitrary. For example, in such words aslittle andbottle, one might view⟨le⟩ as an "endocentric" digraph for/əl/, or view⟨e⟩ as an empty letter; similarly, with⟨bu⟩ or⟨u⟩ inbuy andbuild.

Not all silent letters are completely redundant:

• Silent letters can distinguish betweenhomophones; e.g.,in/inn;be/bee;lent/leant. This is an aid to readers already familiar with both words.
• Silent letters may give an insight into themeaning ororigin of a word; e.g.,vineyard suggestsvines more than the phonetic*vinyard would.
• Silent letters may help the reader tostress the correctsyllable (comparephysics tophysiques). The final⟨fe⟩ ingiraffe gives a clue to the second-syllable stress, where*giraf might suggest initial-stress.

Silent letters arise in several ways:

• Sound changes occurring without a spelling change. Thedigraph⟨gh⟩was pronounced[x] inMiddle English in such words aslight.
• Sound distinctions fromforeign languages may be lost, as with the distinction between smoothrho (ρ) and roughlyaspirated rho (ῥ) inAncient Greek, represented by⟨r⟩ and⟨rh⟩ inLatin, but merged to the same[r] inEnglish.
• Clusters of consonants may be simplified, producing silent letters; e.g., silent⟨th⟩ inasthma, silent⟨t⟩ inChristmas (in conservativeRP, it is pronounced /krɪstməs/, as opposed to /krɪsməs/ in all other dialects). Similarly, with alien clusters, such asGreek initial⟨ps⟩ inpsychology and⟨mn⟩ inmnemonic, and the much rarer clusters inchthonic andphthalate.
• Compound words are often simplified in pronunciation, while their spelling remains the same. For example,cupboard andbreakfast were once pronounced as written, but were then simplified over time. The wordsforehead andwaistcoat have largely reverted to theirspelling pronunciations, but were once pronounced *forrid and *weskit, respectively.
• Occasionally, spurious letters are consciously inserted in spelling to reflectetymology (real or imagined). The⟨b⟩ indebt anddoubt (fromFrenchdette, doute) was inserted to matchLatin cognates likedebit anddubitable. A silent⟨s⟩ was inserted inisle (Norman Frenchile,Old Frenchisle, from Latininsula; cognate toisolate) and then extended to the unrelated wordisland. The⟨p⟩ inptarmigan was apparently suggested by Greek words such aspteron ('wing').

Sinceaccent and pronunciation differ, letters may be silent for some speakers, but not others. Innon-rhotic accents,⟨r⟩ is silent in such words ashard,feathered; inh-dropping accents,⟨h⟩ is silent. A speaker may or may not pronounce⟨t⟩ inoften, the first⟨c⟩ inAntarctic,⟨d⟩ insandwich, etc.

In the US, theh inherb is silent (an herb), but in the UK, it is pronounced (a herb). The same is true for thel insolder.

In parts of the UK, thea indictionary andsecretary is silent, but in the US, it is pronounced.

In US spellings, silent letters are sometimes omitted (e.g.,acknowledgment / UKacknowledgement,ax / UKaxe,catalog / UKcatalogue,program / UKprogramme outside computer contexts), but not always (e.g.,dialogue is the standard spelling in the US and the UK;dialog is regarded as a US variant; the spellingaxe is also often used in the US). In most words, silent letters are written in both styles (e.g.,debt,guard,house).

TheDanish language has different letters that can be silent:

• The letter⟨f⟩ is silent in the prepositionaf ('by, of, from, off, with, out of').
• The letter⟨g⟩ is silent in the conjunctionog ('and') and adverbogså ('also').
• The letter⟨h⟩ is silent in most dialects if followed by⟨v⟩, as in the pronounshvad ('what'),hvem ('who'),hvor ('where').^[1]
• The letter⟨v⟩ is silent at the end of words if preceded by⟨l⟩, as in the pronounselv ('self') and adjectivehalv ('half').
• The letter⟨d⟩ is usually (but not necessarily) silent if preceded by a consonant, as inen mand ('a man') andblind ('blind'). Many words ending in⟨d⟩ are pronounced with astød, but it is still considered a silent letter.^[2]

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TheFaroese language has two silent letters.

