English spelling is horrible, but I feel that the number of English heteronyms is not notably high, especially considering the state of the spelling system. I

English spelling is horrible, but I feel that the number of English heteronyms is not notably high, especially considering the state of the spelling system. I think heteronyms are bound to arise in most languages with Latin-based orthography, because they tend to borrow words from other Latin-alphabet-based languages without changing spelling. Some words are bound to collide with an existing word with the same spelling.