Who invented the alphabet?
A fascinating subject, and there&#x27;s an extension of it about which I&#x27;ve been curious for years, it&#x27;s why English doesn&#x27;t use diacritics or accents on alphabetical characters as do many European languages—French, German, etc. For instance, in French the letter <i>&#x27;e&#x27;</i> can take four forms—without accent, grave <i>è,</i> acute&#x2F;aigu <i>é,</i> circumflex <i>ê.</i> This makes the letter much more flexible and greatly assists with pronunciation.<p>So why doesn&#x27;t English use them? It&#x27;s clear the language needs them with words such as <i>through, thorough</i> and <i>thought</i> which are confusing enough for native speakers let alone those learning English as a second language. And how about inconsistencies such as the verb  <i>to lead</i> and the metal Pb <i>lead,</i> or other strange <i>&#x27;gh&#x27;</i> words such as <i>cough?</i><p>Similarly, proper nouns such as <i>Wycombe, Warwick,</i> etc. defy logic when it comes to pronunciation and would greatly benefit from diacritical marks.<p>I&#x27;ve never considered myself a particularly good speller and I reckon I would have benefited from diacritics had English used them.