Alphabetical
Subtitle: how every letter tells a story
By: Michael Rosen
Publisher: John Murray
Published: 2013
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 431
ISBN-13: 9781848548862
Subjects: Alphabet; English language; Language and languages; History
Description: "How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an ... adventure through the histiory of the alphabet in twenty six ... chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and ho sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our five lost letteers and tackles the tyranny of spelling ... His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers ..."--Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 415-417) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note:; title: The Story of A --; title: A is for Alphabet --; title: The Story of B --; title: B is for Battledore --; title: The Story of C --; title: C is for Ciphers --; title: The Story of D --; title: D is for Disappeared Letters --; title: The Story of E --; title: E is for e. e. cummings --; title: The Story of F --; title: F is for Fonts --; title: The Story of G --; title: G is for Greek --; title: The Story of H --; title: H is for H-Aspiration --; title: The Story of I --; title: I is for Improvisation --; title: The Story of J --; title: J is for Jokes --; title: The Story of K --; title: K is for Korean --; title: The Story of L --; title: L is for LSD --; title: The Story of M --; title: M is for Music and Memory --; title: The Story of N --; title: N is for Nonsense --; title: The (True) Story of O --; title: O is for OK --; title: The Story of P --; title: P is for Pitman --; title: The Story of Q --; title: Q is for Qwerty --; title: The Story of R --; title: R is for Rhyme --; title: The Story of S --; title: S is for Signs and Sign Systems --; title: The Story of T --; title: T is for Txtspk --; title: The Story of U --; title: U is for Umlauts --; title: The Story of V --; title: V is for Vikings --; title: The Story of W --; title: W is for Webster --; title: The Story of X --; title: X Marks the Spot --; title: The Story of Y --; title: Y is for Yellow --; title: The Story of Z --; title: Z is for Zipcodes.