English is atypical in its irregular pronunciation rules IMO. At least compared to Latin languages. And it doesn't have accents that change the pronunciation in otherwise similar words.
As such, people are aware that you just have to know how to pronounce every particular word, rather than relying solely on orthography.
Anyway, your example isn't very good: "light" and "lite" are homophonous anyway.
A better one would be "calm". The "l" is almost mute. Presumably, one could "simplify" the orthography to "cam". And you would pronounce "kom" or "kam" according to context.
I claim one of the pronunciations would eventually disappear, sooner or later.
If you're asking for a "scientific study", I don't have one and I don't even know where such a thing can be found.
But the country I'm from has had 3 orthographic reforms in the 20th century. The last one being all about removing supposed "mute" consonants - but which acted like accents in that they altered pronunciation of the word.
As such, people are aware that you just have to know how to pronounce every particular word, rather than relying solely on orthography.
Anyway, your example isn't very good: "light" and "lite" are homophonous anyway.
A better one would be "calm". The "l" is almost mute. Presumably, one could "simplify" the orthography to "cam". And you would pronounce "kom" or "kam" according to context.
I claim one of the pronunciations would eventually disappear, sooner or later.
If you're asking for a "scientific study", I don't have one and I don't even know where such a thing can be found.
But the country I'm from has had 3 orthographic reforms in the 20th century. The last one being all about removing supposed "mute" consonants - but which acted like accents in that they altered pronunciation of the word.