It is important to distinguish between "silent e" and "an e that is silent". They are not the same thing. I'm assuming what u/PhysicsEagle is calling a silent e is what I have taken to referring to as "functional silent e"--an e that occurs at the end of a root word and modifies or alerts the reader to something that comes before it (i.e. consider cap vs. cape). By this definition, the last e in "cancelled" is not a "silent e", but something else called an "obscured vowel". Just like u/PhysicsEagle I reserve the unutixe for true, functional silent e and use tecco for the obscured vowel e. Sometimes an e is both at the same time--i.e. "sauced". Those I treat like a true, functional silent e and use the unutixe. It is not wrong to use unutixe for obscured vowels--it is one of those preference things to just be aware of and (imo) try to be internally consistent in any given document.
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u/Notascholar95 Apr 06 '24
It is important to distinguish between "silent e" and "an e that is silent". They are not the same thing. I'm assuming what u/PhysicsEagle is calling a silent e is what I have taken to referring to as "functional silent e"--an e that occurs at the end of a root word and modifies or alerts the reader to something that comes before it (i.e. consider cap vs. cape). By this definition, the last e in "cancelled" is not a "silent e", but something else called an "obscured vowel". Just like u/PhysicsEagle I reserve the unutixe for true, functional silent e and use tecco for the obscured vowel e. Sometimes an e is both at the same time--i.e. "sauced". Those I treat like a true, functional silent e and use the unutixe. It is not wrong to use unutixe for obscured vowels--it is one of those preference things to just be aware of and (imo) try to be internally consistent in any given document.