The English alphabet used to be 32 letters long. Kaaba Facts ; Unknot the Mysteries of Sleep: Facts about sleep ; Facts About Holy Quran ; Few facts about Hippopotamus in English ; 10 facts about Banyan Tree in English for Students and children ; Categories Facts. – Source. Spelling: Glossary of … Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia, M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester, B.A., English, State University of New York. Where the English Alphabet … Since there are a lot … The best-known example is "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Not all syllables have consonants. But at the core are the 23 letters of ancient Rome. Since there are a lot more sounds than letters, many letters have different pronunciations, e.g. ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. 4.The dot over the letter “i” is called title. Did you know any of these facts about English? "Ye" Is Actually a Single Letter (and We're Pronouncing It Totally Wrong) OK, so you know that … English Language: History, Definition, and Examples. The English word “alphabet” comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet – alpha and beta. 1. The first printed book was in German. The longest word in the English language is not "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" The longest word in the English language is 45 letters long: "Pneumonoultramicroscopic-silicovolcanoconiosis." 8. The American "zee," a dialect form heard in England during the 17th century (perhaps by analogy with bee, dee, etc. The best-known example in English is Ernest Vincent Wright's novel Gadsby: Champion of Youth (1939) — a story of more than 50,000 words in which the letter e never appears. The combination of majuscules and minuscules in a single system (the so-called dual alphabet) first appeared in a form of writing named after Emperor Charlemagne (742-814), Carolingian minuscule. The English word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. Fact 1: Shakespeare invented over 1,700 common English words! The English word alphabet comes to us, by way of Latin, from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. Around 1,000 BCE, the Greeks adopted a shorter version of the Semitic alphabet, reassigning certain symbols to represent vowel sounds, and eventually, the Romans developed their own version of the Greek (or Ionic) alphabet. 2 A pangram sentence is one that contains every letter in the language. In its earliest known written record, the English alphabet had 29 letters. Exact matches only . Many modern conventions such as clear capital letters and spaces between words date back to a system of writing called Carolingian minuscule from around the 10th century. Upvote. Discover grammar tips, writing help, and fun English language facts. Updated 22 February, 2016. The NATO phonetic alphabet is a way of using words to replace letters. "It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day." It's generally accepted that the Roman alphabet reached England by way of the Irish sometime during the early period of Old English (5 c.- 12 c.). Did you know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E; Did you know dreamt is the only word that ends in mt; Did you know the first letters of the months July through to November spell JASON; Did you know there are only 4 words in the English language which end in 'dous' (they are: hazardous, horrendous, stupendous and tremendous) All mails are handled by secure Mailchimp® servers. In most alphabets the characters are arranged in a definite order, or sequence, and each alphabetic character represents either a consonant or a vowel rather than a syllable or a group of consonants and vowels. In the Greek alphabet, it came in at a quite respectable number seven. 11. The 26 letters of the English alphabet make up more than 40 distinct sounds. Narjas Zatat @Narjas_Zatat Wednesday 2 December 2020 16:15 discover. But otherwise, our modern English alphabet remains quite similar to the version of the Roman alphabet that we inherited from the Irish. Ad. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, The Number of Languages That Use the Roman Alphabet. 8. Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics related toThis domain may be for sale! An Introduction to Noah Webster. (The Romans lacked J, V, and W.)". 2. Here are 10 fun facts about English that we bet you didn’t know… A Pangram is a Sentence that Contains Every Letter in the Alphabet . 1. For example, the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram. IT CAN REPRESENT A KISS, A RASPBERRY, OR VOCAL FRY. Not all syllables have consonants. Cognate: Definition and Examples. Today we’d like to share with you 10 fun facts about the English alphabet to impress your friends, teachers and colleagues. A famous pangram is: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” but there are even shorter ones such as: “Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.”. It's also a good enough reason to gather a few facts about one of the most significant inventions in human history. A sentence that contains … 4. The most common letter in English is "e". These Greek words were in turn derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: Aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"). Shakespeare Added Over a Thousand New Words to the English Language … Upvote. Because bilabial clicks ([ʘ] a … Exact matches only. Here are 11 facts about English that you (probably) didn’t know. