The Alphabet Unraveling The Mystery Of The Alphabet From A To Z

Author: David Sacks

Stock information

General Fields

  • : $27.90 NZD
  • : 9780099436829
  • : Arrow Books
  • : Arrow Books
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  • : January 2004
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  • : 34.0
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : David Sacks
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  • : Paperback
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  • : very good
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  • : 395
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Barcode 9780099436829
9780099436829

Description

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.