English Alphabet History

The alphabet from alpha to tau was taken over from a north Semitic alphabet (probably a Phoenician script used in Syria); its introduction to Greece is perhaps reflected in the myth which tells how Cadmus, son of Agenor king of Tyre, brought letters to Thebes, the city he had founded. The shapes of the letters, their names and their order are virtually the same in both alphabets but they do not necessarily represent the same sounds. The Semitic alphabet has no characters for vowels, and the Greek therefore used for its vowels Semitic characters for consonants not in use in Greece. Thus Semitic consonant characters were used for ɑ, ε, o, and ι. The character for upsilon was taken over from a cursive Phoenician script and added to the alphabet after tau. In Greece local variations lasted for centuries. Some dialects had an extra letter, Ϝ, between epsilon and zeta, pronounced like English w and called first 'wau' by the Greeks and later digamma. It disappeared in pre-classical times from the Attic-Ionic dialects and does not appear in the standard alphabet given above. Other letters were added after upsilon to represent the sounds pH and kh.

The Latin alphabet seems to have come from an early form of Etruscan script which was itself derived from the (Euboean) Greek alphabet as used at Cumae (in Campania), a colony of Chalcis in Euboea. The early Latin alphabet was the same as its modern English derivative except that it lacked the letters G, J (for which I did duty), U, W (for which V also served), Y, and Z. The character X represented the sound ks (unlike the Greek X, which represented the sound kh). H represented the aspirate (for its varying significance in Greek see 1 above). Greek gamma was represented by the character C which was at first used for the G sound as well as for the K sound (compare the names Gaius and Gnaeus which when abbreviated were written in archaic fashion C. and Cn.); the character G was introduced in the third century BC.

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2-letter words

ar, pa, up

3-letter words

arc, cap, car, cup, cur, pac, par, pur, qua, rap, vac, var, vau

4-letter words

carp, crap, prau

19 words found.

The most common words with the 5 classic vowels are the adjectives abstemious and facetious.

To include the semi-vowel Y in order, the adverb forms are abstemiously and facetiously.

A comprehensive list would be:

Aerious, Absteinous, Abstemious, Abstenious, Abstentious, Abstentiously, Aceriflorum, Aceriflorus, Acheilous, Acheirous, Acleistous, Adecticous, Adventious, Affectious, Aleikoum, Alpestrious, Anemious, Annelidous, Arsenious, Arteriosum, Arteriosus, Arterious, Avenious, Bacterious, Caesious, Camelious, Carnelious, Facetious, Fracedinous, Gareisoun, Gravedinous, Haeriously, Majestious, Materious, Parecious, Phragelliorynchus, Placentious, Tragedious

For reverse alphabetical order for vowels, there is duoliteral, juloidea, leeuwenhoekiella, muroidea, muscoidea, pulmonifera, punctoschmidtella, quodlibetal, quodlibetary, rudoiera, subcontinental, subhyoidean, subpopliteal, subvoiceband, suoidea, tutoiera, uncomplimentary, unconsiderably, uncontinental, unconvinceably, unnoticeably, unobliterably, unoccidental, unoriental, unpolicemanly, unproprietary

*Sorry, but Raeticodactylus has an A before the U so doesn't count and if we're just listing English words (as seems to be the case) then Marveillous and variations thereupon are also excluded.

Removed: Marveillous, Marveillously, Raeticodactylus,

There is no American English word that uses all those letters.

4-letter words

cire, epic, peri, pice, pier, pipe, prep, repp, rice, ripe

5-letter words

crier, cripe, piper, price, prier, ricer, riper

6-letter words

pricer, ripper

Oh Shut up, you stupid nerds! Why dont you get a life and ask a reasonable question ;)

ermm why do you wanna know?! lol :L x

Anteater

Burmese python

Cat

Dog

Emu

Frog

Green-tounged skink

Hippopotomas

Ice fish

Jellyfish

Koala

Lion

Mudpuppy

Neon blue Hermit Crab

Octopus

Pelican

Quail

Reculiated python

Sparrow

Turtle

Umbrella bird

Volvox

Walrus

X-ray Tetra

Yak

Zebra

Hope that helps!!!
A-aardvark, anteater, alligator, ant

B-bear, bee, bird, barracuda,

C-cat, crocodile, crane,canary

D-dog, deer, dolphin

E-eel, elephant, emu

F-frog, fireant, fish

G-giraffe, great white shark,gnat, gorilla, goldfish

H-horse, hippo, hyena, hamster

I-iguana

J-jellyfish, jackal

K-koala bear, kangaroo

L-lemur, lynx, lion, leopard

M-monkey, manattee, mouse

N-narwhal, nighttingdale, newt

O-octopus, orca, otter

P-penguin, panda bear, polar bear

Q-quail, quagga

R-rhino, reindeer, rabbit, rat, raccoon, ram

S-sloth, serpent, scorpion, squirrel

T-tiger,toitoise

U-unicorn, urchin

V-vulture, viper

W-walrus, wallaby, whale

X-x-ray fish,

Y-yak, yellow canary

Z-zebra, zorilla

Aegilops, a Latin word which has been absorbed into the English language, has three meanings:

1. an eye condition,
2. a type of grass
3. a species of oak tree.

Other words in the English language with all letters in alphabetical order, A-Z:

7-letter words, with repeated letters

• beefily
• billowy

Some 6-letter words, no repeated letters

• abhors
• almost
• begins
• bijoux
• biopsy
• chimps
• chintz
• ghosty

Some 6-letter words, with repeated letters

• abbess
• accent
• accept
• access
• adders
• bellow
• chills
• chilly
• choosy
• choppy
• effort
• floors
• floppy
• flossy
• glossy
• knotty

Some of the longest words in the English language with all letters in REVERSE alphabetical order, Z-A:

• spoonfeed (9, with repeated letters)
• spoonfed (8, with a repeated letter)
• trollied (8, with a repeated letter)
• sponged (7, no repeats)
• wronged (7, no repeats)