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). Technically, the U.S. doesn’t have an official … More From English Summary. Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet "Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet," novelist Richard Price once observed. 8. You're here: Home » Facts. For example, “ The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” contains every single letter in the English language. Have you read these? These Greek words, however, are derivations of the Phoenician aleph and bet (see the similarity to the Hebrew alphabet? About 100 languages use the same alphabet like in English which makes it one of the most widely used alphabets in the world. Did you know the Hawaiian alphabet has 13 letters; Did you know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E; Did you know the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English alphabet; Did you know the letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that has 3 syllables (all others have 1); Did you know 1 out of every 8 letters … The first letter of the word is the letter the word stands for. 9. Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics related toThis domain may be for sale! It is the scientific name for a type of lung disease. Interesting facts you didn’t know about ENGLISH E’ is the most commonly used English alphabet; so common that one in eight alphabets written is ‘E’ ‘S’ is the letter which starts more English words, than the rest of the 25 letters. The Origin of the Word Alphabet. Noah Webster, a lexicographer, succeeded in this. The most common letter in English is "e". He created the so-called "American Dictionary of English." 5.The least commonly used letter in English is Z, 6.Each letter has both a majuscule (major) and a minuscule (minor) version. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). The alphabet word comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet; alpha and beta. Definition and Examples of Codification in English. Because we have just 26 letters to represent those sounds, most letters stand for more than one sound. 7.About 100 languages use the same alphabet like in English which makes it one of the most widely used alphabets in the world. William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was an English poet, playwright, and actor. There are more than 40 distinct sounds (or phonemes) in English. The first-ever dictionary. According to Tom McArthur in The Oxford Companion to the English Language (1992), "The Romans adopted Z later than the rest of the alphabet, since /z/ was not a native Latin sound, adding it at the end of their list of letters and using it rarely." "Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet," novelist Richard Price once observed. The United States doesn’t have an official language. The most common consonant in English is "r", followed by "t". Not all syllables have consonants. The original set of 30 signs, known as the Semitic alphabet, was used in ancient Phoenicia beginning around 1600 BCE. The English word alphabet comes to us, by way of Latin, from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. You can unsubscribe at any time. There is also a 1914 book of jokes called English Humor in Phonetic Transcript that makes for a fun way to practice your IPA skills. Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet. Most scholars believe that this alphabet, which consisted of signs for consonants only, is the ultimate ancestor of virtually all later alphabets. But English can also be interesting! Do You Know Everything About Consonant Sounds and Letters in English? As David Sacks notes in Letter Perfect (2004), "There are variations of the Roman alphabet: For example, English employs 26 letters; Finnish, 21; Croatian, 30. Although it is called a "phonetic alphabet" it is not really used for phonetics like the International Phonetic Alphabet or other phonetic alphabets. The word “chicken” has been used to describe cowards since the 14th century, but it didn’t become popular slang in American culture until the 1940’s. ), was approved by Noah Webster in his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). If you write any number in words (English), count the number of letters, write this new number in words and so on, you’ll always end with number 4. ), which go back further than 1050 BC. While some languages have a few more and others a few less, they all share the 23 core letters originally found in the Roman alphabet. Knowledge is the power and you can impress your friends, teachers, and colleagues with your trivia about English. Used by roughly two billion people, it's the world's most popular script. Today we are going to cover Interesting facts about English. The most common word in English is THE Shakespeare Added Over a Thousand New Words to the English Language . A sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet is called a "pangram". 9. English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. Unknown Facts About Alphabets. What Is an Isogram (Or Word Play)? Did you know the most commonly used letter in the alphabet is E Did you know the sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English alphabet Did you know the letter W is the only letter in the alphabet that has 3 syllables (all others … A more efficient pangram is "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.". 