The letteredd⟨ð⟩ is almost always silent. It is rendered in orthography for historical reasons (e.g.,faðir 'father'[ˈfɛajɪɹ], cf.Old Norsefaðir). In some cases, however, the letteredd is pronounced[ɡ̊], as inveðrið 'the weather'[ˈvɛɡ̊ʐɪ].

The letterge⟨g⟩ (i.e. continuant ofOld Norse[ɣ]) is usually silent between vowels or when following a vowel before a pause (e.g.,dagur 'day'[ˈd̥ɛavʊɹ], cf.Old Norsedagr[ˈdaɣʐ];eg 'I'[ˈeː], cf.Old Norseek). Use of the silent letterge in Faroese is the same as for the letteredd; it is written for historical reasons asFaroese orthography was based on normalised spelling ofOld Norse andIcelandic language.

Both Faroese silent lettersedd andge are replaced by ahiatusglide consonant ([j],[v] or[w]) when followed by another (unstressed) vowel.

In German, silent letters are rare apart from word-internal⟨h⟩ (following a vowel) and the⟨e⟩ in thedigraph⟨ie⟩.

Silenth is used in German to indicate vowel length orhiatus. Thish is almost regularly added at the end ofinflectable word stems, e.g.Kuh (cow),Stroh (straw),drehen (to turn, stemdreh-). There is only a fairly small number of exceptions to this, mostly nouns in-ee or-ie (see below), apart from isolated cases such assäen (to sow).

Otherwise silenth may be written before the lettersl, m, n, r as innehmen (to take),Stuhl (chair),Zahn (tooth). This latter use is highly irregular, however, and there are just as many words where theh is missing.

Historically, this use of silenth goes back to theMiddle High German consonant/h/, which became silent in words likesehen (to see),zehn (ten). By analogy it was then also used in words that had no suchh in Middle High German. The majority of silenth's in modern German are analogical rather than etymological.

The longi-sound/iː/ is usually written⟨ie⟩, with a silent⟨e⟩, as inviel (much),spielen (to play),Wien ('Vienna'), and hundreds of other words.

In native German words this spelling is fairly unambiguous. Some words of foreign origin also behave like native words; e.g.,Kurier, Papier, Turnier and all verbs ending in⟨-ieren⟩ (e.g.appellieren, organisieren). In other foreign words, however, the⟨e⟩ after⟨i⟩ may be pronounced (e.g.,Ambiente,Hygiene,Klient), or names likeDaniela,Gabriel, andTriest.

Words ending in⟨-ie⟩ can be particularly tricky to learners: There are generally two possibilities:

1. When the final⟨ie⟩ is stressed, it represents long/iː/ as inZeremonie/tseʁemoˈniː/. Some other words with⟨ie⟩ pronounced this way includeAkademie,Allergie,Amnesie,Amnestie,Apathie,Artillerie,Batterie,Blasphemie,Chemie,Chirurgie,Demokratie,Energie,Epidemie,-gamie,Garantie,Genie,Geometrie,-grafie/-graphie,Harmonie,Hysterie,Infanterie,Ironie,Kavallerie,Kompanie,Kopie,-logie,Liturgie,Magie,Manie,Marie,Melodie,Monotonie,Nostalgie,Orthopädie,Partie,Phantasie,Philosophie,Poesie,Psychiatrie,Rhapsodie,Sinfonie,-skopie,Theorie,Therapie, andUtopie.
2. When the preceding vowel is stressed,⟨ie⟩ represents the separate vowels/i.ə/ as inFolie/ˈfoːliə/. Some other words with⟨ie⟩ pronounced this way includeAkazie,Aktie,Amalie,Begonie,Emilie,Familie,Folie,Geranie,Grazie,Hortensie,Hostie,Immobilie,Kastanie,Komödie,Kurie,Lilie,Linie,Orgie,Otilie,Pinie,Serie,Studie,Tragödie, andZäzilie.
3. In female names, there is a third category of words stressed on theantepenult, where⟨ie⟩ also represents/iː/; e.g.,Amelie,Leonie,Nathalie,Rosalie,Stefanie,Valerie (all stressed on the first syllable).

A special case arises when the⟨e⟩ after⟨i⟩ is a grammatical ending; in this case, it is always pronounced. Therefore,Zeremonie becomesZeremonien/tseʁemoˈniːən/ in the plural,^[3] and the same is true of all other nouns in group 1 above. The nounKnie is pronounced/kniː/ when it is singular, but usually/ˈkniːə/ when it is plural.Spermien is plural ofSpermium, hence also with a pronounced⟨e⟩. Country names in-ien can also be joined to this group:Australien,Brasilien,Indien,Kroatien,Serbien,Slowenien.

