No question. It is just not at risk, and hence does not need to be saved. The dignity of the First Vowel shelters ALL the letters from harm. This is the secret behind the fact that every other letter is always happy to form a phoneme with the First Vowel. Other vowels, with less dignity (I am thinking in particular of "Y" here") do not enjoy such universal support from their colleages in the alphabet industry. There are, for example, axes and oxen, but nary an yxe.


A