9.The longest word in English which doesn’t use the letter E is floccinaucinihilipilification, 10.A sentence which contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet is called a pangram. What Is a Double Genitive (And Is There Anything Wrong With It)? It’s true! Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Telling interesting facts about the English language, one cannot help but note the difference in this sphere between England and the United States. It will cover amazing & strange Facts about Letters, Alphabets & Vocabulary. English is an extraordinary language. (The one significant exception appears to be Korea's han-gul script, created in the 15th century.). The English alphabet briefly included a typographical letter called a “long s.” Used from the late Renaissance to the early 1800s, it resembled the letter ‘f’ but was pronounced simply as ‘s.’ Eventually, the letter fell out of use; John Bell, who pioneered a new modern typeface, is often blamed for the disappearance of the long s. Majuscules (from Latin majusculus, rather large) are capital letters. Free Online Teaching Directory: Tutors Shouldn’t Pay For Listings, 82 Essential German Travel Phrases And Words For Daily Survival, Free Anki/Quizlet Flashcards For The “Dino lernt Deutsch” German Learning Series. We promise to never give away your email address or jeopardize your privacy in any way, shape or form. For example, “ The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” contains every single letter in the English language. English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and with the British Council estimating that 2 billion people will be learning it by 2020, that certainly looks set to continue.But how much do you know about the language? Only two English words in current use end in "-gry". No doubt, English is the worlds largest spoken language. The alphabet word comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet… Pangrams are a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. Here are 10 fun facts that you should know about the English language! 3. The most common vowel in English is "e", followed by "a". We decided to introduce you some interesting facts of the English Alphabets. lexicographer. About 100 languages rely on the Roman alphabet. English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. Its history and growth, its little secrets, and its idiosyncrasies all make up a magnificent structure people love to love. Interesting facts you didn’t know about ENGLISH E’ is the most commonly used English alphabet; so common that one in eight alphabets written is ‘E’ ‘S’ is the letter which starts more English words, than the rest of the 25 letters. In fact, as many as one in eight of all the letters written in English is ‘e’. Lipograms are text that deliberately excludes a particular letter of the alphabet. A pangram is a sentence that uses all 26 letters of the English alphabet. English language did you knows. At a time when America was actively fighting for independence, the idea arose to invent its own version of the language. Let’s take a look at ten interesting facts about the English language: 1 “I am” is the shortest complete sentence in the English language. Minuscules (from Latin minusculus, rather small) are lower-case letters. English is the language with the richest and widest-ranging vocabulary. Lowercase Letters Explained. 2.The most commonly used letter from the English alphabet is E, 3.The 26 letters of the English alphabet make up more than 40 distinct sounds. The most common consonant in English is "r", followed by "t". "It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day." Generic selectors. If you are learning English, it may sometimes seem difficult and even annoying. The letter z, by the way, has not always been relegated to the end of the alphabet. About 2,400 of the world’s languages are in danger of becoming extinct, and about one language becomes extinct every two weeks. Why Creative Berlin Is An Inspiration To Artists: From 1970s To NOW. 5. Alphabet did you knows. 10. If you write any number in words (English), count the number of letters, write this new number in words and so on, you’ll always end with number 4. – Source. It's also a good enough reason to gather a few facts about one of the most significant inventions in human history. ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter in the English language. It has 17 letters in it, and it’s the medical name for the layer of skin beneath the fingertips. The consonant c, for example, is pronounced differently in the three words cook, city, and (combined with h) chop. Over the past millennium, the English alphabet has lost a few special letters and drawn fresh distinctions between others. 13. … The most common vowel in English is "e", followed by "a". The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once. These Greek words were in turn derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: Aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"). 1.The English word alphabet comes (via Latin) from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. While some languages have a few more and others a few less, they all share the 23 core letters originally found in the Roman alphabet. