This book examines the names by which we refer to the letters of the English alphabet, arguing that these letter names provide unrivalled insights into the phonological structure of English, present and past, as well as the many peculiarities of English pronunciation and spelling. Classified either as contronyms, ambinyms or tautonyms, the modern phonological profiles of our ancient Semitic letter names reveal what is unique to English, what is fundamental to language and how letter names emerge as the semiotic product of interchanging languages combined with intralanguage change. This volume promises a much more extensive and deeper linguistic treatment of English letter names than has previously been attempted. It will be of particular interest to students and scholars of historical linguistics, phonology and orthography, the history of English, semiotics, and language and literacy teaching.
PART I: INTRODUCTION TO ICONS OF THE ALPHABET.- Chapter 1. Another book
on the alphabet?.- PART II: THE CONTRONYMS.- Chapter 2. Aitch: When a letter
loses its phonetic 'ead but gains an orthographic foothold.- Chapter
3. Double U: When two /u/ make one /w/ and the phonetics of
consonantalization.- PART III: THE AMBINYMS.- Chapter 4. The vocalic
ambinyms: Pronouncing Ay as /e/, Ee as /i/ and I as /a/ but Oh as /o/ and
Yue as /ju/.- Chapter 5. Cee and Gee: The consonantal ambinyms and the
digraph combination plus .- PART IV: THE TAUTONYMS.- Chapter 6. Vee and Zee:
English fricatives find their voice.- Chapter 7. The vowel-consonant
tautonyms: Syllabic consonants in Etruscan and English.- Chapter
8. Procrustean vowel length: The bimoraic weight of VC and CVV
tautonyms.- PART V: CONCLUSION.- Chapter 9. Alphabetic iconography: A
metalinguistic guide to phonologies and orthographies.
Reese Heitner (PhD, Philosophy of Language; MA, Linguistics, CUNY, Graduate Center) taught at Drexel University, USA and also served as Interim Director of its English Language Center. He lives with his wife, son and dog in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and is researching another linguistics book entitled The Semantics of Sound Change: A Semiotic Approach to the Paradox of Phonologization. He can be reached at reeseheitner@hotmail.com.
