Find the best information and most relevant links on all topics related toThis domain may be for sale! For example, “ The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” contains every single letter in the English language. But English can also be interesting! These Greek words were in turn derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: Aleph ("ox") and beth ("house"). 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. Because we have just 26 letters to represent those sounds, most letters stand for more than one sound. Here are 11 facts about English that you (probably) didn’t know. English words for livestock (cow, sheep, chicken) are Germanic-based and the words for meats (beef, mutton, poultry) are French-based. Shakespeare Added Over a Thousand New Words to the English Language . In its earliest known written record, the English alphabet had 29 letters. 4.The dot over the letter “i” is called title. 3. About 100 languages rely on the Roman alphabet. But otherwise, our modern English alphabet remains quite similar to the version of the Roman alphabet that we inherited from the Irish. "Ye" Is Actually a Single Letter (and We're Pronouncing It Totally Wrong) OK, so you know that … A more efficient pangram is "Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.". What Is an Isogram (Or Word Play)? Minuscules (from Latin minusculus, rather small) are lower-case letters. Definition and Examples of Codification in English. The most common consonant in English is "r", followed by "t". "It's enough to make you lose your mind day by day." The English word alphabet comes from the names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. Noah Webster, a lexicographer, succeeded in this. The most common letter in English is "e". It is the scientific name for a type of lung disease. 8. It has 17 letters in it, and it’s the medical name for the layer of skin beneath the fingertips. A sentence that contains … These Greek words, however, are derivations of the Phoenician aleph and bet (see the similarity to the Hebrew alphabet? Updated 22 February, 2016. Generic selectors. For example, the sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” is a pangram. ‘Subdermatoglyphic’ is the longest English word that can be written without repeating any letters. "Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet," novelist Richard Price once observed. Upvote. Today we’d like to share with you 10 fun facts about the English alphabet to impress your friends, teachers and colleagues. 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 … English is the language with the richest and widest-ranging vocabulary. Since there are a lot more sounds than letters, many letters have different pronunciations, e.g. 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. Telling interesting facts about the English language, one cannot help but note the difference in this sphere between England and the United States. The most common vowel in English is "e", followed by "a". Knowledge is the power and you can impress your friends, teachers, and colleagues with your trivia about English. Did you know any of these facts about English? Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet "Writers spend years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet," novelist Richard Price once observed. Do You Know Everything About Consonant Sounds and Letters in English? There are more than 40 distinct sounds (or phonemes) in English. An Introduction to Noah Webster. Every syllable in English must have a vowel (sound). Exact matches only. We decided to introduce you some interesting facts of the English Alphabets. Most scholars believe that this alphabet, which consisted of signs for consonants only, is the ultimate ancestor of virtually all later alphabets. Not all syllables have consonants. Here are 10 fun facts that you should know about the English language! 2. The most common word in English is THE 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. 5. 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! The English alphabet used to be 32 letters long. The letter z, by the way, has not always been relegated to the end of the alphabet. Have you read these? It's also a good enough reason to gather a few facts about one of the most significant inventions in human history. The longest word in the English language is not "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" The longest word in the English language is 45 letters long: "Pneumonoultramicroscopic-silicovolcanoconiosis." Its history and growth, its little secrets, and its idiosyncrasies all make up a magnificent structure people love to love. Where the English Alphabet … The NATO phonetic alphabet is a way of using words to replace letters. ), was approved by Noah Webster in his American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Because bilabial clicks ([ʘ] a … Discover grammar tips, writing help, and fun English language facts. About 100 languages use the same alphabet like in English which makes it one of the most widely used alphabets in the world. The older pronunciation of "zed" was inherited from Old French. ‘E’ is the most commonly used letter in the English language. (The one significant exception appears to be Korea's han-gul script, created in the 15th century.). Exact matches only . He created the so-called "American Dictionary of English." The word "uncopyrightable" is the longest English word in normal use that contains no letter more than once. 12. The Irish and English simply imitated the Roman convention of placing z last. 10. 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. 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 … Over the past millennium, the English alphabet has lost a few special letters and drawn fresh distinctions between others. Unknown Facts About Alphabets. The 26 letters of the English alphabet make up more than 40 distinct sounds. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, The Number of Languages That Use the Roman Alphabet. 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