The Book Is Here!

As of 5 minutes ago, I finished the fully illustrated alphAmuse. It's a wonderful read.

You should be able to see the book by visiting the following link (message to my immediate family: do not click on the link if you want to maintain some element of surprise for your Christmas gift):

http://www5.snapfish.com/meijer/projectshareewelcome/l=3746267028/p=247131323835358375/g=3810361028/cobrandOid=1082272/COBRAND_NAME=meijer/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

If anyone is interested in ordering a copy of the book, I can get it between now and December 15 for $23. Just leave a comment or send me an email.

Results for X, Y, and Zonking Z

Winner for X was "Excepting exaggerated exuberant expressions, exceptional executives exhibit exemplary exhalation exercises" by Brady.

Y defaulted to "Yoga yetis yodel yearly" by Erin.

And now, finally, we are ready for Z! Submit Z sentences by Wednesday, December 7, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: zeda
Frequency: 26th most frequent letter in English (2)
"Z" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is found in the Saxon alphabets, set down by Grammarians, but is read in no word originally Teutonick: its sound is uniformly that of an hard S." (3)

W winner, X vote, Y submit

The winner for W was "Wondrous walruses wrestle wretched warthogs while wolverines watch" submitted by Glitner76. Don't forget to submit your Y sentence using the comment section on this link.

Now, vote for which sentence should represent X in alphAmuse. Remember, the rule for X was that either all the words had to start with "ex" or all had to end in "x".

Yammering Y

Submit Y sentences by Wednesday, November 23, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: upsilon
Frequency: 18th most frequent letter in English (2)
"Y" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "At the beginning of words, is a consonant; at the end, and when it follows a consonant, is a vowel, and has the sound of i. It is used at the end of words, and whenever two i’s would come together; and in words derived from the Greek, to express the u. Y was much used by the Saxons, whence y is found for i in the old English writers." (3)

Exonerating X

SPECIAL RULES:
Since we don't really have words that begin with X, for this round we will except sentence that follow either of the following rules. (Each sentence should follow only one rule; don't mix and match.)

Rule 1: All words begin with "ex" (excellent, exigency, exuberant)
OR
Rule 2: All words end with "x" (fax, six, flax)


Submit X sentences by Wednesday, November 16, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: ?
Frequency: 24th most frequent letter in English (2)
"X" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "is a letter, which, though found in Saxon words, begins no word in the English language." (3)

Results for V, Vote for W

The winner for V was "Vigilant Victorians vanquished villainous Velociraptors". I can't wait to craft construction paper cut outs of Victorians...

suggestions welcome.

Vote for the W sentence by Tuesday the 15th.

Wholloping W

Submit W sentences by Wednesday, November 9, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 15th most frequent letter in English (2)
"W" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a letter of which the form is not to be found in the alphabets of the learned languages; though it is not improbable that by our w is expressed the sound of the Roman v, and the Eolick f. Both the form and sound are excluded from the languages derived from the Latin." (3)

Vote for V

Vote for the best sentence to represent V in the alphAmuse book. Poll closes Monday night.

Vociforating V (& U results)

Winner for U was "Ultrasonic ukuleles underimpress users" submitted by Erin.

Submit V sentences by Wednesday, October 26, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 21st most frequent letter in English (2)
"V" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has two powers, expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed. V, the consonant, has a sound nearly approaching to those of b and f. With b it is by the Spaniards and Gascons always confounded, and in the Runick alphabet is expressed by the same character with f, distinguished only by a diacritical point. Its sound in English is uniform. It is never mute." (3)

Vote for U

Vote for U by Thursday, Sept 29.

Unveiling U

Clearly, getting behind in other areas of life.

Without further ado, submit U sentences by Tuesday, September 20, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: none
Frequency: 13th most frequent letter in English (2)
"U" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "U, the vowel, has two sounds; one clear, expressed at other times by eu, as obtuse; the other close, and approaching to the Italian u, or English oo, as obtund." (3)

winners for S & T

The winning S sentence was "Stewart suggested sneaking snacks surreptitiously, so Silvester silently stole some sausages" by Sherry.