Other silent letters occur mainly in borrowings fromFrench and other modern languages; e.g.,Porträt (portrait),Korps (corps).

Informally, the letter⟨t⟩ may be silent infunction words likeist (is),jetzt (now),nicht (not), and otherwise in clusters likeGedächtnis (memory),Kunststück (piece of art). Theset's are commonly silent in everyday speech, but will be retained in careful, formal parlance.

Two other cases of potentially silent letters are regionally restricted: Speakers from northern and central Germany commonly do not pronounce the⟨p⟩ in stem-initial⟨pf⟩ and in⟨mpf⟩, e.g.,pflegen,kämpfen. In various regions,⟨r⟩ may be silent when following⟨a⟩ in thesyllable coda, e.g.Fahrt,Karte. CompareGerman phonology.

Silent letters are common inFrench, including the last letter of most words. Ignoring auxiliary letters that create digraphs (such as⟨ch⟩,⟨gn⟩,⟨ph⟩,⟨au⟩,⟨eu⟩,⟨ei⟩, and⟨ou⟩, as well as⟨m⟩ and⟨n⟩ as signals fornasalized vowels), they include almost every possible letter except⟨j⟩ and⟨v⟩.^{[citation needed]}

Final⟨e⟩ is silent or at least (in poetry and song) a nearly-silentschwa/ə/; it allows the preservation of a preceding consonant, often allowing the preservation of a grammatical distinction betweenmasculine and feminine forms in writing; e.g., invert andverte (both 'green'); the⟨t⟩ is pronounced in the latter (feminine) but not the former. Furthermore, the schwa can prevent an awkward ending of a word ending in a consonant and a liquid (peuple, sucre).

After⟨é⟩,⟨i⟩, or⟨u⟩, a final⟨e⟩ is silent. The spelling⟨eau⟩ is pronounced just the same as that for⟨au⟩ and is entirely an etymological distinction, so in that context, the⟨e⟩ is silent.

The digraph⟨qu⟩ for/k/ usually has a silent⟨u⟩, as inquand ('when'),quel ('which'),acquérir ('to acquire'), andquotidien ('daily').⟨gu⟩ for/ɡ/ has the same silent⟨u⟩; when the⟨u⟩ is not silent, it is usually marked with atrema:⟨ü⟩.

⟨h⟩ is silent outside of the digraph⟨ch⟩. Numerous doubled consonants exist; French does not distinguish doubled consonants from single consonants in pronunciation asItalian does. A marked distinction exists between a single and doubled⟨s⟩: doubled⟨ss⟩ is alwaysvoiceless[s], while an intervocalic single⟨s⟩ is usuallyvoiced[z].

The nasal consonants⟨m⟩ and⟨n⟩ when final or preceding a consonant ordinarily nasalize a preceding vowel but are not themselves pronounced (faim,tomber,vin,vendre). Initial and intervocalic⟨m⟩ and⟨n⟩, even before a final silent⟨e⟩, are pronounced:aimer,jaune.

Most final consonants are silent, except in most cases with the letters⟨c⟩,⟨f⟩,⟨l⟩, and⟨r⟩ (the English wordcareful is amnemonic for this set). But even this rule has its exceptions: final morphemic⟨er⟩ is usually pronounced /e/ (=⟨é⟩) rather than the expected /ɛʁ/ (as inhiver, which does not have that morpheme). Final⟨l⟩ and⟨ll⟩ is silent after⟨i⟩ even in a diphthong (œil,appareil,travail,bouillir). Final -ent is silent as a third-person plural verb ending, though it is pronounced in other cases.

Final consonants that might be silent in other contexts (finally or before another consonant) may seem to reappear in pronunciation inliaison:ils ont[ilz‿ɔ̃] "they have", as opposed toils sont[ilsɔ̃] "they are"; liaison is the retention (between words in certain syntactic relationships) of ahistorical sound otherwise lost, and often has grammatical or lexical significance.

The letter⟨h⟩ most often marks a⟨c⟩/⟨g⟩ as hard (velar), as inspaghetti andscherzo, where it would otherwise be soft (palatal), as ingelato andvioloncello, because of a followingfront vowel (⟨e⟩ or⟨i⟩).

