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T W E N T Y T W O Y E A R S A G O I R O D E F I R S T C L A S S O N A M T R A K A C R O S S T H E C O U N T R Y M Y A S S I G N E D D I N N E R P A R T N E R W A S A L O V E L Y W O M A N T H A T I W I L L N E V E R F O R G E T H E L L I S N O T A B I G E N O U G H P L A C E T O C O N T A I N M Y R E S E N T M E N T O F H E R N O R I S I T D E E P E N O U H H T O A C C U R A T E L Y C O N V E Y T H E E X T E N T O F H O W E X C R U C I A T I N G S H E M A D E M Y T R I P S H E I N S I S T E D O N F I N G E R S P E L L I N G E V E R Y T H I N G T O M E I T O L D H E R T O S T O P I B E G G E E D H E R T O S T O P S H E W O U L D N O T L E A V E M E A L O N E I W A S O P E N L Y U N H A P P Y A N D Y E T H E R H A N D C R U I S E D A L O N G R O B O T I C A L L Y I H A V E N O I D E A W H A T H E R N A M E W A S I D O N T K N O W W H Y S H E K N E W F I N G E R S P E L L I N G I L O S T A L L S E N S E O F W H A T S H E W A S S A Y I N G I T W A S A B L U R O F I N C O M P R E H E N S I B L E G A B B L E T H A T I W A S S U P P O S E D T O B E H A P P Y A B O U T I O N L Y K N O W T H A T C L E A R L Y S H E D I D N O T U N D E R S T A D D E A F P E O P L E I R E M E M B E R H E R I R E M E M B E R W H A T S H E L O O K E D L I K E I R E M E M B E R T H E U T T E R J O Y I F E L T W H E N S H E D I S E M B A R K E D I N P I T T S B U R G H G O O D B Y E G O O D B Y E L A D Y I W I L L A L W A Y S R E M E M B E R B E C A U S E Y O U W E R E E X C R U C I A T I N G I N Y O U R S T E A D F A S T B L I N D N E S S A N D E X P E C T A T I O N S T H A T I S H O U L D B E G R A T E F U L T O Y O U T H E W O R S T P A R T OF T H E W H O L E T H I N G F O R M E W A S T H A T I K N E W T H A T I W O U L D B E A H A P P Y S T O R Y F O R Y O U T O T E L L T O O T H E R W E L L M E A N I N G P E O P L E W H O W O U L D N O T U N D E R S T A N D W H A T Y O U D I D T O M E F O R T H E R E S T O F Y O U R L I F E G O O D B Y E Y O U A R E A S T O R Y F O R M E T O O D O N T W O R R Y C A U T I O N A R Y Y O U T A U G H M E N E V E R T O T O L E R A T E T H A T B E H A V I O R A G A I N A N D T H A T I S W H A T I T H I N K O F T H E A D E Q U A C Y O F I N D I V I D U A L L E T T E R S T O C O M P R I S E A W H O L E C O N V E R S A T I O N N O T H A N K Y O U P L E A S E R E S P E C T M E A L I T T L E M O R E T H A N T H A T.

I happened to do some research on this matter for another answer, so I have the resources at hand to answer this one.The problem, however, is that there are SO many languages, and so much data, that it would be a really crazy task to put them all together.Sounds like a job for me then!I selected 27 of the most widely known and spoken languages that use common types of alphabets. The first row for each language represents order of frequency of all characters, accented ones separated, and the second row has the order of letter frequency when you group accented letters into their original letter, and when you split digraphs into their original letters (note: I made an exception with æ and œ and did not split them).Afrikaans:e a i n r s o t d l k g v m p u b w f h j c ê ë z öe a i n r s o t d l k g v m p u b w f h j c zAlbanian:ë e t z i a r n m u s x o k j sh y p l d b f h q g rr v dh gj ll nj th c çe t z i r a n m s u j x l o k h d y p g b f q v cCatalan:e a s r l t i n o u m d c p v b q g f h é x ó j è à ò í y ç k ú z ü w ïe a s r i l t n o u m d c p v b q g f h x j y k z wCzech:a e o n i t v s r l d k m u p í z j h ě y ý á b c ž š é č ř ůe i a o n s t v r l d k m u z y p j h c bDanish:e r n t a i d s l o g k m f v b u p h å ø æ j y c w z x qe r n a t i d s o l g k m f v b u p h æ j y c w z x qDutch:e n a t i r o d s l g v h k m u b p w j z c f x y qe n a t i r o d s l g v h k m u b p w j z c f x y qEnglish:e t a o i n s h r d l c u m w f g y p b v k j x q ze t a o i n s h r d l c u m w f g y p b v k j x q zEsperanto:a i e o n l s r t k j u d m p v g f b c ĝ ĉ ŭ z ŝ h ĵ ĥa i e o n s l r t k u j d m p v g c f b z hEstonian:i a e s t u o k l n d r g m v j h õ p b ü ä ö fi a e s t u o k l n d r g m v j h p b fFinnish:a i n t e s l o u k ä m r v j h p y d ö g b c f w z x qa i n t e s l o u k m r v j h p y d g b c f w z x qFrench:e s a i t n r u o l d c m p v é q f b g h j à x z è ê y ç w ù â k î ô œ ë ïe a s i t n r u o l d c m p v q f b g h j x z y w k œGerman:e n s r i a t d h u l g c o m w b f k z ü v p ä ö ß j y x qe n s a r i t u d h l o g c m w b f k z v p ß j y x qGreek:α o ε ι τ σ ν η ρ π υ k μ λ ω γ δ χ θ φ β ξ ζ ψα o ε ι τ σ ν η ρ π υ k μ λ ω γ δ χ θ φ β ξ ζ ψHawaiian:a k o i n e u h l m p wa k o i n e u h l m p wHungarian:e a t n l s k é i m o á g r z v b d sz j h gy ő ö ny ly ü ó f p í u cs ű c ú zse