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In English we have 26 alphabets – each letter has an uppercase and a lowercase.
Capital letters: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Small letters: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Cursive letters
Cursive letters are still prevalent among the school students, and their artistry in writing in cursive patterns is a matter of fame among them and teachers, handwriting is a crucial thing in this regard. Cursive letters were used in letters, book covers, calendars, diaries, invitation cards, certificates and in other even more valid and valuable surfaces for decorative purposes.
Cursive writing was used in English before the Norman conquest. Anglo-Saxon Charters typically include a boundary clause written in Old English in a cursive script. A cursive handwriting style—secretary hand—was widely used for both personal correspondence and official documents in England from early in the 16th century. Cursive handwriting developed into something approximating its current form from the 17th century, but its use was neither uniform, nor standardized either in England itself or elsewhere in the British Empire. In the English colonies of the early 17th century, most of the letters are clearly separated in the handwriting of William Bradford, though a few were joined as in a cursive hand. In England itself, Edward Cocker had begun to introduce a version of the French ronde style, which was then further developed and popularized throughout the British Empire in the 17th and 18th centuries as round hand by John Ayers and William Banson.
In the American colonies, on the eve of their independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain, Thomas Jefferson joined most, but not all the letters when drafting the United States Declaration of Independence. However, a few days later, Timothy Matlack professionally re-wrote the presentation copy of the Declaration in a fully joined, cursive hand. Eighty-seven years later, in the middle of the 19th century, Abraham Lincoln drafted the Gettysburg Address in a cursive hand that would not look out of place today.
Cursive has been in decline throughout the 21st century due to its perceived lack of necessity.
History
Scholars attribute the alphabet’s origin to a little known Proto-Sinaitic, Semitic form of writing developed in Egypt between 1800 and 1900 BC. Building on this ancient foundation, the first widely used alphabet was developed by the phoenicians about seven hundred years later. The English word ‘alphabet’ comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: ‘alpha’ and ‘beta’.
Two letters ‘A’ and ‘I’ are also considered as words.
There are 44 sounds in English: 24 consonant sounds and 20 vowel sounds.
Vowels
Eunoia, at six letters long, is the shortest word in the English language that contains all five main vowels. Seven letter words with this property include adoulie, douleia, eucosia, eulogia, eunomia, eutopia, miaoued, moineau, sequoia, and suoidea. (The scientific name iouea is a genus of Cretaceous fossil sponges.).
A vowel is a sound we make when the breath flows out through the mouth freely, without blockage. The English letters a, e, i, o, u are called vowels, as they represent such free sounds. There are twenty vowel sounds in English, divided into three major types:
Pure vowels = 12 sounds (Long Vowel Sounds = 5 sounds and Short Vowel Sounds = 7 sounds)
Diphthongs = 8 sounds
Twelve Vowel Sounds (Pure Vowels)
/i:/ eat, bead, bee
/ɪ/ id, bid, pit
/eɪ/ eight, wade, bay
/ɛ/ bet, fed
/æ/ ask, bat, glad
/ʌ/ under, putt, bud
/ɑ:/ cot, bomb
/u:/ boot, two, tube
/ʊ/ foot, should, put
/oʊ/ oat, own, zone, blow
/ɔ/ caught, paw, port
/ɚ/ merge, bird, further
Diphthongs
The word comes from the Greek word diphthongs. It literally means “having two sounds”. Diphthong is also known as a gliding vowel, it is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel.
There are eight diphthongs commonly used in English. They are: /eɪ/, /aɪ/, /əʊ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and /ʊə/
/aɪ/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /i/, /igh/, and /y/ to form sounds similar to “eye.” Here are a few more examples: cry, my, like, bright, lime
/eɪ/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /ey/, /ay/, /ai/ and /a/ to form sounds similar to “great.” Here are a few more examples: bake, rain, lay, eight, break
/əʊ/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /ow/, /oa/ and /o/ to form sounds similar to “boat.” Here are a few more examples: go, oh, slow, loan, though
/aʊ/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /ou/ and /ow/ to form sounds similar to “ow!” Here are a few more examples: bound, house, brown, how, now
/eə/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /ai/, /a/, and /ea/ to form sounds similar to “air.” Here are a few more examples: pair, lair, stare, care, bear
/ɪə/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /ee/, /ie/ and /ea/ to form sounds similar to “ear.” Here are a few more examples: career, here, near, year, pier
/ɔɪ/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /oy/ and /oi/ to form sounds similar to “oil.” Here are a few more examples: boy, coy, toy, foil, coin
/ʊə/ Uses letters and letter combinations like /oo/, /ou/, /u/, and /ue/ to form sounds similar to “cure.” Here are a few more examples: fur, sure, lure, pure, manure
Semi vowels
A speech sound intermediate between a vowel and a consonant, e.g. ‘w’ or ‘y’. letters Y and W can be regarded as vowels and consonants both. Therefore we call them Semi vowels. You might find the alphabet ‘Y’ more commonly used as the vowel rather than a consonant. When it is used at the beginning of a word then it can sound as a vowel.
Observe the words: Yes, you, yard, yoga, young, youth
Whenever the word is used in the beginning or end of the word then it is treated as a vowel.
In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel or glide is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Semivowels form a subclass of approximants. Although “semivowel” and “approximant” are sometimes treated as synonymous, most authors use the term “semivowel” for a more restricted set; there is no universally agreed-upon definition, and the exact details may vary from author to author. For example, Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996) do not consider the labiodental approximant [ʋ] to be a semivowel, while Martínez Celdrán (2004) proposes that it should be considered one.
Consonants
The sounds we make that are not vowels. The breath is somehow blocked on its way out of the vocal cords. The English letters have 24 consonant sounds; divided into two types: Voiced Sounds 15 and Voiceless Sounds 9.
English has 24 consonant sounds. Some consonants have voices from the voice box and some don’t. These consonants are voiced and voiceless pairs /p/ /b/, /t/ /d/, /k/ /g/, /f/ /v/, /s/ /z/, /θ/ /ð/, /ʃ/ /ʒ/, /ʈʃ/ /dʒ/. These consonants are voiced /h/, /w/, /n/, /m/, /r/, /j/, /ŋ/, /l/.
Exercises
1. Answer the following questions.
a. How many letters are there in the English alphabet?
b. How are vowels distinct from consonants?
c. Sort out vowels and consonants:
A, D, C, F, I, G, H, U, I, T, Z, E, Y, M
d. What are the differences between sound and letter?
e. How many consonant sounds are there in English?
f. How many vowel sounds are there in English?
g. What do you mean by Diphthong? How many diphthongs are commonly used in English?
h. Which are the pure vowels?
i. Write the difference between Pure Vowels and Diphthong.
j. Write some words where you find diphthongs.
2. Identify the semi vowels in the following words.
Word, Yellow, Year, Fear, World, Wool, Wood, Father, Yoga, You, Brother, Yard
