出典:Wikipedia
出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/07/05 13:44 UTC 版)
Silent e is a writing convention in English spelling. A silent letter e at the end of a word often signals a specific pronunciation of the preceding vowel letter, as in the difference between "rid" /ˈrɪd/ and "ride" /ˈraɪd/. This orthographic pattern followed the phonological changes of the Great Vowel Shift in late Middle English. This difference is often described with the terms "short vowel" and "long vowel," even though the differences are in sound rather than duration. The terms originated in studies of the Great Vowel Shift, where the differences in vowel length were actual differences in duration. Analysis of common spellings and pronunciations shows that the "silent e" most often—but not without exceptions—signals a different phoneme than a word spelled without it.