a t n l s o i k m z g r v b d j y h u f p cIcelandic:a r n i e s t u l ð g m k f v o h á d í þ j b ó y æ p ö é ú ý xa i r n e d s u t l g m o k f v h þ j y b æ p xIndonesian:a n e i t k d r u m s g l h b p y o j c w f v z x é qa n e i t k d r u m s g l h b p y o j c w f v z x qItalian:e a i o n l r t s c d p u m v g z f b h à q è ù w ì y j ka e i o n l r t s c d u p m v g z f b h q w y j kLatin:i e a u t s r n o m c l p d b q g v f h x y zi e a u t s r n o m c l p d b q g v f h x y zNorwegian:e n t r a i s d l o g k m v h u p f å b j ø y c w æ z x qe n t r a i s d l o g k m v h u p f b j y c w æ z x qPolish:a i e o n w r s z c d y k l m t p ł u j b g ó ę h ś ć ż ą ń f ź v xa i e o n s w z r l c d y k m t p u j b g h f v xPortuguese:a e o s r i d m n t c u l p v g q b f h ã ô â ç z ê j é ó x ú í á à w ü k ya e o s r i d m n c t u l p v g q b f h z j x w k yRomanian:a i e l u r t n c o s m p d v f î ș b ă g z ț j h xa i e l u r t n c o s m p d v f b g z j h xRussian:о е а и н т с л в р к м д п ы у б я ь г з ч й ж х ш ю ц э щ ф ё ъо е и а н т с л в р к м д п ы у б я ь г з ч й ж х ш ю ц э щ ф ъSpanish:e a o s r n i d l t c m u p b g v y q ó í h f á j z é ñ x ú w ü ke a o s n i r d l t c m u p b g v y q h f j z x w kSwedish:e a n r t s i l d o m k g v h f u p ä b c å ö y j x w z qa e n r t s i o l d m k g v h f u p b c y j x w z qTurkish:a e i n r l k d ı m y t u s o b ü ş z c g h ç ğ v p ö f ji a e n r l k d u s o m y t b c g z h v p f jHere's how the whole thing looks put together. The numbers represent the ranking of the letter. Click on the image if you want to see the non-blurry version.A few interesting notes and observations:Nordic languages seem to have more consonant weight, compared to most of the other languages.Hungarian doesn't have the letter y by itself, only in the "gy", "ny", and "ly" digraphs.The lowest ranking for the letter a is in Albanian (6th).The lowest ranking for the letter e is 5th (Icelandic, Finnish)The ranking of the letter c ranges from 9th (Romanian) to 25th (Albanian)Estonian is almost the only language that doesn't use the letter f, except in loan words. Strange, huh?English has an unusually high ranking for the letter h (8th) - the average for the other languages is 18th and the second highest is 13th. No wonder though, considering words such as the, hello, hi, he/him/his, she/her/hers, when, how, what, where, who, which, why.The usage of the letter k varies from sixth place (Indonesian) to last (Spanish, Italian)On average, o is somewhere around 8th, but it varies from 3rd (Spanish, Portuguese) to 18th (Indonesian)Latin and French have the highest use of the letter q (16th).The letter t is also very variable, from second (Albanian, English), to 16th (Polish).The same goes with u, which ranks as high as 4th in Latin, and as low as 20th in Hungarian.Czech uses the letter v a lot more than all other languages. It's the 8th most used, as compared to the overall average of 20.A similar thing happens with w in Polish, where it's 7th, while the overall average is 22ndAlbanian wins at the usage of the letter z, it ranks 3rd, very far from the overall average of 21st (although Polish is not too far away with z ranked 8th).And the last interesting bit of info: if you add together the weight of each letter for all languages, you get the overall weight of every letter. That would arrange the (most common) alphabet into:e a i n r t s o l d u m k g c p v h b z f j y w q xSo in the end, as it was clearly obvious and visilble, E takes the lead, followed closely by A, while U is the least popular vowel. Sorry U.At the same time, N is the most frequently used consonant. Huh. I did not see that coming.Sources from where I dug up the letter frequencies (which you can blame for any errors, I mean, I'm not completely sold on z being the third most used letter in Albanian, but hey):WikipediaCryptogramSttmediaLater edit: For fun, I decided to test the letter frequencies of a lengthy answer. So I went into my feed and picked the longest one I could find with a quick search. Did the letter counts, and the results are below!e (378) / t (323) / a (291) / i (251) / o (247) / n (233) / s (223)r (171) / h (149) / l (130) / c (112) / u (110) / d (108) / w (81)m (77) / y (72) / f (63) / g (59) / b (44) / p (41) / k (37)v (36) / j (9) / x (7) / q (3) / z (2)And here it is (first line), in comparison with the general reorganized English alphabet (second line):e t a i o n s r h l c u d w m y f g b p k v j x q ze t a o i n s h r d l c u m w f g y p b v k j x q zQuite similar!Second edit: I know there are a few mistakes regarding some letters, but unfortunately I deleted the file I used to calculate the frequencies, and it would be a huge pain to re-create it. Maybe some day.

