The Alphabet

In brief, today's lesson tells us that our present-day alphabet is in large part available to us due to the Egyptian slaves. Not that the slaves created the alphabet ... but the pharoahs had a tough time communicating with the overseers using thousands of little word pictures. Hence their system was greatly simplified, using pix to represent sounds instead of individual words.

Of course there has been much fine-tuning and branching and various variations along the way, but our present Roman alphabet seems to be working pretty well for us now.

Not all alphabets are learned in any sort of order as ours is, which, to me, seems a shirty dame. Just think of all of the darling alphabet books we wouldn't have were ours not an ordered alphabet. One of the best known is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Falling out of the tree and getting all mixed and banged up just wouldn't have the same charm if the letters were already scrambled to begin with.

The Icky Bug Alphabet Book has probably done as much to get young boys reading as any other book.

Personally I like H is for Hoosier: An Indiana Alphabet from the Discover America Alphabet Series.

And of course there's our familiar alphabet song, which I sing every time I have to restart a computer, giving it time to reset whatever the heck is wrong with it this time.

And there's Perry Como's romantic alphabet song:

And remember poor confused Big Bird, finding that marvelously long yet pronounceable word on Sesame Street – He just didn't know what it meant! His alphabet song is unforgettable... Look it up on YouTube:



I enjoy our alphabet. I enjoy words, written and spoken. I enjoy books. I used to read dictionaries for fun when I was a child. OK, I still do. I've always read anything that was handy ... ketchup bottles, cereal boxes, aerosol cans ... I sleep with books. I do. Not just stacked all around the bed, but there are always a few at the foot of the bed too, and sometimes one or two tucked under my pillow.

Marilyn Vos Savant's The Art of Spelling has been a favorite book for some time.

For Christmas, my sister Frith gave me Book Smart by Jane Mallison, Your Essential Reading List for Becoming a Literary Genius in 365 Days ... Well, of course I have no interest in becoming a Genius, Literary or otherwise, but WHAT FUN!

For Valentine's Day, YoungBlood bought me Um. . .: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean by Michael Erard which gratifies not only my word obsession but also satisfies my desire to find out why people do what they do.

I've recently purchased a Scrabble Travel game and it has done much to ease the bruised spot on my heart invoked when my beloved Scrabble Deluxe was stolen straight out from my garage during a move a few years ago.

I regularly play WordTwist, a Boggle-type of game that has proven a little too addictive for my comfort, but I can't stop, because, well, it is addictive ... ... check it out ... at your own risk. I have so much fun playing that I don't mind not being very good at it.

Just to make my head feel good, I proofread for Distributed Proofreaders for Project Gutenberg ... OK, it makes my heart feel good, too.

I am currently reading Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet. While his focus is on numbers, at one point he writes of his interest in the Phoenecian alphabet. I am only a little surprised that I find myself identifying with Mr. Tammet throughout his life story.

Top of my list. Nicholas Basbanes. A Gentle Madness. Enough said on that.

Books Books Books.
Words Words Words.
Letters Letters Letters.
I Love Them.