Conversely, to soften⟨c⟩ or⟨g⟩ (to/tʃ/ or/dʒ/ respectively) before aback vowel (⟨a⟩,⟨o⟩,⟨u⟩), a silent⟨i⟩ is inserted:⟨–cio–⟩,⟨–giu–⟩, etc. When⟨i⟩ in that position is not silent, it can be marked with a grave accent:⟨ì⟩. Before any other letter, or at the end of a word, the⟨i⟩ isnot silent.

Silent⟨h⟩ is also used in forms of the verbavere ('have') –ho,hai andhanno – to distinguish these from their homophoneso ('or'),ai ('to the') andanno ('year'). The letter⟨h⟩ is also silent at the beginning of words borrowed from other languages, such ashotel.

European Portuguese's orthography used to conserve the etymological silent letters⟨c⟩ and⟨p⟩ when they appeared after a vowel and before the consonants⟨t⟩,⟨ç⟩ or soft⟨c⟩. Their purpose was to prevent the preceding vowel's deafening, compareadoptar[ɐdoˈtaɾ] (adopt),contracção[kõtɾaˈsɐ̃w] (contraction) andinspeccionar[ĩʃpesiuˈnaɾ] (inspect) toadjacente[ɐdʒɐˈsẽtɨ] (adjacent),completar[kõpɫɨˈtaɾ] (complete) andnoção[nuˈsɐ̃w] (noction). However, the latestPortuguese orthographic reform removed them from the language entirely, meaning that enlarged vowels and deafened vowels cannot be distinguished solely by spelling anymore, the main reason for this change was thatBrazilian Portuguese's spelling had already stopped writing these mute consonants, and thus they were a figure of divergence between the two countries' way of writing.^[4]

Current Portuguese still has some mute letters:

The⟨u⟩ in the digraph⟨gu⟩ is not pronounced before⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩, it is there because a single⟨g⟩ before these vowels becomes a/ʒ/. There are exceptions to this rule, though, like the wordsaguentar andarguição.

The⟨u⟩ in the digraph⟨qu⟩, the latter is pronounced as/k/ or as/kʷ/, is not pronounced before⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩, it is the only traditional way of putting a/k/ sound before these letters, as the letter⟨c⟩ softens to/s/ and⟨k⟩ is reserved to loanwords. There are exceptions to this rule, though, like the wordseloquente andtranquilo.

The⟨u⟩ in the diphthong⟨ou⟩ is not generally pronounced inStandard Lisbon Portuguese^[5] and some Brazilian dialects, which results in words likeSousa andGouveia being said as"Sosa" and"Goveia" respectively.

⟨h⟩ is always silent at the beginning and at the ending of words (hoje,hora,ah!, etc.), except in loanwords such ashobby. However,⟨h⟩ is present in three digraphs and one trigraph (ch,lh,nh andtch), which is where this letter is mainly found affecting the word's pronunciation.

⟨m⟩ and⟨n⟩ are nasal consonants, when at the end of a word or behind another consonant, they nasalize the preceding vowel, with this being the most common way of encountering nasal vowels in Portuguese, the other being with thetilde. They are not interchangeable, though,⟨m⟩ is only used before⟨b⟩ and⟨p⟩ (embora,império, etc.) while⟨n⟩ is used everywhere else (canto,circunstância,convencer,ênfase,fundo,lançar, etc.). Other difference between these two letters is that paroxytones ending with an⟨em⟩ are not accentuated while oxytones have to be accented, (coragem,também, etc.), but the opposite happens with⟨en⟩ (pólen,nenen, etc.), all proparoxytones are accentuated in Portuguese.

⟨x⟩ is normally deemed as silent when behind a soft⟨c⟩ or the letter⟨s⟩, like in the wordsexcelência,excisar orexsudar, but some people consider⟨xc⟩ and⟨xs⟩ to just be digraphs.

