Of course, I've been thinking about this question a lot over the years, and this thinking has evolved. Each time I wondered how I should answer here, I came to the only valid conclusion that "Indeed I really don't know".
But that isn't very satisfactory.
Trying to separate the question into two aspects: how many different units of writing vs. how many different units of meaning isn't really working. The latter remains out of reach, but the former still cannot be separated entirely. Following reflects some of my current thinking. (Not entirely, and I also have conflicting ideas....)
Even as it is inconsistent, I would treat
e
as a single unit of writing. This means that ee and eee are not units of writing (but they may be units of meaning, or even only parts of units of meaning).
On the other hand, I would treat
i, ii and iii as three different units. I would also consider n a variant of i, so not different.
o, a, and y are three units of wrtiting, but I tend to believe that they mean the same.
That leaves us at 7, for the 'Eva vowels'.
All of the following is referring to units of writing, and my thoughts on units of meaning are quite different.
k and t I consider two different units, but f and p to be variants of 'something'.
ch and Sh: sitting on the fence here. Count as two to keep it simple.
cTh, cKh, cPh, cFh, all combinations, or rather ligatures. True also for the more complicated ones.
That means four more, from the gallows and benches.
d is the most regular character of all, count as one.
s is a bit more mysterious but also count as one.
l and r are two more, but m and g are variants of others.
qo (together) is one more.
That give us 5 more, and we are now at 7 + 4 + 5 = 16.
Remaining characters: j x b v u z are all rare and I would not count them.
16 is a bit low, for example when compared to Latin (21), but not extremely so.
(In Latin, I left out j, k, w, y, z)
But that isn't very satisfactory.
Trying to separate the question into two aspects: how many different units of writing vs. how many different units of meaning isn't really working. The latter remains out of reach, but the former still cannot be separated entirely. Following reflects some of my current thinking. (Not entirely, and I also have conflicting ideas....)
Even as it is inconsistent, I would treat
e
as a single unit of writing. This means that ee and eee are not units of writing (but they may be units of meaning, or even only parts of units of meaning).
On the other hand, I would treat
i, ii and iii as three different units. I would also consider n a variant of i, so not different.
o, a, and y are three units of wrtiting, but I tend to believe that they mean the same.
That leaves us at 7, for the 'Eva vowels'.
All of the following is referring to units of writing, and my thoughts on units of meaning are quite different.
k and t I consider two different units, but f and p to be variants of 'something'.
ch and Sh: sitting on the fence here. Count as two to keep it simple.
cTh, cKh, cPh, cFh, all combinations, or rather ligatures. True also for the more complicated ones.
That means four more, from the gallows and benches.
d is the most regular character of all, count as one.
s is a bit more mysterious but also count as one.
l and r are two more, but m and g are variants of others.
qo (together) is one more.
That give us 5 more, and we are now at 7 + 4 + 5 = 16.
Remaining characters: j x b v u z are all rare and I would not count them.
16 is a bit low, for example when compared to Latin (21), but not extremely so.
(In Latin, I left out j, k, w, y, z)
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