--- In qalam@yahoogroups.com, "Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@...> wrote:

> i18n@... wrote:
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> ? Since the vast majority of humans have never been literate, it would
> be quite difficult for a writing system to have any but the slightest
> effect on its language.

Even American English?

And a great deal of vocabulary (especially ours) is due to the writing
system!

Are you sure English /h/ is retained and not restored? The /h/ of
_herb_ (lost before the word reached English) is definitely due to
writing.

Richard.