英语单词,不发音的的词尾e,起什么作用?要是哟高手能从构词法的角度解释下就好了。

the in "bathe,breaghe,loathe,wreathe..."not only marks the vowel as long but marks the last consonant as "voiced"rather than the "voiceless"one in "bath,breath,loath,wreath..."Other examples are "lathe,lithe,swathe".Mouth and smooth used as verbs lack this marking.
The markerin "browse,copse,lapse,please,tease,tense" is used to prevent vonfusion wyth the plural forms "brows, cops,laps,pleas,teas,tens". It mardk the browde group as single units and as such is called "lexical"
摘自《language myths》——myth 5——English spelling is kattastroffik

如一楼所说,主要有两种作用：
1.
字母e在单词结尾表明该看词是开音节,单词的最后一个辅音发浊音.如1楼提到的单词bathe中辅音th发浊音,而bath没有e,th发清音.
2.
与一些单词的复数区分,如browse与brows区分,copse与cops区分等