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A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English

The Roman alphabet is so omnipresent we hardly notice it. Yet it is one of man's greatest inventions. Where did its peculiar shapes come from? Why are they arranged with uppercase and lowercase letters distributed left to right on a horizontal line with spaces and punctuation marks? This art...

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Main Author: B. Dickerson, Wayne
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia 2006
Subjects:
LB2300 Higher Education
Online Access:http://eprints.usm.my/34323/1/1_Wayne_%281-21%29.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/34323/
http://apjee.usm.my/APJEE_21_2006/1%20Wayne%20(1-21).pdf
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spelling my.usm.eprints.34323 http://eprints.usm.my/34323/ A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English B. Dickerson, Wayne LB2300 Higher Education The Roman alphabet is so omnipresent we hardly notice it. Yet it is one of man's greatest inventions. Where did its peculiar shapes come from? Why are they arranged with uppercase and lowercase letters distributed left to right on a horizontal line with spaces and punctuation marks? This article traces the 4000-year-old history of the alphabet to its current manifestation in English writing. We also address this question: How do these shapes do their job of representing language? Answer: With more regularity than we often appreciate. Particularly for learners of English, the regularities may offer some valuable insights into the principled ways we use the alphabet; order is everywhere. Furthermore, by learning how the oddities in our spelling arose, we may come to view them less as bothersome idiosyncrasies and more as interesting historical markers left by the amazing trek our alphabet has taken across time, space and through a myriad languages. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia 2006 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://eprints.usm.my/34323/1/1_Wayne_%281-21%29.pdf B. Dickerson, Wayne (2006) A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English. The Asia Pacific Journal of Educators and Education (formerly known as Journal of Educators and Education), 21 (1). pp. 1-21. ISSN 2289-9057 http://apjee.usm.my/APJEE_21_2006/1%20Wayne%20(1-21).pdf
institution Universiti Sains Malaysia
building Hamzah Sendut Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Sains Malaysia
content_source USM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.usm.my/
language English
topic LB2300 Higher Education
spellingShingle LB2300 Higher Education
B. Dickerson, Wayne
A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
description The Roman alphabet is so omnipresent we hardly notice it. Yet it is one of man's greatest inventions. Where did its peculiar shapes come from? Why are they arranged with uppercase and lowercase letters distributed left to right on a horizontal line with spaces and punctuation marks? This article traces the 4000-year-old history of the alphabet to its current manifestation in English writing. We also address this question: How do these shapes do their job of representing language? Answer: With more regularity than we often appreciate. Particularly for learners of English, the regularities may offer some valuable insights into the principled ways we use the alphabet; order is everywhere. Furthermore, by learning how the oddities in our spelling arose, we may come to view them less as bothersome idiosyncrasies and more as interesting historical markers left by the amazing trek our alphabet has taken across time, space and through a myriad languages.
format Article
author B. Dickerson, Wayne
author_facet B. Dickerson, Wayne
author_sort B. Dickerson, Wayne
title A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
title_short A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
title_full A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
title_fullStr A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
title_full_unstemmed A Is For Alphabet... Roman Letters And Their Use In Written English
title_sort is for alphabet... roman letters and their use in written english
publisher Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia
publishDate 2006
url http://eprints.usm.my/34323/1/1_Wayne_%281-21%29.pdf
http://eprints.usm.my/34323/
http://apjee.usm.my/APJEE_21_2006/1%20Wayne%20(1-21).pdf
_version_ 1643708175084421120
score 13.211869

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