The the winner for T: "Trying to talk to turkeys takes tenacity" by Erin.

Vote for S & T, plus R winner

The winner for R is "Rotund raccoons routinely raid restaurant rubbish" submitted by Erin.

And now, vote for S & T. Poll closes Saturday night.

Which sentence should represent the letter S in the alphAmuse book?


Which sentence should represent the letter T in the alphAmuse book?

Looking for T sentences

Okay, I was a little hasty in putting out calls for U and V sentences because we're still working on T. We've just got 1 T sentence so far, so submit T sentences by commenting here!

Remember, in T all those wonderful words like "the" and "to" and "there" are allowed, so go crazy!

Last call for S

S officially closes tonight, but since I'm late getting out the reminder, you've got until tomorrow (Thursday) night to submit your S sentences. Go to this post and comment: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/solving-s.html

Also, T is officially open. http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/torturing-t.html

Torturing T

Submit T sentences by Wednesday, August 3, using comments on this post.

Origins: ? (1)
Greek: Tau
Frequency: 2nd most frequent letter in English (2)
"T" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A consonant, which, at the beginning and end of words, has always the same sound nearly approaching to the d; but before an i, when followed by a vowel, has the sound of an obscure s: as, nation, salvation, except when s precedes t: as, Christian, question." (3)

Results & More Voting

I'm way behind in announcing results (not that you don't just look at the polls yourselves...).

Natalie needs Nutella nightly, Niko needs Nutella now. (Naomi)
Overtired Oliver ordered oodles of old, orange oddities. (Sherry)
Perforated parasols partially protect photophobic penguins. (Bob)
Quirky queens quickly quilted quaint quadrangles. (Rita)

And now, vote for R (while you continue to think about your S sentences).

Solving S

Submit S sentences by Wednesday, July 27, using comments on this post.

Origins: teeth? (1)
Greek: Sigma
Frequency: 7th most frequent letter in English (2)
"S" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has in English the same hissing sound as in other languages, and unhappily prevails in so many of our words that it produces in the ear of a foreigner a continued sibilation." (3)

Remember R

Submit your R sentences by Wednesday by commenting on here: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/routing-r.html.

Vote for Q

We ended up with a great Q selection!

Vote for the sentence to represent Q in alphAmuse. Poll closes Monday July 18 at midnight.

Routing R

Submit R sentences by Wednesday, July 20, using comments on this post.

Origins: Head (1)
Greek: Rho
Frequency: 9th most frequent letter in English (2)
"R" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is called the canine letter, because it is uttered with some resemblance to the growl or snarl of a cur: it has one constant sound in English, such as it has in other languages; as red, rose, more, muriatick: in words derived from the Greek, it is followed by an h, rhapsody: r is never mute, unless the second r may be accounted mute, where two rr are used; as myrrh." (3)

Q sentence

Remember to post a Q sentence by the end of today!

To submit your sentence, use the comments on this post: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/07/quilting-q.html

Quilting Q

Submit Q sentences by Wednesday, July 13, using comments on this post.

Origins: cord of wool (1)
Greek: qoppa
Frequency: 25th most frequent letter in English (2)
"P" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a consonant borrowed from the Latin or French, for which, though q is commonly placed in the Saxon alphabet, the Saxons generally used cƿ, cw; as cƿellan or cwellan, to quell: qu is, in English, pronounced as by the Italians and Spaniards cw; as quail, quench, except quoit, which is spoken, according to the manner of the French, coit: the name of this letter is cue, from queue, French, tail; its form being that of an O with a tail." (3)

Vote for P

Which sentence should represent P in the alphAmuse book?

Submit your P sentence

Quick reminder to submit your P sentences by Saturday!

Go here and comment with your sentence: http://alpha-musing.blogspot.com/2011/06/playing-p.html

Playing P

Submit P sentences by Saturday, June 25, using comments on this post.

