Missing letters in alphabets
By EnslinPorter
@EnslinPorter (1718)
Philippines
March 27, 2010 12:35pm CST
Hi everyone! 
I've been trying to learn or at least get some bits about different languages. I notice that basing from the English alphabet, some languages don't have some letters from the English alphabet.
I am a Filipino and in our language, we don't have the letters c, f, j, q, v, x, and z. We get to pronounce j and q with clusters. The j sound would be "dy", q sound would be "ky", and x sound with "ks". For f, we usually substitute p. So does b with v. These make it hard for most Filipinos to improve English pronunciation. The Japanese have no l in their language because it is somehow similar with r. It is related to their way of pronouncing it. Also, I notice that the Russian language has no h unless I am mistaken. I have only been learning new things about the Russian language. They say the Chinese has no r. Mandarin actually has the r sound while I think the Cantonese dialect doesn't.
Does your language miss some letters in comparison to the English language? Do you have some ways to pronounce those letters like dipthongs or clusters?
Thanks for reading and have a nice day! 
I've been trying to learn or at least get some bits about different languages. I notice that basing from the English alphabet, some languages don't have some letters from the English alphabet.
I am a Filipino and in our language, we don't have the letters c, f, j, q, v, x, and z. We get to pronounce j and q with clusters. The j sound would be "dy", q sound would be "ky", and x sound with "ks". For f, we usually substitute p. So does b with v. These make it hard for most Filipinos to improve English pronunciation. The Japanese have no l in their language because it is somehow similar with r. It is related to their way of pronouncing it. Also, I notice that the Russian language has no h unless I am mistaken. I have only been learning new things about the Russian language. They say the Chinese has no r. Mandarin actually has the r sound while I think the Cantonese dialect doesn't.
Does your language miss some letters in comparison to the English language? Do you have some ways to pronounce those letters like dipthongs or clusters?
Thanks for reading and have a nice day! 5 responses
@BL4CK_W0LF (214)
• United States
27 Mar 10
I'm an anglophone but i do take up and speak other languages. chiefly Romantic and Germanic. those languages either encompass most or extra letters. German has more letters but all of the English ones. Latin is missing 3 i think. I'm too lazy to go back to research.
i dont think it's accurate to compare a non-Germanic or non-Romantic language to English. They are far too different, becuase of the culture, the people, the geography (like Western/Eastern Norse), and pronunciation, etc. "Asian" languages are so different even from each other, but a pure anglophone or germanophone would say that (traditional) Chinese, Mandarin, or Japanese look and/or sound the same. But in the ears/eyes of those native speakers, Chines, Mandarin, and Japanese are COMPLETELY different languages, involving a whole different set of words, characters, and constuction, etc. It's just too different.
Besides, there are but so many syllables and sounds a human can make. how they go about doing that varies from people to people.
i'd say more but... meh.
i'm studying to be a Linguist... *sigh*...
@EnslinPorter (1718)
• Philippines
27 Mar 10
Hi Bl4ck_wolf. Thanks for your response!
I can't help but compare languages to the English language because of it being the international standard. You are totally right that it wouldn't be accurate to compare those languages because they actually sound different depending on the native speaker and the foreigner. It's amazing how many sounds a human can make.
Wow, you are studying to be a linguist? That sounds great. 
I like studying and learning about different languages. I also am sort of nitpicky when it comes to grammar and translation. I think I should have become a linguist instead of my current profession, hehehe... :P
I can't help but compare languages to the English language because of it being the international standard. You are totally right that it wouldn't be accurate to compare those languages because they actually sound different depending on the native speaker and the foreigner. It's amazing how many sounds a human can make.
Wow, you are studying to be a linguist? That sounds great. I like studying and learning about different languages. I also am sort of nitpicky when it comes to grammar and translation. I think I should have become a linguist instead of my current profession, hehehe... :P@BL4CK_W0LF (214)
• United States
27 Mar 10
Hello EnslinPorter, glad you liked the response.
