Why is String the only class for which literals exist in Java?

Question

Why is java.lang.String the only class for which two ways of creation exist:

1) With normal way with "new" keyword.

String s = new String("abc");

2) With String literal (which is only available with String class)

String s = "abc";

So why are there String literals and no literals for any other classes??

Answer 1

Short answer, because the language designers felt like it.

I guess String is such a common class that they made an exception. I'm sure there's a few other similar exceptions as well, (see Tom Hawtins comment)