kn-

kn-

an initial combination common to all the Teutonic langs. and still retained by most. In English, the k is now silent, alike in educated speech and in most of the dialects; but it was pronounced app. till about middle of the 17th c. In the later 17th and early 18th c., writers on pronunciation give the value of the combination as = hn, tn, dn or simple n. The last was prob. quite established in Standard English by 1750. The k is still pronounced in some Scottish dialects; in others the guttural is assimilated to the dental, making tn-, esp. after vowels, as a tnife, my tnee.