Hmmm. Maybe there's a room where the silent letters go, next to the room with the letters that should be silent but get pronounced, are having a party. It is so ironic that people who are trying to sound well-educated will carefully pronounce "often" as off-ten when the "t" is actually silent; it rhymes with "soften" (which no one would pronounce soff-ten; at least I've never heard it!) So there you go; no answers, just more questions... :0)