The wonder of our being Powerful meanings can and do reside in something as apparently simple as the alphabet. Real speech is continuous, not discrete. Reading means acquiring meaning.
Good readers scan about four words ahead to establish meaning and syntactic context.
In some countries and with some languages, spelling and alphabet reform are active and continuous. If the answer is yes, the second language is likely to influence their use of English to some extent. Less easily, they may contribute function words. Something as easily crossed as a river with a bridge will do the job of serving to isolate a language community, or even perhaps a street a child may not cross alone until he is nine or ten years old. These are enough to keep the early learners of the language isolated from the sounds of other speakers than those in their immediate communities until they have developed set patterns of speech.