My new daughter is currently too young to learn her alphabet (10 months), but it won’t be long and I was thinking about putting one of those alphabets up in her room where there’s a little picture of something for each letter.
My brother-in-law (Iain Anderson) and has been collecting the basis for a nonsense alphabet – a set of words for a children’s alphabet board that would really mess up my daughter’s education if I pinned them up in her room! Below is my slightly improved set [EDIT March 2011: now including some commenters' suggestions]
- A for Aitch *
- B for Bdellium †
- C for Cue * / Czar †
- D for Double-U *
- E for Ewe *
- F for Ghoti ◊ [thanks Greg!] / Fillip § [thanks Nobf!] / Vescent ¤ [thanks David!]
- G for Gnome †
- H for Hour †
- I for One ‡
- J for Juan ◊
- K for Knight † (or even the double-meaning “K as in Knew” †*)
- L for Llandudno ◊ / Fifty ‡
- M for Mnemonic † / Thousand ‡
- N for Entropy ¤
- O for Ouija ◊
- P for Psalm †
- Q for Quay ◊
- R for C Clark ¤ [thanks David!] / Arson ¤ [thanks Seven!]
- S for Sea *
- T for Tchaikovsky †
- U for Youth ¤ [thanks Seven!]
- V for Five ‡
- W for Why *
- X for Ten ‡ / Xylophone/Xanadu ◊
- Y for You *
- Z for Zori § [thanks Nobf!]
I’ve indicated why it’s in with a category, as shown below in decreasing order of how much I prefer them…
* – sounds like or is another letter word
† – silent initial letter
‡ – roman number
◊ – unusual initial sound
§ – sounds like another (more common) word with similar pronunciation
¤ – word starts with the sound of the letter word
If you can think of any better ones (ideally using one of the same tricks this list uses) please post a comment with your suggestion!
F – Foobar
N – Nerd
R – Ruby
U – nix (the true way)
Z – Zuma
best I could think of I’m afraid
A bit more confusing was what I was after really…
F for Vescent
R for Negus
No wait – I get it. Hmm. Let me think.
It took me 2 days to get this. “effervescent” – awesome. Arthur Negus is a bit obscure for me to understand without a visit to Wikipedia – how about “R for C. Clarke”?
D for Double-u
X for Xylophone
F is for any ‘ph’ word. ‘phone’, ‘philadelphia’, ‘pharmaceuticals’…
N is for ‘anything’, ‘entropy’
R is for ‘argument’, ‘arson’
U is for ‘youth’,
Z is for xenophobia, xylophone etc.
Thanks to all B3ta boarders for their contributions – see http://b3ta.com/links/389947.
A as in Are
C as in Czar
F as in Fillip
G as in Gnu
K as in Knew (sounds like “U” if said quickly – advanced toddlers may appreciate this)
N as in Nickers
R as in Rote
U as in Uhu
Z as in Zori (a Japanese sandal)
Ware as in Hertfordshire.
have a listen to “Crazy ABC’s” by Barenaked Ladies. They had a bash at this a few years ago.
http://espanol.video.yahoo.com/watch/2505292/7638804
from their CD “Snacktime”.
F is for Ghoti
Thanks to everyone who posted a suggestion. I now have a full set, of sorts, and the next job is to create a visual to sell to the world…
Cool! Not sure I’m following any of the rules, but off the top of my head:
E is for 8
W is for Who
G is for Giant
O is for 1 (a bit obscure!)
E is for F
I think it works well as a bit of fun, but there is also potentially a serious learning opportunity – a way of remembering all the things that might trip you up when reading or writing english. I wonder how it would compare to, or overlap with, to a list of ‘exceptions to the rule’?
You have hints there of a Cockney alphabet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney_alphabet