Unit 2. Silent letters ‘gh’, ‘g’, ‘h’. Linguistic commentary on the unit.

1. Silent ‘gh’.

Letters ‘gh’ are silent in the following combinations:

1. in the combination ‘-igh(t)’: high, sigh, thigh, bright, fight, fright, night, knight, light, might, plight, right, sight, slight, tight and some others;

2. in the combination ‘-eigh(t)’: sleigh, weigh, neighbour, eight, height, weight, etc.;

3. in the combination ‘-aight’: straight;

4. in the combination ‘-aught’: caught, daughter, fraught, haughty, naughty, slaughter, taught;

5. in the combination ‘-ough(t)’: bough, dough, plough, thorough, though, through, besought, bought, brought, fought, ought, sought, thought, wrought.

NB! Letter combination ‘gh’ is also silent in all the inflected and derived forms of the words above: nightingale, frightful, weighty, etc.

2. Silent ‘g’.

Letter ‘g’ is silent in the following combinations:

1. ‘gn-’ when it stands at the beginning of a word: gnat, gnaw, gnarl, gnash, gnome, gnostic, gnu;

2. ‘-gm’ and ‘-ign’ at the end of words: paradigm, diaphragm, phlegm, sovereign, foreign, sign, assign, design, resign, campaign, reign, malign;

3. ‘-gn-’ in the middle of the following words: champagne, physiognomy, signor(a), chignon, cognac. These words are an exception rather than a rule;

4. in the inflected and derived forms of the words mentioned above: designer, maligner, etc.

However, in some derivatives ‘g’ is always audible in its medial position: malignant, resignation, signify, signal, pragmatic, phlegmatic, agnostic, etc.

Medially it is always pronounced in ‘gn’: dignity, diagnosis, cognitive, magnet, stagnation, magnificent, recognize, etc.

In the word poignant we deal with the fluctuation between [gn] and [n].

3. Silent ‘h’.

   1. Letter ‘h’ is silent initially in:

1. the following words: hour, honest, heir, honour;

2. letter combination ‘exh-’: exhaust, exhibit, exhilarate, exhort;

3. letter combination ‘gh-’: ghastly (and aghast though here the combination is used medially), ghost, ghetto;

4. letter combination ‘kh-’: khaki, khan, Khart(o)um, Sakhalin;

5. some words starting with the letter combination ‘th-’: thyme, Thomas, Theresa, Thames, Thomson;

6. letter combination ‘rh-’: rhododendron, rhinoceros, rheumatism, Rhodesia, rhythm, rhyme, rhapsody, Rhone, rhetoric, rhomb, Rhine;

7. letter combination ‘wh-’: whale, wheat, what, while, why, when, whang, whey, wharf, whence, white, whimsical, whelm, wheel, which, where, whim, whiz, whine, whimper, whisky, whiff, wheeze, whit, whether, whistle, whip, whirl, whisker, wham. However, ‘h’ is not silent (because ‘w’ is silent) in words: who, whom, whose, whole, whore, whooping-cough.

1. Letter ‘h’ is silent medially:

1. in the following words with the letter combination ‘th-’: Mathilda, Anthony, Esther;

2. between a stressed and unstressed vowels: Graham, annihilate, vehicle, rehabilitate, vehement, Sahib;

3. between a consonant and an unstressed vowel: Singhalese, silhouette, gingham, forehead, saccharine, shepherd, spaghetti, Fahrenheit, burgher, Birmingham, Tottenham, Buckingham, Durham, Berkhamsted, Nottingham and some others.

1. Letter ‘h’ is silent finally:

1. in the letter combination ‘rh-’: catarrh;

2. after vowels ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘o’: hurrah, etc.

NB! Letter ‘h’ is also silent in inflected and derived forms: whipping, vehemence, aghast, exhibition, meanwhile, etc.