There is an extremely specific and limited group of words whose mute consonants can currently be preserved, but only when they occur at the end of them, these are onomastic forms in which the usage has consecrated them, namely anthroponyms and toponyms of biblical tradition likeJacob,Job,Isaac,David,Gad,Gog,Magog andJosafat. Some others names, likeMadrid,Valhadolid,Calecut andCalicut also apply to this rule. Although, all of the anthroponyms cited here can also be optionally written without them:Jacó,Jó,Davi, etc.^[4]

Despite being ratherphonemic,Spanish orthography retains some silent letters:

• ⟨h⟩ is silent outside of the digraph⟨ch⟩ and loanwords such ashámster orhachís.
• The digraph⟨qu⟩, used to represent[k] before the front vowels⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩, has a silent⟨u⟩. In contrast, the u is pronounced in⟨cu⟩.
• ⟨gu⟩ for/ɡ/ has the same silent⟨u⟩ before⟨e⟩ and⟨i⟩. When the⟨u⟩ is not silent, it must be marked with atrema:⟨ü⟩. Before⟨a⟩ and⟨o⟩, the⟨u⟩ isnot silent.
• Syllable onsets like⟨pn⟩,⟨ps⟩,⟨pt⟩ are usually pronounced withoutp. In some but not all cases, this is reflected in the orthography that allows double forms with and without⟨p⟩:neumático ("tire"),psicología/sicología ("psychology"),pterodáctilo/terodáctilo ("pterodactyl"). Reducing an internal⟨pt⟩ (*conceto instead ofconcepto, "concept") is not recommended except inseptiembre/setiembre ("September") andséptimo/sétimo ("seventh").^[6]
• An internal⟨bs⟩ may be pronounced with a silent⟨b⟩. In some cases, this is considered vulgar; in others, it is the most common pronunciation and reflected in the orthography:sustancia/substancia ("substance").^[7]
• Intervocalic or final⟨d⟩ can be weakly pronounced or silent depending on formality and dialect, or in relaxed speech:Madrid[maˈðɾi],cansado[kanˈsao] ("tired").^[8]
• In some dialects, such as Andalucian, Caribbean, or Chilean, an "s" in a terminal position is often aspirated, and may be silent in rapid speech.

InGreek, thecomma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of words in Byzantine Greek, principally (and in Modern Greek, only) distinguishingό,τι (ó,ti, "whatever") fromότι (óti, "that").^[9]

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In the vast majority of cases, Czech pronunciation follows the spelling. There are only four exceptions:

D

For example: dcera (daughter) and in srdce (heart)

In most present forms of the verbbýt ("to be"), namelyjsem,jsi,jsme,jste andjsou (i.e., all persons but the third-person singularje), the initial cluster /js/ is regularly simplified to a mere /s/. This pronunciation is considered correct and neutral when the verb is unstressed and used as an auxiliary. When stressed or used lexically, only the full /js/ pronunciation is considered correct. In casual speech, however, a few other highly frequent words commonly undergo similar simplification, namely all present forms ofjít("to walk") beginning with /jd/ (that isjdu,jdeš,jde,jdeme,jdete,jdou), and the nounjméno ("name") (as well as the derived verbjmenovat (se) 'to name, to (be) call(ed)').^[10][11]

Several words in Russian omit written consonants when spoken. For example, "чувствовать" (chuvstvovat') is pronounced [ˈt͡ɕustvəvətʲ] and "солнце" (solntse) is pronounced [ˈsont͡sə].

Russian letterъ has no phonetic value and functions as a separation sign. Before the spelling reform of 1918, this hard sign was written at the end of each word when following a non-palatal consonant.

Some three-consonant sequences in Ukrainian omit the second sound; for example,шістнадцять (šistnadcjatj) is pronounced without the first t.

InHebrew, almost all cases of silent letters are silentaleph (א‎).^[12] Many words that have a silent aleph in Hebrew have an equivalent word in theArabic language, that is written with amater lectionisalif (ا‎), a letter that indicates the long vowel "aa". Examples:

• The Hebrew word for "no" isלֹא (sounds like "lo", spelled like "loa") and the Arabic word for "no" isلاَ (sounds and spelled like "laa").
• The Hebrew word for "left side" isשְׂמֹאל (sounds like "smol", spelled like "smoal") and an Arabic word for "left side" isشِمِال (sounds and spelled like "shimaal").
• The Hebrew word for "head" isרֹאשׁ (sounds like "rosh", spelled like "roash") and the Arabic word for "head" isرَأس (sounds and spelled like "ra's").

