Recently at work the question of the weeks on the whiteboard at the Augusta center was
In the word scent, which letter is silent the "S" or the "C".
My initial thought was the letter "S" is silent because we have the word cent and the "C" makes the "S" sound in it so therefore we don't need the "S". Then it occurred to me that we have the word sent where the "S" makes the "S" sound and the letter "C" is silent.
Scent, Cent, & Sent all sound the same, all mean something different.
It got me thinking deeper about the letter "C" and the sounds that is makes and that it doesn't make it's own sound, it just copies other letters.
C makes an "s" sounds like in cent, cellphone, and cinnamon, really you could spell all of those words with an "S" and people would know what they are.
C makes a "k" sounds like in common, can, and cantaloupe, once again we can spell them with a "K" and would be good to go.
C doesn't have it own unique sound as it stand alone. You put an "h" with it though and now you've got "CH" and it makes a "cha" sound like in charge, charity, chug. Wait, can't replace "c" in chug with an "S" then it would be a "sha" sounds, so those words don't make sense.
Then there is cello and ocean where the "C" on it's own makes the "CH" sounds, so why don't we spell those with and H.
And while I was thinking about this "S" on it's own in the name Sean makes the "SH" sound.
Which leads me to the conclusion that the English language is fucking dumb.
