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Fun Facts About English #40 – The Letter ‘s’

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Kinney Brothers Publishing Fun Facts About English 40

There are more English words beginning with the letter s than with any other letter mainly because of clusters such as sc, sh, sp, and st. Followed by some distance are words that begin with p, c, d, m, and a.

According to Wolfram Language, a computational knowledge engine, in a list of 40,127 common words, s has 4,635 entries – as compared to x which only has 11. This simple Wolfram word cloud expresses the most frequent initial letters in the English language:

Wolfram Language word cloud

Bear in mind that the frequency of initial letters has no relationship to how often letters occur in English in general. E is the most common letter, followed by t and then a.

If you enjoy learning fun facts about the English language, you may be interested in reading about The Power of X, why Americans say /zee/ when the rest of the world says /zed/, or how the ampersand (&) was once part of the English alphabet!

See the previous or next Fun Facts About English

Donald's English Classroom Fun Facts About English 40

Add punch to your classroom decor! Visit Donald’s English Classroom for wall maps and wall art, charts, pennants, and so much more!

Ampersand

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As part of my blogging activities, I publish a weekly Fun Facts About English series that offers tidbits of trivia about the English language. This has turned out to be quite a pleasurable indulgence in that I get to research somewhat obscure but fascinating facts. I set out with a goal of creating 50 facts for one year’s worth of posts. I’m about half-way through and feel a bit smarter for the effort.

In this post, I’m going to explain the simple factoid below.

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Maybe it would be better to say, “the & glyph was per se the 27th character included with the alphabet.”

History

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In Latin, the ampersand represents a cursive combination of the two letters E and T and is pronounced et, or and in English. Around the time when Old English was shedding its runic characters and adopting the Latin alphabet, the & ligature arrived as part of the orthographic package, and to this day continues to be used to represent the word and.

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Why ampersand?

The ampersand was included in schoolbooks as the 27th letter of the English alphabet until the mid 19th century. It was understood not as a vowel or consonant, but as a useful symbol, added to the hind end of the alphabet, and simply known as and. Today, when we recite the ABCs, we often say “X, Y, and Z.” Two centuries ago, children’s chants included and (&) as the last letter. To say “X, Y, Z, and and” was a bit confusing, so the Latin phrase per se – meaning by or in itself – was inserted. In recitations, it sounded like this: X, Y, Z, and per se and (&). Eventually, and-per-se-and slurred into ampersand, a mondegreen that we use today.

By the late 1800s, the word ampersand also became a slang term for “rear end, posterior,” or “the buttocks.” Over time, the & glyph was de-classified within the alphabet, its usage decreased, and today is often frowned upon when used in modern writing.

And now you know.

As always, best of luck in your classes!

Donald Kinney
Kinney Brothers Publishing