FTA: the Old English runic alphabet, Futhark.

It died out because you had to pay 5 groats a month to use the total alphabet.

Suck my ÆØÅ  

also

For example, in Year 1 that useless letter c would be dropped to be replased either by k or s, and likewise x would no longer be part of the alphabet. The only kase in which c would be retained would be the ch formation, which will be dealt with later.

Year 2 might reform w spelling, so that which and one would take the same konsonant, wile Year 3 might well abolish y replasing it with i and Iear 4 might fiks the g/j anomali wonse and for all.

Jenerally, then, the improvement would kontinue iear bai iear with Iear 5 doing awai with useless double konsonants, and Iears 6-12 or so modifaiing vowlz and the rimeining voist and unvoist konsonants.

Bai Iear 15 or sou, it wud fainali bi posibl tu meik ius ov thi ridandant letez c, y and x - bai now jast a memori in the maindz ov ould doderez - tu riplais ch, sh, and th rispektivli.

Fainali, xen, aafte sam 20 iers ov orxogrefkl riform, wi wud hev a lojikl, kohirnt speling in ius xrewawt xe Ingliy-spiking werld.

/Mark Twain, I think

Ostman: flaminio: There are still too many letters. C, Q, and X are obvious candidates for elimination -- each of those can be replaced by other letters (k & s for c; kw for q, z and ks for x).

C is interesting. The alphabet came to us from the Greeks via the Etruscans and then the Romans (among others). The Greeks used the third letter for the g sound (gamma), which the Etruscans didn't have, so they used the letter for the k sound. When the Romans inherited it from them they did have a k sound and used the third letter for that.

Then they needed a letter for the g sound so they took the shape of the existing c and just added line facing back into the curve, which is why a capital G looks sort of like a capital C. There's more to it than that but that's the jist of it.

/the more I learn about the alphabet, the more interesting it gets.
//how would you spell "change" without a c?

Obama?

I only respect languages which include bilabial fricatives and/or alveolar clicks.

I'm pumped about ethel.