The explanation for this phenomenon is that the Hebrew language had asound change of all the mater lectionis aleph letters into silent ones (seeCanaanite shift). Due to that sound change, in Hebrew language, there are only two kinds of aleph - theglottal stop (/ʔ/) and the silent one,^[13] while in Arabic language all three kinds still exist.^[14]

The silent Arabic alif is marked with awasla sign above it (see picture), in order to differentiate it from the other kinds of alifs. An Arabic alif turns silent, if it fulfills three conditions: it must be in a beginning of a word, the word must not be the first one of the sentence, and the word must belong to one of the following groups:

• Verbs that start with theprefix "ʔi-", due to theirconjugation andderived stem.
• Ten specificnouns that begin with "ʔ": اسم, است, ابن/ابنة, اثنان/اثنتان, امرؤ/امرأة, اَيمن الله/اَيْم الله. Some of these words have a Hebrew word equivalent, and that equivalent had totally lost the beginning aleph. Examples:اسم (ʔism), meaning "a name" (in Maltese the wordisem), sounds like "ism" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "sm" if not; its Hebrew equivalent isשֵׁם (shem).إبن (ʔibn) (in Maltese, the wordiben), meaning "a son", sounds like "ibn" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "bn" if not; its Hebrew equivalent isבֵּן (ben), in Maltesebin.
• The alif of the wordاَل (ʔal), meaning "the", sounds like "al" if it is in the beginning of the sentence and "l" if not.

Besides the alif of the Arabic wordال (ʔal, meaning "the"), itslām (the letter L) can also be silent. It becomes silent if the noun that word is related to starts with a "sun letter". A sun letter is a letter that indicates aconsonant produced by stopping the air in the front part of the mouth (not including the consonant M). The Hebrew equivalent to the Arabic wordال (ʔal, meaning "the") had totally lost its L.

In Maltese, għ can be silent (e.g.,għar 'cave', pronounced "ahr"), or /ħ/ if it is at the end of a word (e.g.,qlugħ 'sail').^[15]

In theTurkish language,⟨ğ⟩ often has no sound of its own, but lengthens the preceding vowel, for example indağ ("mountain")[daː]. In other surroundings, it may be pronounced as aglide.

InPersian, there are two instances of silent letters:

• The letterhe after a short vowel, unless in a monosyllabic word, has no sound of its own. It is only written because according to spelling rules a word cannot end in a short vowel.^[16]
• TheSilent Vav is always written but not spoken in Standard Persian. It used to represent thelabialization of thevoiceless velar fricative, which no longer exists in the standard dialect, making it an archaic remnant of the old standards of pronunciation.^[17]

Unconventional toSanskrit and Proto-Indo-European root languages, some Indic languages have silent letters. AmongDravidian languages,Tamil andMalayalam have certain distinct styles of keeping few of their letters silent. Among theIndo-Aryan languages,Bengali language has silent letters.

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Tamil is a classical language phonetically characterized byallophones,approximants,nasals andglottalised sounds. Some words, however, have silent letters in them. The words அஃது (while that is), and அஃதன் (that) contain theĀytam or 'ஃ', which is not pronounced in Modern Tamil. It is explained in theTolkāppiyam thatāytam could haveglottalised the sounds it was combined with, though some may argue it sounded more like the Arabic 'خ' (/x/). That being said, modern words like ஆஃபிஸ் (Office) use 'ஃ' and 'ப' in sequence to represent the/f/ sound, as theāytam is nowadays also used to transcribe it and other foreign phonemes.

Another convention inMiddle Tamil (Sen-Tamil) is the use of silent vowels to address a mark of respect when beginning proper nouns. TheRamayana was one such text where the wordRamayana in Tamil always began with 'இ', as inஇராமாயணம் (/ɾɑːmɑːjʌɳʌm/), though it was not pronounced. The name கோபாலன் (/ɡoːbɑːlʌɳ/) was so written as உகோபாலன் prefixed with an 'உ'.

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Inheritingelision,approximants andallophones fromTamil, in Malayalam, except for Sanskrit words, words ending in the vowel 'ഉ' (/u/) become silent at the end and if not compounded with words succeeding them, replace the 'ഉ' vowel by the schwa/ə/. However, it is considered disrespectful to change this pronunciation in the simple present verbs, when using imperatives and using what can be termed as Imperative-Active voice in Malayalam, where the second person is respectfully addressed with his or her name instead of നീ (/n̪i:/, you) or നിങ്ങൽ (/n̪iŋaɭ/, yourselves). For example, in the sentence, രാകേശ് പണി തീർക്കു (/ɾʲaːkeːɕəpaɳiti:ɾʲku/, Rakesh, finish your work), the use of the second personal pronoun is avoided with the name രാകേശ് (/ɾʲaːkeːɕ/, Rakesh), but this sentence sounds less respectful if the 'ഉ' in തീർക്കു (/ti:ɾʲku/, finish} is replaced by the schwa or/ə/, as in "തീർക്കു!" (/ti:ɾʲkə/, Finish!) which sounds like an order. Notice the/ə/ at the end of the name Rakesh which is pronounced after being added to the Sanskritic name.

