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  The Alphabet (Paperback) By (author) David Sacks

  

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  Short Description for The Alphabet There is a story behind each letter of the alphabet. Why is X the Unknown or shorthand for a kiss? Which letter came last, historically, in the alphabet? (J).
  Full description

  • Publisher: ARROW BOOKS LTD
  • Published: 07 October 2004
  • Format: Paperback 400 pages
  • See: Full bibliographic data
  • Categories: Language: Reference & General | Historical & Comparative Linguistics
  • ISBN 13: 9780099436829 ISBN 10: 0099436825
  • Sales rank: 1,242,486

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Full description for The Alphabet

• There is a story behind each letter of the alphabet. Why is X the Unknown or shorthand for a kiss? Which letter came last, historically, in the alphabet? (J). How did a few squiggles, invented a thousand years ago to denote sounds of a now vanished Semitic language, survive to become our letters today? While China and Japan rely mainly on scripts of ideograms, three-quarters of humanity uses some kind of alphabet. Chinese writing requires 2000 basic symbols (but there's no language barrier), where an alphabet needs typically less than 30. From A-Z, David Sacks provides answers to the most fascinating questions about the way we talk, write and think in a book which will also be illustrated graphically throughout - not just with variations of individual letters but with maps, charts and general narrative images.