Consonant cluster simplification
Historical sound change when one consonant in a difficult consonant cluster is lost.
Historically, they were pronounced as written, but slowly the sound evolved to ignore the difficult consonant cluster - but the spelling did not update.
| Written as | Pronounced as |
|---|---|
| kn | n |
| wr | r |
| gn | n |
| mn | n |
Homophones
| Word a | word b |
|---|---|
| dam | damn |
| rap | wrap |
| ad | add |
| nap | knap |
| rack | wrack |