Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z"Letters are tangible language. Joining together in endless combinations to represent actual speech, letters convey messages, tell stories, and create newspapers, advertising, and poetry. While we encounter these tiny shapes hundreds of times a day, we take for granted the long, fascinating history behind one of the most fundamental inventions - the alphabet." "David Sacks has embarked on an excursion into cultural history in Language Visible. Clearly explaining the letters as symbols of precise sounds of speech, the book begins with the earliest known alphabetic inscriptions (circa 1800 B.C.), recently discovered by archaeologists in Egypt, and traces the history of our alphabet through the ancient Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, and up through medieval Europe to the present day. But the heart of the book is the twenty-six fact-filled "biographies" of letters A through Z, each one identifying its letter's particular significance for modern readers, tracing its development from ancient forms, and discussing its noteworthy role in literature and other media. We learn, for example, why letter X may have a sinister and sexual aura, how B came to signify second best, why the word "mother" in many languages starts with an M, and what The Story of O is. The book also features clever illustrations for each letter, such as Winston Churchill's "V-for-Victory" World War II hand sign, the trademark "N" from the label of Newman's Own salad dressing, and images from rock music and other pop culture." "Combining facts both odd and essential, Language Visible is cultural history at its most accessible and enjoyable."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
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Language Visible: Unraveling the Mystery of the Alphabet from A to Z David Sacks Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
aleph alpha American ancient Greek ancient Roman Arabic ayin became beta British called capital Carolingian minuscule carved centuries consonant sound consonantal delta denoted dictionary earliest early Greek Egypt Egyptian Egyptian hieroglyphic England English spelling English words Etruscan alphabet Etruscan letters European eventually example German glish Greek alphabet Greek letter guage handwriting style hieroglyphic Indo-European invented Italian Italy kaph language later Latin word letter names letter shapes look lowercase meaning meant Meanwhile medieval French Middle Ages modern English Norman Old English Old French perhaps phabet Phoenician alphabet Phoenician letters phonetic picture place number probably pronounced pronunciation qoph qoppa represent resh right-to-left Roman alphabet Roman letters Rome scholars script Semitic letter serifs Spanish speech spoken symbol tion Today tongue tradition Trajan tsade type designer typefaces uncial variant vocabulary vocal cords vowel letters vowel sound Wadi el-Hol written yogh zayin