sarahbear8op --
This is a really interesting question. Here's how I would argue to
your family that individual English letters can be, and are, used as
words:
According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a "word" is:
"A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing
or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning … ."
When we talk or write about whether the letter "a" is a word, for
example, we are using "a" as a "symbol" to represent and mean the
first letter of the alphabet. This logic alone persuades me that
letters can be used as words.
If this common-sense approach is not enough to persuade your family,
you can go on to argue that this appears to also be the logic applied
by the editors of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language, Third Edition (Houghton Mifflin, 1992). (It is also
consistent with the Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
(Oxford University, 1971) which I have spot-checked.)
The American Heritage Dictionary lists each letter symbol in the
alphabet as the first entry under the corresponding section of the
volume. For example: the first entry under "A" is:
"a … n., pl. a's or A's. 1. The first letter of the modern English
alphabet."
The fact that the letter symbol is listed as a noun ("n.") certainly
indicates that the editors consider "a" to be a "real" word with the
above meaning. All 26 letters in the English alphabet are treated the
same way in the dictionary.
Perhaps most interestingly, the American Heritage Dictionary also
contains separate individual entries for words that "spell out" sounds
of all of the consonants, including "y," (but not the vowels) in the
modern English alphabet. The first of these entries is:
"bee … n., The letter b."
The other entries for consonants, which are all defined as nouns, are:
cee, dee, ef, gee, aitch, jay, kay, el, em, en, pee, cue, ar, ess,
tee, vee, double-u, ex, wye and zee.
As noted above, the American Heritage Dictionary does not include
separate entries for "spelled-out" representations of vowel sounds
that one might find in informal writing (e.g., "eye"). The linguistic
basis for this (and the rest of the above information) would require
substantial further research and would make for another interesting
question if you (or your family) were interested. However, the fact
remains that it is clear that dictionary editors consider all of the
letters, including vowels, to be nouns (i.e., words) with plural forms
and definite meanings.
I hope that the logic and the dictionary-based evidence supporting
this conclusion is enough to convince your family.
Additional Information and Sites:
Here are some musings on the attributes of each English letter:
Right Words, Ltd.: 26 Of My Nearest and Dearest Friends
http://www.rightwords.co.nz/alphabet.html
Some early-reading "systems" urge that kids be taught the "names of"
(i.e. "words for") letters only after they are beginning to read, to
avoid confusion:
"It is easier if the sounds of the letters of the alphabet are taught
before the names. The reason for this is that not one of the
twenty-one consonants ever says its alphabetical name in reading.
Furthermore, no less than sixteen alphabet names actually begin with
the sound of another letter - i.e. see (c), eff (f), aitch (h), ell
(l), em (m), en (n), cue (q), are (r), ess (s), you (u), double-you
(w), ex (x), why (y) - making these traditional letter names quite
confusing for many young beginners once they move on to learning the
letter sounds."
Letterland: FAQs for Parents
http://www.letterland.com/Parents/FAQ.html
In British and Canadian English, the word for the letter "Z" is "zed."
This is derived from the Old French "zede" and originally from the
Greek "zeta."
Search Strategy:
The following Google search and some minor variations were useful in
getting general information on the use of "spelled-out" sounds as
names or symbols of words:
bee cee aitch
://www.google.com/search?q=++bee+cee+aitch&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&start=10&sa=N
Most of my research took the form of perusing print dictionaries
offline.
I hope that this information allows you to persuade your family that
individual letters of the alphabet can indeed be used as words, either
in and of themselves or in the form of spelled-out representations of
consonant sounds. If any of the above is unclear, please ask for
clarification before rating the answer.
markj-ga |