Yeah learning languages can be hectic for me becuase you cant always think about them logically. its spoken/written this way becuase it just is. Blah blah blahhhh.
yeah i'm studying linguistics. its a demanding course but i will benefit from it. i enjoy doing it.
lol you are nitpicky but i think thats necessary sometimes. Thanks for the feedback
@Beautyfactor (1512)
•
27 Mar 10
My first language is English but I also speak spanish and we have an extra letter. After the n we have a ñ (pronounced en-yeh). Until recently we also had the Ll (pronounced as a y) but that is now not a seperate letter.
@EnslinPorter (1718)
• Philippines
27 Mar 10
Hi! Thanks for your response! Our country was colonized by the Spaniards for 300 years in the 19th century and as a result, we got to incorporate ñ in our language too. Oh, ll is now separate. Thanks for sharing that. I find it weird sometimes that ll can be read as el-ye and just as y. I believe it's also pronounced as "zh" in Argentina. I was confused at first why they had different pronunciations. ^.^' Thanks again and have a nice day!
Our country was colonized by the Spaniards for 300 years in the 19th century and as a result, we got to incorporate ñ in our language too. Oh, ll is now separate. Thanks for sharing that. I find it weird sometimes that ll can be read as el-ye and just as y. I believe it's also pronounced as "zh" in Argentina. I was confused at first why they had different pronunciations. ^.^' Thanks again and have a nice day! 
@zeroflashx2 (2491)
• Philippines
29 Mar 10
I can read and speak Korean. Korean or Hangul, doesn't specifially have letters such as f, q or x but with proper combinations of the letters and how they are spelled out or arranged, it can be pronounced as such. For example, let's use the letter f.
Hangul doesn't have a direct equivalent for the letter f but they can write a double p to make it sound like an f (or what they usually call an aspirated p meaning more air comes out from your mouth when you pronounce it). Unfortunately, I can't type in Korean characters here even with help of a software I usually use so I can illustrate how. But that's basically how the Korean alphabet works.
@phoenix8606 (4942)
•
27 Mar 10
hell0! yes, there are missing some letters and also some sounds(phonemes) in many languages, and those with the missing phonemes are called "poor" languages, where people can hard pronounce some letters and phonemes from foreign languages. in my language there are for an example 30 letters and about 36 phonemes and actually we don't have any problems to pronounce the letters and phonemes of many languages. and how many letters there are in Filipino???
@EnslinPorter (1718)
• Philippines
27 Mar 10
Thanks for your response and sharing new information phoenix8606! Wow, that's new information for me to learn that your language has 30 letter and 36 phonemes. The old Filipino alphabet has the following letters: a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y. The Modern Filipino alphabet actually is the same with English (including the omitted letters I posted from the question) and added with the ñ and ng letters. Because most speak informal combination of English and Filipino (Taglish), we have been getting used to sounds we don't usually have in our alphabet.
Wow, that's new information for me to learn that your language has 30 letter and 36 phonemes. The old Filipino alphabet has the following letters: a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y. The Modern Filipino alphabet actually is the same with English (including the omitted letters I posted from the question) and added with the ñ and ng letters. Because most speak informal combination of English and Filipino (Taglish), we have been getting used to sounds we don't usually have in our alphabet. 
@achilles2010 (3051)
• India
30 Mar 10
Hi EnslinPorter, I am from India and it is a land of many languages and dialects. Devnagari script is the origin of every language spoken here. This scrip has all the alphabet a human mouth can emanate. However, this does not make those who are proficient in Hindi or the languages spoken in Devnagari script proficient in English as well. English language has fewer alphabets and those alphabets represent fewer sounds as may be used to form a word. The language English is more expressive than any other language and it sounds melodious too. It is not only pleasant to the ears but it is impressive too. I have concluded that having more alphabets in any language is not advantageous at all. I feel more alphabets make a language drab. After all, you need seven notes only to create music. I think the notes we use in music are only pure sounds. Therefore, if we use only pure sound in any language it would turn musical too.