Unlike other Indic languages, Bengali features silent consonants, which occur in many consonant clusters. These silent letters usually occur in loanwords borrowed from Sanskrit. These silent letters occur due to sound mergers as the spellings of Sanskrit loanwords have been preserved but their pronunciation has changed with sound mergers.

The letter ব ('b') is silent in most of the consonant clusters where it occurs as the second one. For example, স্বপ্ন (স্ব = স্ 'sh' + ব) (dream) is written as "shbôpno" but pronounced as "shôpno".জ্বর (জ্ব = জ্ 'j' + ব) (fever) is written as "jbôr" but pronounced as "jôr". This is the case with consonant clusters at the beginning of the words.If the consonant cluster occurs in the middle or at the end of a word, the ব serves as a marker to put stress on the first consonant in a consonant cluster. For example, বিশ্বাস (শ্ব = শ্ 'sh' + ব) (to believe) is written as " bishbāsh" but pronounced as " bishāsh" with more stress on thesh than usual, which sounds like "bishshāsh".

The letter ম ('m') also remains silent in many initial consonant clusters. For example, "স্মৃতি" (স্মৃ = স্ 's' + ম + ঋ 'ri') (memory) is written as "smriti" but pronounced as "sriti". In many cases, if the consonant cluster occurs in the middle of a word, then the preceding vowel should be nasalised and the first letter in the cluster is stressed and ম in the cluster is silent. For example, আত্মা (ত্মা = ত্ 't' + মা 'mā'), i.e., "ātmā" (soul), is pronounced as "āttā" and theā is nasalised.

The letter য় ('y') is also silent in many cases as in "মেয়ে" (য়ে = য় + এ 'ē') (girl) is written as "mēyē" but pronounced as "mē".

The letter 'য' ('j') in its consonant clusters changes the pronunciation of the other letters in the cluster. For example,ন্যায় (ন্যা = ন 'n'+ য + আ 'ā') (justice) is written as "njāy" but pronounced as "nay" (a as in hat); কন্যা (girl or daughter) is written as "konjā" but pronounced as "konnā". Sometimes it is completely silent as in সন্ধ্যা (ন্ধ্যা = ন্ 'n' + ধ 'dh' + য + আ 'ā') (evening) is written as "shondhjā" but pronounced as "shondhā".

Moreover, Bengali also features schwa deletion common to other Indo-Aryan languages, where the schwa, 'o' or 'ô' is omitted while pronunciation, for example, কাকতলা (incident) is written as "kākotôlā" but pronounced as "kāktôlā".

Similarly, in many other consonant clusters, the second consonant is silent.

Thai has adeep orthography like English and French. Unlike the two languages, however, theThai script is anabugida rather than a true alphabet. Nonetheless, silent consonants, vowels, and even syllables are common in Thai. Thai has many loanwords from Sanskrit andPali, and rather than spell aforementioned words according to Thai phonics, the script tends to maintain the etymological spellings. For example, a romanization of the word ประโยชน์ that reflects Thai orthography isprayochṅ, but it would be pronounced asprayot, where the extra letter for-n is completely silent.^[18] Another example is the Thai word มนตร์, which is sometimes written asmantra like it would be in Sanskrit, but it is only pronouncedmon in Thai. Though the second syllable is pronounced in Sanskrit, it is completely absent when pronouncing the word in Thai. In such words, the diacritic◌์, known asthanthakhat (Thai:ทัณฑฆาต), is used to mark silent letters.

Also, different letters can be used for the same sound (for example, [tʰ] can be spelled asฐ,ฑ,ฒ,ถ,ท, orธ) depending on which class the consonant is, which is important for knowing which tone the syllable will have, and whether or not it is a loanword from Sanskrit or Pali. However, some letters written before low class consonants become silent and turn the low class syllable into a high class one. For example, even though the high class letterho hipห is used to write the sound /h/, if the letter comes before a low class letter in a syllable, the letter will becomeho nam, which will make the letter silent and it will turn the syllable into a high class syllable. For example, the wordนา is a low class syllable because its initial consonant is a low class consonant. The syllable is pronounced/nā:/ (with a long vowel and mid tone) and it means "field". However, the wordหนา is a high class syllable, despite it containing a low class consonant in theonset. The syllable is pronounced/nǎ:/ (with a long vowel and a rising tone) and it means "thick".

