Alphabetical : how every letter tells a story
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint, [2015].
ISBN
9781619024830, 1619024837, 9781619027022
Physical Desc
xv, 431 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Status
Adult Nonfiction (3rd floor)
NF 421.1 ROSEN 2015
1 available

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Adult Nonfiction (3rd floor)NF 421.1 ROSEN 2015On Shelf

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Published
Berkeley, CA : Counterpoint, [2015].
Format
Book
Language
English
ISBN
9781619024830, 1619024837, 9781619027022

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Description
"How on Earth did we fix upon our twenty-six letters, what do they really mean, and how did we come to write them down in the first place? Michael Rosen takes you on an unforgettable adventure through the history of the alphabet in twenty-six vivid chapters, fizzing with personal anecdotes and fascinating facts. Starting with the mysterious Phoenicians and how sounds first came to be written down, he races on to show how nonsense poems work, pins down the strange story of OK, traces our five lost letters and tackles the tyranny of spelling, among many many other things. His heroes of the alphabet range from Edward Lear to Phyllis Pearsall (the inventor of the A-Z), and from the two scribes of Beowulf to rappers. Each chapter takes on a different subject - whether it's codes, umlauts or the writing of dictionaries. Rosen's enthusiasm for letters positively leaps off the page, whether it's the story of his life told through the typewriters he's owned or a chapter on jokes written in a string of gags and word games. This is the book for anyone who's ever wondered why Hawaiian only has a thirteen-letter alphabet or how exactly to write down the sound of a wild raspberry"--

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Rosen, M. (2015). Alphabetical: how every letter tells a story . Counterpoint.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Rosen, Michael, 1946-. 2015. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story. Counterpoint.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Rosen, Michael, 1946-. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story Counterpoint, 2015.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Rosen, Michael. Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story Counterpoint, 2015.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.