Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Au contraire!

On Fri, Jan 22, 2010 at 10:44 AM, Stoney Breyer <
stoneyb AT touchwoodcreative.com> wrote:

>
> I might point out, by the way, that there's nothing wrong with the English
> alphabet; it's English orthography that's the problem. And even that is of
> some value to students of older dialects or of other Germanic languages.
>
> Stoney Breyer
> Writer/Touchwood Creative
>
> For an alphabet that claims to be phonemic, it is remarkably deficient.
>From other sources I learn that there are 46 phonemes in the English
language (some will question the exact number, but for discussion…), but
there are only 26 letters in the alphabet. Some of the missing phonemes are
addressed by combinations of letters, others by having letters stand for
multiple phonemes. A truly phonemic alphabet would have a one-to-one
relationship between letters and phonemes.

Let’s not get started on orthography…   ;-)

Karl W. Randolph.