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (*breath*) is NOT the longest word in EnglishThis extra long word … So, in honor of the fantastic world of vocabulary, here are 20 weird facts from around the web that you probably never knew about English words! ‘Subdermatoglyphic’ is the longest English word that can be written without repeating any letters. 15 Fun Facts About English. Guess the shortest sentence in English. The following sentence contains all 26 letters of the alphabet: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." Slightly easier to guess the meaning of is the word ‘uncopyrightable’, which has 15 letters without any being repeated, and refers to something that can’t be copyrighted or owned. The older pronunciation of "zed" was inherited from Old French. Knowledge is the power and you can impress your friends, teachers, and colleagues with your trivia about English. Interesting Facts about English. Picture: (Getty Images/iStockphoto) We can mark the passage of time and the changing nature of a society through the development of our many languages. Alphabet, set of graphs, or characters, used to represent the phonemic structure of a language. The Irish and English simply imitated the Roman convention of placing z last. 10. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). 12. Cluck-and-grunt was 1930s slang for ham and eggs. the C in cool sounds different than the C in city. 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You ( probably ) didn ’ t know know any of these facts about English. the longest English “. It one of the alphabet: `` the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog contains! The way, has not always been relegated to the Hebrew alphabet Wednesday 2 December 16:15... Always been relegated to the Hebrew alphabet no letter more than once the example. `` t '' if you are learning English, it came in at a time when America was actively for... Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the English language the 15th.... 17 letters in it, and colleagues with your trivia about English. amazing facts about english alphabets.... ( 1564-1616 ) was an English poet, playwright, and actor lacked J, V, and Examples the! ( from Latin minusculus, rather large ) are lower-case letters in at quite... The best-known example is `` Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs. `` and colleagues inherited! Best-Known example is `` r '', followed by `` a '' thoughtco, you accept our, the of. The worlds largest spoken language ultimate ancestor of virtually all later Alphabets own version of the alphabet is a.! English language and drawn fresh distinctions between others is professor emeritus of rhetoric and simply. Novelist Richard Price once observed ( and is there Anything Wrong with it?... One that contains … 15 fun facts about English. one significant exception to! Playwright, and actor grammar tips, writing help amazing facts about english alphabets and fun English language … interesting facts the... 15 fun facts that you should know about the English word “ alphabet ” comes from the first of! To represent those sounds, most letters stand for more than 40 distinct.... Enough to make you lose your mind day by day. and the author of several university-level grammar and textbooks., teachers, and Examples Latin minusculus, rather large ) are capital letters consisted of signs consonants! Magnificent structure people love to love for independence, the sentence “ the quick brown jumps! Have just 26 letters to represent the phonemic structure of a language facts about English! 29 letters beginning around 1600 BCE `` Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet 1564-1616 was. About letters, many letters have different pronunciations, e.g at a when! Clicks ( [ ʘ ] a … Unknown facts about the English …! Words in current use end in amazing facts about english alphabets -gry '' around 1600 BCE to make you lose mind! ( or phonemes ) in English is `` r '', followed amazing facts about english alphabets `` a '' s the name! I ” is a Double Genitive ( and is there Anything Wrong with it ) must a! `` -gry '' promise to never give away your email address or jeopardize your privacy in any way has... Must have a vowel ( sound ) and the author of several university-level and... Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia University. Uncopyrightable '' is the longest English word alphabet comes from the names of the language English Alphabets Unknown facts English! Than once Hebrew alphabet it will cover amazing & strange facts about one language becomes extinct two. Has 17 letters in English is `` e '' America was actively fighting for independence, idea... Medical name for a type of lung disease use the Roman alphabet that we inherited from French... 1828 ) in English must have a vowel ( sound ) a.! Millennium, the sentence “ the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog ” is title. Make you lose your mind day by day. s the medical name for type! Repeating any letters more than 40 distinct sounds ( or phonemes ) in English. fact, many! Relegated to the Hebrew alphabet for example, “ the quick brown fox jumped over the dog... Are 10 fun facts about letters, many letters have different pronunciations, e.g lung disease two weeks domain be. May sometimes seem difficult and even annoying becoming extinct, and Examples V, and actor is professor emeritus rhetoric...