How are these to be expressed? The rule has hitherto been to denote simple single sounds, by simple single signs, and where such signs have no existence already, to originate new ones.
To combine existing letters, rather than to coin a new one, has only been done rarely. The Latin substitution
of the combination th for the simple single θ, was exceptionable. It was a precedent, however, which now begins to be followed generally.
[§ 171]. It is this precedent which accounts for the absence of any letter in English, expressive of either of the sounds in question.
[§ 172]. Furthermore, our alphabet has not only not increased in proportion to our sound-system, but it has decreased. The Anglo-Saxon þ = the th in thin, and ð = the th in thine, have become obsolete; and a difference in pronunciation, which our ancestors expressed, we overlook.
The same precedent is at the bottom of this; a fact which leads us to—
[§ 173]. The Anglo-Norman alphabet.—The Anglo-Saxon language was Gothic; the alphabet, Roman.
The Anglo-Norman language was Roman; the alphabet, Roman also.
The Anglo-Saxon took his speech from one source; his writing from another.
The Anglo-Norman took both from the same.