Origins: ?
Greek: pi (sound); rho (looks)
Frequency: 19th most frequent letter in English (2)
"P" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a labial consonant, formed by a slight compression of the anterior part of the lips; as, pull, pelt. It is confounded by the Germans and Welsh with b: it has an uniform sound: it is sometimes mute before t; as, accompt, receipt; but the mute p is in modern orthography commonly omitted." (3)

Illustrations for E, F, G

Results for L & M, Vote for N and O

L was a tie, decided on by random.org. The winner was "Little Louise leased lousy Lionel's lemon." Submitted by Sherry.

The winning sentence for M was "'Mush! Mush!' menaced Mickey mercilessly, making miserables mutts march." Submitted by Erin.

Vote for N and O, below. Polls close on Wednesday night.

Vote for N!


Vote for O!

N needs you!

N is feeling lonely since no one wrote a sentence for him (her?). So I'm extending the deadline for N submissions to this Wednesday, June 15. While we're at it, go ahead and add to O if you feel like it until Wednesday, too.

I've had a few people tell me that the letter submissions and voting come and go so quickly they have a hard time remembering to post sentences. So I'm going to lengthen our the timing and add reminder posts between each letter. This is a slightly less drastic measure than an earlier idea I had of holding my family captive during our family reunion last week and demanding they write sentences through Z for me.

Also, more illustrations on their way!

Ordering O

Submit O sentences by Saturday, June 11, using comments on this post.

Origins: eye (1)
Greek: omega
Frequency: 4th most frequent letter in English (2)
"O" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): " Has in English a long sound; as, drone, groan, slone, alone, cloke, broke, coal, droll; or short, got, knot, shot, prong, long. It is usually denoted long by a servile a subjoined; as, moan, or by e at the end of the syllable; as, bone." (3)

Noodling N

Submit N sentences by Saturday, June 4, using comments on this post.

Origins: snake (1)
Greek: nu
Frequency: 6th most frequent letter in English (2)
"N" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A semivowel, has in English an invariable sound; as, no, name, net; it is sometimes after m almost lost; as, condemn, contemn." (3)

Results from J, K and VOTE for L, M

Winner for J: Jump! by Brady

Winner for K: Kangaroos knit kitschy keepsakes. by Erin

Vote for the best sentence to represent L


Vote for the best sentence to represent M

Musing M

Submit M sentences by Saturday, May 28, using comments on this post.

Origins: water (1)
Greek: mu
Frequency: 14th most frequent letter in English (2)
"M" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Has, in English, one unvaried sound, by compression of the lips; as, mine, tame, camp: it is never mute." (3)

Linguisticating L

Submit L sentences by Saturday, May 21, using comments on this post.

Origins: cattle prod (1)
Greek: lambda
Frequency: 11th most frequent letter in English (2)
"L" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A liquid consonant, which preserves always the same sound in English." (3)

Vote for J and K

Two letters, vote by Wednesday!

1. Vote for J


1. Vote for K

Kicking around k

Submit K sentences by Saturday, May 14, using comments on this post.

Origins: open hand(1)
Greek: kappa
Frequency: 22nd most frequent letter in English (2)
"K" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A letter borrowed by the English from the Greek alphabet.It ends a word after a diphthong: as, look, break, shook, leek. The English never use c at the end of a word. K is silent in the present pronunciation before n: as, knife, knee, knell." (3)

I is for Illustrations!

Our I winner: "Isn't it interesting imagining icy igloos indoors?" Ian inquired. Congrats to Brady!

I also have 3 new illustrations ready for the alphAmuse book. B, C, & D.

Remember, submit ideas for J sentences until Saturday.

jurying j

Submit J sentences by Saturday, May 7, using comments on this post.

Origins: originated as a swash character to end some Roman numerals in place of i.(1)
Greek: ?
Frequency: 23rd most frequent letter in English (2)
"J" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "J consonant has invariably the same sound with that of g in giant; as jade, jet, jilt, jolt, just." (3)

Vote for I

Poll closes on Wednesday.

Imagining I

Submit I sentences by Saturday, April 30, using comments on this post.

