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

Thorn

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 Long S

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