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Comment by qu4z-2 | Hacker News Reader

What a coincidence that English manages fine with just the letters in ASCII.

Seriously though, what definition of "special Latin characters" are you using? Italian does just fine with fewer...

G, J, K, U, W, Y, and Z are all characters that aren't used in Latin (in the case of G, J, U, and W, because they didn't exist; in the case of Y, it is used in Greek words but doesn't represent a sound that's possible in Latin; I'm not sure if Z was used in Greek words or not. K is just a Greek letter -- since it represents the sound written with C in Latin, it is never used at all).

Sure about the G?

Hardly.

See https://la.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaius_Iulius_Caesar

Latin wikipedia isn't exactly an ancient source. Without bothering to read the article, why do you think it has a subhead of "Fontes_de_vita_C._Iulii_Caesaris_praecipui"?

I'll take this cum cranulo salis.

You think "cum granulo salis" is evidence for G being an original part of the Latin alphabet, while not being evidence that U was an original part of the Latin alphabet?

Sure, G wasn't "originally" part of the Latin alphabet—until they invented that letter.

What do you think makes G different from J and U in that regard?

Timing. Where do you think G slots in the timeline, relative to the Latin classics?

G dates to the classical period. But, as I pointed out above, it's still intrusive enough then that Caesar's praenomen, Gaius, is written C, not G. The name is older than the letter, but younger than Latin writing.

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