Origins: leg with a hand (1)
Greek: iota
Frequency: 5th most frequent letter in English (2)
"I" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is in English considered both as a vowel and consonant; though, since the vowel and consonant differ in their form as well as sound, they may be more properly accounted two letters." (3)

Winner for H

"Heave ho!" hollered hay harvesters, hefting heavy hauls.

p.s. Look for several letter illustrations (B, C, and D) coming soon.

Vote for H by Tuesday night

Vote for the sentence you think should represent H in the alphAmuse book.

Heartfelt H

Submit H sentences by Saturday, April 23, using comments on this post.

Origins: fence or posts (1)
Greek: eta
Frequency: 8th most frequent letter in English (2)
"H" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is in English, as in other languages, a note of aspiration, sounded only by a strong emission of the breath, without any conformation of the organs of speech, and is therefore by many grammarians accounted no letter. " (3)

G winner

The winner for G is "Grim gargoyles guarding Gothic gables gave guests goosebumps."

H is coming soon.

Vote for G

Pick your favorite G sentence. Poll closes on Monday night.

Gratifying G

Submit your G sentence using comments on this post.

Origins: ?
Greek: gamma
Frequency: 17th most frequent letter in English (2)
"G" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "G has two sounds, one is called that of the hard G, because it is formed by a pressure somewhat hard of the forepart of the tongue against the upper gum. The other sound, called that of the soft G, resembles that of J, and is commonly, though not always, found before e, i; as, gem, gibbet. Before u, at the end of a word, g is commonly melted away; as in the French, from which these words are commonly derived. " (3)

Results for F

The winner is: Flipper freed frenzied Francine from fearsome flying fish. Submitted by Erin.

Vote for F

Francine makes her debut. Poll closes on Friday night.

Results for E, Submit for F

Congratulations Abe, on the winning E sentence: Every evil enchanter envies Eduardo's elegant eyebrows.

Elegant, indeed.

Now on to F. Submit your F sentence using comments on this post.

Origins: hook or club (1)
Greek: digamma
Frequency: 16th most frequent letter in English (2)
"F" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "A consonant generally reckoned by authors, and admitted by Scaliger, among the semi-vowels, and according to that opinion distinguished in the enumeration of the alphabet by a name beginning with a vowel, yet has so far the nature of a mute, that it is easily pronounced before a liquid in the same syllable." (3)

Vote for E

Okay, we stalled out on E, but we're back on track with 2 choices for E sentences. You have until Sunday night to vote!

D winner

We had another tie for D, and random.org settled the debate. The winning D sentence is,

Dorothy's dreams don't disappoint: dilapidated dungeons, diaphanous dresses, dangerous dodos, dulcet drummers dying dramatically.

Congratulations, Brady!

Entertaining E

Origins: praying or calling human figure (1)
Greek: epsilon
Frequency: The most frequent letter in English (2)
"C" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "E is the most frequent vowel in the English language; for it not only is used like the rest in the beginning or end of words, but has the peculiar quality of lengthening the foregoing vowel. Anciently almost every word ended with e; as for can, canne; for year, yeare; for great, greate; for need, neede; for flock, flocke. It is probable that this e final had at first a soft sound and that afterwards it was in poetry either mute or vocal, as the verse required, ’till at last it became universally silent." (3)

Of Interest:
E is the first letter of my name!
But perhaps of more general interest, check out Carol King's "A Alligators All Around", a childhood favorite of mine.

What alphabet books, songs, rhymes did you love as a kid?

Results for C

In a shocking turn of events, we had a tie for the letter C sentence.

Sentence 1: Clara's colorful cookie crumbs completedly covered Connie's comfortable couch cushions, causing Connie considerable consternation.

Sentence 2: Cunning chefs create camouflaged cupcakes causing customer confusion concerning clandestine confections.

According to the official alphAmuse rules, a winning sentence is chosen from the tied sentences by a random process using http://www.random.org/. I asked random.org to generate a random number between 1 and 2. If the number was 1, then Sentence 1 won; if the number was 2, then Sentence 2 won.

The result? 2. Cupcakes for everyone.

