Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Silent English alphabet

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Those arguing to keep this have not demonstrated that the subject forms a cohesive whole that is clearly distinct from Silent letter and several other articles. I would be happy to refund this to the userspace of anyone who wishes to work on it further, or who wishes to develop content towards a merger. Vanamonde (talk) 12:57, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Silent English alphabet

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Article appears to be mostly original research based on a single source. Most of the claimed "silent" letters are actually part of dipthongs or digraphs. BilCat (talk) 07:23, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

As the person who put up the page originally, I can confirm that there is no original research here, just material put together from the main cited source and other websites where I found related information. I didn't cite them all because I thought a page only required a minimum of one citation-- I see lots of pages with only one source. I have no connection to the source, it was just something I came across and thought should be on Wikipedia. I am very interested in alphabets (like the Cockney alphabet or the military alphabet), and I know I'm not alone in this, and it struck me that this was exactly the kind of thing I go looking for on Wikipedia. Like the List of names in English with counterintuitive pronunciations, which also links from the Silent letter page. It seemed a courtesy to Wikipedia users to make a separate list-like page rather than make the Silent letter page any longer by adding more examples.That said, I don't have a strong stake in how this goes down because I don't really understand the rationale for taking down a page that is properly sourced, that has been up since 2016, and that seems to have attracted a lot of interest in the form of edits. Valli Nagy 22:17, 19 December 2018 (UTC)

The main problem is that, as a whole, the article is Original Research and Synthesis. The initial sourced content could probably be a paragraph in another article, such as Silent letter, but I haven't checked that article to see if it would be appropriate, or if it's even there already. What you have done with this article is started with a concept, and then apparently did your own research to put together your own list. That is OR and synthesis. It may be interesting, and even fun, but it's not really encyclopedic, and I doubt a such a list ever will be. I'm not addressing whether or not the articles you copied the format are properly sourced or encyclopedic either, as that's not relevant to this discussion. My hunch is that they aren't. - BilCat (talk) 07:41, 20 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Language-related deletion discussions. Jack Frost (talk) 07:34, 15 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Delete per WP:INDISCRIMINATE. Silent letter already exists; this page simply lists examples. Cnilep (talk) 02:42, 16 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Delete i googled but it isn't returning anything instructive, notability isn't established in my mind. This may be OR or a word game I can't find. Szzuk (talk) 20:23, 19 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Keep ~~Rename~~. I have rewritten the article to focus on the historical reasons for widespread use of silent letters in English. I believe it should be renamed to allow users to find it. The proposed name is TBD. More than four sources have been added. I paired down the number of examples per letter with the goal of eliminating any diphthongs as silent letters. The remaining examples are taken from the Merriam-Webster reference, except as noted, and also except Milngavie which came from Wikipedia. Handkerchief is from the Merriam-Webster reference list. The remaining digraphs appear to result in one of the letters being truly silent. I look forward to your interpretations. I believe this should be associated with the silent letter article because this list points out the totality of silent letter use in English. The list also belongs in the category Lists of English words with uncommon properties. Regarding notability, I have found similar lists of words on websites by the Oxford University Press, Slippery Rock University, the ELT (English Language Teaching) Journal, and Merriam-Webster (the last two are sources of this article). In addition, there are a half dozen or so ESL and other teaching websites with lists such as this one. Overjive (talk) 09:08, 20 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Delete as it stands the article does not make it obvious that it is based on a subset of American English. Readers from outside the US, particularly if non-native speakers, will be mislead or puzzled by some of the words included. It is highly contrived; for instance "v" which relies on a Scots word and a pronunciation of 5d/5p which is unknown outside the US. You would do better to apply some of the research to the main Silent letter page as an illustration rather than this stand alone page. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:17, 21 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I modified the article to further highlight the use of US spelling and pronunciation in the list. You mention "a pronunciation of 5d/5p", and I have not been able to track down what the meaning of that. Is there a URL (or other info) that would clarify that description? Also, the article for Milngavie uses UK spelling, so if there is a more suitable pronunciation I will note that on the talk page of that article. Cheers, Overjive (talk) 05:41, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

"5d" is the pre-decimal way of writing five pence, "5p" is the post-decimal way. Since you don't use pennies (as an official name at least) in the US, one assumes you were thinking of the UK currency unit. I can assure you that the "v" is definitely pronounced. The article on Milngavie may use English spelling, as does that on Beijing, but neither name is an English word. Using foreign words to illustrate English silent letters seems to me, at leat, to be a poor example. Martin of Sheffield (talk) 10:31, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

To clarify, every letter except "v" has an entry from the following source by Merriam-Webster: Every Letter Is Silent, Sometimes. Overjive (talk) 17:01, 21 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Delete on account of lack of verifiable sources supporting the notability of the subject. The text reads as original work, which could perhaps be corrected if sources were available. As things stand, there is no encyclopaedic interest in this entry. Wikipedia is not an indiscriminate depository of information nor a a scientific journal. -The Gnome (talk) 11:18, 24 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.