Writing system

Since around the 9th century, English has been written in the Latin script, which replaced Anglo-Saxon runes. The spelling system, or orthography, is multilayered, with elements of French, Latin and Greek spelling on top of the native Germanic system; this means that English spelling is not a reliable indicator of pronunciation and vice versa.
Though letters and sounds may not correspond in isolation, spelling rules that take into account syllable structure, phonetics, and accents are 75% or more reliable. However, English has fewer consistent relationships between sounds and letters than many other languages; for example, the letter sequence ough can be pronounced in 10 different ways. The consequence of this complex orthographic history is that reading can be challenging.
It takes longer for students to become completely fluent readers of English than of many other languages, including French, Greek, and Spanish. (Professor Philip H K Seymour, University of Dundee, 2001).
The modern English alphabet contains 26 letters of the Latin script.
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