(full disclosure, sentence 2 was mine...)

Vote for D

Which sentence should represent the letter D in the alphAmuse book?

A - illustrated!

Remember A? Here it is in full color! (By the way, D is feeling lonely.)

Decanting D

Dilute winter doldrums by dreaming decadent D sentences! First, some D data for you digest.

Origins: fish or door (1)
Greek: delta
Frequency: 10th most frequent letter in English (2)
"D" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "Is a consonant nearly approaching in sound to T, but formed by a stronger appulse of the the tongue to the upper part of the mouth. The sound of D in English is uniform, and it is never mute." (3)

Which sentence should go into the alphAmuse book for the letter "C"?

Best of B

Results are in! The winning B sentence is "Bob's bassoon bellows beautiful ballads but Bertha's bagpipes bewilder bystanders" by Sarah Black.

With so many outstanding choices, I can't help but think that the alphAmuse book will have to come with an appendix listing all the sentences for each letter!

You have until Thursday (tomorrow) night to comment with your C sentences. Voting will begin on Friday. So far the competition includes cheetahs, canines, credit cards, and cupcakes.

Crafting C

A cordial call for C sentences, and a few C considerations to court your creativity.

Origins: possibly an Egyptian staff sling or camel (1)
Greek: gamma
Frequency: 12th most frequent letter in English (2)
"C" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "The third letter of the alphabet, has two sounds; one like k, as, call, clock, craft, coal, companion, cuneiform; the other as s, as, Cæsar, cessation, cinder. It sounds like k before a, o, u, or a consonant; and like s, before e, i, and y." (3)

Of Interest:

C does not appear anywhere in the spelling of the English counting system (one, two, three, etc) (4)

Although C words appear only 6 times on the list of top 200 most commonly used words, they makes up a substantial portion of our grammar vocabulary (clause, comma, colon, conjugation, capitaliz

ation, conjunction). (5)

Tip! Check out this reference for unusual words beginning in each letter of the alphabet: http://phrontistery.info/c.html

Vote for B (+ results for A)

Voting for A is closed and the official winner is: "Alert! Alert! An angry, armored aardvark army approaches!" Congratulations to Abe Gong for his award-winning sentence.

Time to vote for your favorite sentence to represent B.

Which sentence should go into the alphAmuse book for the letter "B"?

Vote for the A sentence

Which sentence should go into the alphAmuse book for the letter "A"?

Broadcasting B

Here are some B facts to brood over before commenting with your B sentences.

Origins: pictogram of a house floorplan (1)
Greek: beta
Frequency: 20th most frequent letter in English (2)
"B" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "The second letter of the English alphabet, is pronounced as in most other European languages, by pressing the whole length of the lips together, and forcing them open with a strong breath. The Spaniards, in most words, use B or V indifferently." (3)

Of Interest:
The lower case b came about when scribes in Roman

times got lazy when writing and left out the upper loop of the capital B. (4)
The only difference between the "buh" B sound and the "puh" P sound is that when you do the "puh", you let out a puff of air. (Linguists, feel free to correct me with the fine nuances I'm missing...)
Many idioms begin with the letter B: Back seat drive, Back to back, Baker's dozen, Bend over backwards, Bite your tongue (more here).

start at the very beginning: A

This week's featured letter is A. I've put together some facts about A. Enjoy, and then use the comments section to post a sentence made of words that all begin with the letter A. Sound daunting? Just try it out - it's actually pretty fun, and comments can be anonymous.

All About A

Origins: pictogram of an Ox head (1)

Greek: alpha
Frequency: 3rd most frequent letter in English (2)
"A" from Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755): "The first letter of the European alphabets, has, in the English language, three different sounds, which may be termed the broad, open, and slender." (Broad = all, wall; Open: father, rather; slender: place, face) (3)

Of Interest:The words abstemious and arsenious contain all the vowels in the correct order. (4)

A study published in the British Journal of Educational Psychology in March 2010 found that when students see the letter "A" before a test they may perform better than when they see the letter "F" or a neutral letter "J". (5)