Q is superfluous, cw or kw being its equivalent.
X also is superfluous, ks, gz, or z, being equivalent to it.
The diphthongal forms æ and œ, as in Æneas and Crœsus, except in the way of etymology, are superfluous and redundant.
[§ 156]. Unsteadiness.—Here we have (amongst many
other examples), 1. The consonant c with the double power of s and k; 2. g with its sound in gun and also with its sound in gin; 3. x with its sounds in Alexander, apoplexy, Xenophon.
In the foregoing examples a single sign has a double power; in the words Philip and filip, &c.; a single sound has a double sign.
In respect to the degree wherein the English orthography is made subservient to etymology, it is sufficient to repeat the statement that as many as three letters c, æ, and œ are retained in the alphabet for etymological purposes only.
[§ 157]. The defects noticed in the preceding sections are absolute defects, and would exist, as they do at present, were there no language in the world except the English. This is not the case with those that are now about to be noticed; for them, indeed, the word defect is somewhat too strong a term. They may more properly be termed inconveniences.
Compared with the languages of the rest of the world the use of many letters in the English alphabet is singular. The letter i (when long or independent) is, with the exception of England, generally sounded as ee. With Englishmen it has a diphthongal power. The inconvenience of this is the necessity that it imposes upon us, in studying foreign languages, of unlearning the sound which we give it in our own, and of learning the sound which it bears in the language studied. So it is (amongst many others) with the letter j. In English this has the sound of dzh, in French of zh, and in German of y. From singularity in the use of letters arises inconvenience in the study of foreign tongues.
In using j as dzh there is a second objection. It is not only inconvenient, but it is theoretically incorrect.