Before you ask “why”, ask “if”.The alphabet we use is called the Latin alphabet, because the Romans were the first to use it, and is barely over 2000 years old. This means that quite a few of the letters in the alphabet have been added in the last 2000 years. You can read the full history of our alphabet, as well as a few others involved in the journey, here.But they weren’t all added at once. The journey went something like this:1. The Latin alphabet develops from the Etruscan alphabet (which was stolen from the Greek alphabet, which was taken from the Phoenician alphabet, itself from the Proto-Sinaitic abjad, which was made from Egyptian hieroglyphs). The alphabet looks like this:A B C D E F Z H I K L M N O P Q R S T V XThe letters missing are G, J, U, W, and Y. Only G and Y were ever used by the Romans, and it’s G that will be added soon.2. Some scribes knock out Z and replace it with G.The /z/ sound wasn’t used in Latin at this point - words like “rosa” would have been pronounced “rosa” instead of “roza”. The Z was dropped as a useless letter.The Etruscan language had no /g/ sound, but they did have three separate K-like sounds, which they represented with the letters C, K, and Q. This is how we ended up with three letters that make the exact same sounds.Latin did have a G sound. The letters C/K/Q were used early on to make both the /k/ and /g/ sounds, but then someone got the bright idea of adding a line to the C to mark it as making the /g/ sound, giving us the modern letter G.Where in the alphabet shall we put it? thought the Romans. I know! Let’s put it right where we got rid of that annoying Z.A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X3. Z is added in again, as is Y.Latin had no use for either letter for words of Latin origin, but it was getting a lot of words from Greece. Greek had several sounds not found in Latin, such as PH (a /p/ said forcefully) and Y (put your lips together like you’re going to say “oo”, but instead say “ee”). To accurately represent these sounds, Latin had to create some new letters. They tacked them onto the end of the alphabet:A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y ZBut we’re still missing U, W, and J.4. Latin decides to shift its sounds and presents a problem.In Classical Latin, the letter V made either the /w/ or /u/ sound. But over the course of the next centuries, as Latin split into the Romance languages, the sound changed from /w/ to /β/ (the Spanish “b” sound) and finally to /v/.So now there was a letter that could make either the /v/ sound or the /u/ sound. Still, V was used for both.5. English gets the alphabet.English had used the Runic alphabet for a while, but then adopted the Latin alphabet. It made some changes to it, took out some letters, and added in new ones:A Æ B C D Ð E F G H I L M N O P R S T Þ U Ƿ X YThe new letters made the following sounds:Æ: catÐ: thatÞ: thingǷ: willK, Q, and Z were only used for foreign loanwords from Greek or Latin and not for native English words.6. UU enters English.With the influence of French, the letter Ƿ was removed and replaced with “uu”, which had been used by the French to represent the /w/ sound in place names. This was called a “double-u”.7. Middle English adds Ȝ and Œ.Ȝ represented either the “y” or “gh” sound, while Œ was used in some loanwords from French.A Æ B C D Ð E F G Ȝ H I L M N O Œ P R S T Þ U X Y8. The printing press comes along and causes problems.Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, was German, so only German letters were included in the type. Æ, Ð, Ȝ, Œ, and Þ weren’t used in German, so when England got the printing press, Æ became A, Ð and Þ became TH, Ȝ became Y or GH (or even Z), and Œ became OE.In German, the letter V made and still makes the /f/ sound. Putting two Vs next to each other was used to represent the /v/ sound. VV turned into W.The UU ligature was not included in the type, so the typesetters went for the next best thing and used W. The “double-v” was still called “double-u”, which is why what is very clearly two Vs continues to be named as though it has two Us.K, Q, and Z were added back in as lots of Greek and Latin words began entering English.A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V W X Y Z9. Awhile later, U is added as a distinct letter:A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z10. J.Due to a sound change (see here), the letter “I” had a lot of jobs: /j/, /ʤ/, /i/, /ɪ/, and /aɪ/.J had been used in handwriting as an alternate form of I for several centuries, but starting in the 1600s, it began to be seen as a separate letter representing /ʤ/ (as in jar), /ʒ/ (as in usual), or /j/ (as in yellow).Its separation from I was not universally accepted until the 1800s.And so we have our modern alphabet:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZFor more information on the subject, Language Perfect by David Sacks and Alphabetical by Michael Rosen are both excellent books.