Thread by @Lg_on_the_Move

Do you think #English is a linguistic juggernaut?

You're right but spare a thought for the #Latin #alphabet - the greatest linguistic superpower of all times

More #languages and people use the #Latin #script than all other scripts combined

#Languages that use the #Latin script have official or co-official status in many countries around the world

And the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals from 1968 ensures a prominent presence of the #Latin #alphabet in public spaces around the world

And the code behind all those #language-independent #emojis is ... yet again ... the #Latin #alphabet

What are the reasons for the ubiquity of the #Latin #alphabet?

❌ It's simply the best
✅ It 1st spread with the Roman Empire
✅ Next it piggy-backed onto #Christianity
✅ It got a huge leg up with European #colonialism

Applying the 23 letters of the classical #Latin #alphabet to the different #phonology of all kinds of other #languages was never going to be easy

#English, for instance, has 19 vowels and 24 consonants

23 letters > 43 phonemes ⁉️⁉️⁉️

The choice of the #Latin #alphabet as the script of a #language usually has nothing to do with #linguistic rationality

To find out more: this lecture explains the spread of the #Latin #alphabet and the linguistic consequences of transferring it to #languages other than Latin, with a special focus on #English spelling

And if you are particularly interested in the weirdness of #English #spelling, head to this blog post:

languageonthemove.com/is-english-spe…