Page 35 - Southern Exposure - February '24

Southern Exposure, Page 35

Book revieW

Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History

Of Our Alphabet From A To Z

By Nils A. Shapiro

As one whose entire On publication it was received with international Along the way you will learn the very interesting
personal and business life acclaim. The New York Times reviewer wrote, “As fun to reasons why the five vowels – a, e, i, o, u – were added
has been intimately involved read as it is enlightening … Sacks’s obsession is contagious, to the original characters to make up the 26 in our present
with the written word – from and I can imagine few readers whose lives would not be alphabet, as well as what most of us have long forgotten
a love of reading that began in enriched by what he calls his ‘voyage of discovery.’” about the “consonants” and “sibilants” we may or may not
early childhood to my career I agree with that reviewer’s enthusiastic comment, but have learned in elementary school grammar classes.
as a magazine publisher and in all fairness to the readers of my column must add a note At that point David Sacks begins his extraordinarily
book and newspaper editor, of caution to my description of this book’s content and informative history of the 26 letters of our alphabet, each
as well as the more than purpose. in its own chapter. You can jump to any place in the book;
200 book reviews to date – To begin with, I can promise that every one of the 367 there is no need to read them in sequence. For example, I
I cannot recall a title ever pages of this book will offer a bounty of fascinating facts decided to turn first to the chapters about the initials of my
attracting my attention more you had not previously known. (That doesn’t include the own name, NAS – my middle name is Allen. I suspect you
than the subject of this month’s column when I came across reference section – bibliography, index and list of more may want to do the same with your name.
it in a local bookstore. than 100 helpful illustrations, photographs and charts that I found the histories so intriguing that I continued until
And what a fortuitous accompany the text.) I finished the entire book in one more week of sittings. I
discovery it was! The author begins with a preface and opening chapter, pointed out to my wife, Linda, to her delight, that her initial
What surprises me “Little Letters, Big Idea,” which together total 51 pages “L” has traditionally been considered the most soothing and
is that this book, now that introduce the concept and beginnings of a written relaxing of all the characters in the alphabet. I read to her
in paperback, was alphabet in Egypt in 2000 B.C., then trace it throughout the explanatory text, which included the following phrase:
originally published, many evolutions to the Modern Roman alphabet of 1840 “The L’s calming effect is heard in ‘lull,’ ‘lullaby,’ ‘lollipop,’
unknown to me, as long we basically use today. ‘lotus land’ and ‘la-la land.’”
ago as 2003 – the work The one caution I referred to above is that this evolution, Perhaps I can best illustrate the depth and diversity
of author David Sacks, because of its complex nature, is treated in a rather scholarly of knowledge you will derive from this book by sharing
an expert in written way that requires your fullest attention – perhaps requiring several examples from Sacks’s research excerpted here.
language who studied you to sometimes go back over the same text more than once (Some of the text, including entire paragraphs, have been
Greek and Latin at in order to absorb so much information. Indeed, throughout deleted for lack of space and have been replaced by three
Swarthmore College this book you will be presented with at least 100 times as dots.)
and Oxford University, much knowledge as you can remember after one reading. “One-quarter of Earth’s population, 1.4 billion people,
and who is the author If it is possible to have too much knowledge placed before use nonalphabetic writing. Basically, this means China,
of an earlier book, you all at once, at least you will have it to turn to later for including Taiwan, and Japan. The Japanese system comes
Encyclopedia of the reference from time to time. Provided this subject is of
Ancient Greek World. interest to you, it will be well worth it. Book Review on page 36

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