Like Thai,Lao also has a letter that becomes silent if it comes before a low class consonant. The letter isho sung ຫ, which would represent the sound /h/ if it were not paired with another low class consonant. However, unlike Thai, the digraphs beginning with the aforementioned letter can sometimes be written as aligature.

In thestandard Zhuang language, written in the Latin script, the last letter of every syllable is typically silent due to it representing the tone of the syllable. The digraphs mb and nd also have silent letters, representing the phonemes ɓ and ɗ respectively.

In theHangul Orthography of theKorean language, the letter ⟨ㅇ⟩ is silent when written in the syllable-initial position, and represents the sound /ŋ/ when written in the syllable-final position. For example, in the word 안녕 (Yale Romanization:annyeng) (meaning "hello"), composed of the letters "ㅇㅏㄴㄴㅕㅇ", the first ⟨ㅇ⟩ is silent, and the last ⟨ㅇ⟩ is pronounced as /ŋ/. The reason for this can be found in 15th-century Hangul orthography. In the 15th century, the letter ⟨ㅇ⟩ originally represented /∅~ɣ/ (alenited form of ㄱ /k/), while the letter ⟨ㆁ⟩ unconditionally represented /ŋ/. But because in Middle Korean phonology, ⟨ㆁ⟩ was not allowed in syllable-initial position, and ⟨ㅇ⟩ was not allowed in syllable-final position, it formed a complementary distribution of the two letters. Because of this and due to the fact that the letters look very much alike, the two letters merged.^[19]

Korean's syllable structure is CGVC, and Korean's writing system,Hangul, reflects this structure. The only possible consonant cluster in a single syllable must contain aglide and they must occur in theonset. However, sometimes a cluster of two consonants are written after the vowel in a syllable. In such situations, if the next syllable begins with a vowel sound, then the second consonant becomes the first sound of the next syllable. However, if the next syllable begins with a consonant sound, then one of the consonants in the cluster will be silent (sometimes causingfortition in the following consonant). For example, the word 얇다 (meaning "thin") is written as (Yale:yalp.ta), but the word is pronounced as if it was writtenyal.tta because the second syllable begins with a consonant sound. However, the word 얇아서 (also meaning "thin") is written as (Yale:yalp.a.se) and it is pronounced asyal.pa.se because the second syllable begins with a vowel sound.^[20]

Interestingly, the nativeMongolian script has much moreorthographic depth thanMongolian Cyrillic. For example, the letterGh orγ (ᠭ) is silent if it is between two of the same vowel letters. In that case, the silent consonant letter combines to two written vowel into one long vowel. For example, the Mongolian wordQaγan (ᠬᠠᠭᠠᠨ) should be pronouncedQaan (ᠬᠠᠠᠨ). In Mongolian Cyrillic, however, it is spelledхаан (haan), closer to the actual pronunciation of the word. Words in the Mongolian script can also have silent vowels as well. For Mongolian name of the cityHohhot, it is spelledKökeqota (ᠬᠥᠬᠡᠬᠣᠲᠠ) in Mongolian script, but in Cyrillic, it is spelledХөх хот (Höh hot), closer towards the actual pronunciation of the word.

In Basque, during the 20th century⟨h⟩ was not used in the orthography of the Basque dialects in Spain but it marked an aspiration in the North-Eastern dialects. During the standardization of Basque in the 1970s, the compromise was reached that⟨h⟩ would be accepted if it were the first consonant in a syllable. Hence,herri ("people") andetorri ("to come") were accepted instead oferri (Biscayan) andethorri (Souletin). Speakers could pronounce the h or not. For the dialects lacking the aspiration, this meant a complication added to the standardized spelling.

• Apheresis (linguistics)
• Elision
• Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages, explains rules of Modern Indo-Aryan languages that delete the schwa sound.
• Silent e
• Silent k
• Syncope (phonology)
• Three-letter rule, the source of some common English silent letters.

• Silent letters
• Spelling
• English orthography
• Silence

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