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Letters and SoundsA Brief History of Writing
Sam Foss
and
Katie Kupferschmidt
• There can be no doubt that writing grew out of
drawing
Ideographic or Logographic Writing
When symbols come to stand for ideas corresponding to individual words and each word
is represented by a separate symbol
Tie Coon
Tycoon
Rebuses
Semetic Writing to Greek Alphabet
Adding Vowels
• Yod >> iota (i)
• The Consanant
he >> epsilon (E)
• Gimel>> gamma
• Daleth>> delta
Romans adopt Greek Alpha Bet
• Changed the forms of some letters:– Curved gamma (C), delta (D), and pi (P)
• Some letters maintained their form:– Epsilon (E)– H
• Addition of the letter G
a
Ox >>>>> Aleph >>>>> Alpha >>>> Modern A
Form changes over time…
Digraphs
• Pairs of letters to represent single sounds, or even longer sequences like the German trigraph sch
Runes
THE (Brief) HISTORY OF ENGLISH WRITING
• When the English came to Britain runic writing was a highly specialized craft
• Christianity
• Introduction of
Norman-French customs
Insular Handwriting
THE (Brief) HISTORY OF ENGLISH WRITING Cont…
Gradually the letters of the alphabet assumed their
present number.
white alphabet a-z graffitisource: puregraffiti
Vs. Ancient Semetic
My how times change… Or not?
English Consonant SoundsThe Stops:
Bib, ruby, ebb, rabble,
bride, naked, pick,
Bacon, trek
The Fricative:
Raffle, off, phantom,
Bathe, thin, fizzle, vise
The Affricates:
Major, surgeon, budget,
Educate, spinach,
church
The Nasals:
Mum, summer, time,
Honor, inn, finger
The Liquids:
Lapel, felon, hole, rear,
Baron, err, bare
The Semivowels:
Won, which, yet, chignon
English Vowel Sounds
Front Vowels:
Evil, cede, been, ape,
Basin, gray, bet, threat,
Central Vowels:
But, calm, aunt, solder
Back Vowels:
Ooze, too, rude, roof,
Good, road, toe, owe,
All, law, talk,
Diphthongs:
Ride, my, style, dye,
Eye, aisle, oil, boy
Vowels before [r]:
Mere, bare, urge, art,
Poor, oar, fire
Unstressed vowels:
Coffee, taxi, bucket, melon,
Window, remedy, butter,
Spelling Pronunciations
• Example:
The t of often has come
to be pronounced once
again.
Popular misunderstanding that many people suppose that the ‘best’ speech is that which conforms most closely to the writing system.
Pronunciation Spellings
When a word’s spelling
Is changed to agree
With its pronunciation.
• Examples:
Perculate for percolate
Momento for memento
Spicket for spigot