Why does the english alphabet have 2 such similar letters, m and n??

Question

It would have been better off with only one of the two and the other one replaced with some sound totally missing from the alphabet.

Answer 1

/m/ and /n/ are not all the similar to each other. They share manner of articulation (nasal) and are both +voice, but they have very different places of articulation; /m/ is bilabial, meaning you make it with your lips, whereas /n/ is alveolar, meaning you shape it by putting your tongue against the "alveolar ridge" (that place behind your teeth where the roof of your mouth suddenly curves up).

A very similar example are /b/ and /d/ - both have the manner of articulation "plosiv" (meaning a complete stop of the airstream followed by a release), both are +voice, but /b/ is bilabial and /d/ is alveolar.

Answer 2

The english alphabet is based on the Arabic one.

M (emm) and N ( enn) are two distict letters and do not transpose.

In other words you cannot use M to replace N and vice versa.

We have 26 letters , we have no masculine, feminine or nuetral pronouns like many othe r languages and we dont use umluatts, or other forms to stress letter values.

Answer 3

Huh? Do you realize that in your sentence you used both of them? They have totally different sounds and are not similar in any way, shape, or form. Consonants that are sometimes pronounced similarly are C and S (city -- sister), G and J (gymnasium -- Jim), C and K (corn -- keep). M and N are never, ever pronounced the same.

Answer 4

/m/ and /n/ are totally different phonemes in English. /m/ is described as a bilabial nasal consonant and /n/ as an alveloar nasal consonant. Compare the words 'nice' and 'mice'.

Answer 5

"m"........man,mine,mean....when use together "n" are meanable.if one use aloney m ,for exp. "me" there is a effeckt egoismal. or use n.... "no". ..... enemical...
But you take care every time..

Answer 6

what about w and v