# A different silent letter question

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-silent-letter-question/53110
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 4, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-silent-letter-question/53110 "2001-02-04T16:31:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![warmgun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecccb3/32.png) [@warmgun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/warmgun)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2001, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-silent-letter-question/53110/1 "2001-02-04T16:31:27Z")

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Rather than hi-jacking an ongoing thread, I pose this:  
How do we know how words were pronounced in the middle ages and why a general “prounciation shift”?

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### Author: ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [February 4, 2001, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-different-silent-letter-question/53110/2 "2001-02-04T17:25:26Z")

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One way would be to look at old poems. By looking at the rhyme scheme you can tell which words have endings that have the same pronounciation, and you have their spellings. So you can identify whether trailing e’s were pronounced for instance.