Letter Words
"Why do we need words for specific letters?" Shameless Shirley asked me after playing the word DEE.
"I don't know," I responded. "Not every English letter has its own word either. There aren't really any words for the vowels . . . or H."
"That's interesting. How would you spell H?"
"A-I-C-H."
"It sounds like eight, so I think I'd spell it E-I-T-C-H."
Aside from the difference in diphthongs and compound consonants, both Shirley's spelling and my spelling for H look appropriate. This is precisely why words for English letters can be so confusing. For the most part, these letter words are pronunciation guides, even though there are many different ways of combining letters to create similar sounds. For example, the acceptable form for Y is WYE despite the fact that it is a homophone of the interrogative WHY. Although they are not valid, the sounds formed by "wie," "wy," and "whi" also seem acceptable.
Sometimes these words refer more to the shape of a given character rather than the letter itself. For this reason, EL and TEE are useful words for carpentry and engineering. Additionally, sometimes letter words mean other things all together as in the cases of BEE and JAY. In other cases such as Q (KUE), things are a bit more complicated.
As I mentioned before, there are no words for A, E, I, O, and U. These vowels are impossible to form into words because they stand alone as their own pronunciation guides. H has no word for the opposite reason. The letter H ("aich" or "eitch") does not give much of a clue as to what sound an H will make. In fact, H is more of a hard breathing than a letter.
All the letters of the Greek alphabet from ALPHA to OMEGA are acceptable letter words. For some reason, other alphabets are used more sparingly. The first letters of the Arabic and International NATO alphabets, ALIF and ALFA respectively, are viable Scrabble plays, but other letters are not valid. The Old English rune for W (WYNN) also stands alone, possibly because there is no other word for W. I also enjoy the British letter word ZED more than the more American ZEE.
In honor of a friend who just finished his Masters in Hebrew Letters, today's word list contains all the acceptable forms of the Hebrew alphabet. Greek and Hebrew are the only complete alphabets in the Scrabble dictionary, but while Greek is fairly straightforward, Hebrew has many alternate Anglicized spellings. Remember, all these words can be pluralized under normal rules as well!
א ALEF, ALEPH
ב BES, BET, BETH, VET
ג GIMEL
ד DALEDH, DALETH
ה HE, HEH
ו VAU, VAV, VAW, WAW
ז ZAYIN
ח CHETH, HET, HETH, KHET, KHETH
ט TET, TETH
י YOD, YODH
כ KAF, KAPH, KHAF, KHAPH
ל LAMED, LAMEDH
מ MEM
נ NUN
ס SAMECH, SAMEK, SAMEKH
ע AIN, AYIN
פ FE, FEH, PE, PEH
צ SADE, SADHE, SADI, TSADE, TSADI
ק KOPH, QOPH
ר RESH
ש SIN, SHIN
ת TAV
"I don't know," I responded. "Not every English letter has its own word either. There aren't really any words for the vowels . . . or H."
"That's interesting. How would you spell H?"
"A-I-C-H."
"It sounds like eight, so I think I'd spell it E-I-T-C-H."
Aside from the difference in diphthongs and compound consonants, both Shirley's spelling and my spelling for H look appropriate. This is precisely why words for English letters can be so confusing. For the most part, these letter words are pronunciation guides, even though there are many different ways of combining letters to create similar sounds. For example, the acceptable form for Y is WYE despite the fact that it is a homophone of the interrogative WHY. Although they are not valid, the sounds formed by "wie," "wy," and "whi" also seem acceptable.
Sometimes these words refer more to the shape of a given character rather than the letter itself. For this reason, EL and TEE are useful words for carpentry and engineering. Additionally, sometimes letter words mean other things all together as in the cases of BEE and JAY. In other cases such as Q (KUE), things are a bit more complicated.
As I mentioned before, there are no words for A, E, I, O, and U. These vowels are impossible to form into words because they stand alone as their own pronunciation guides. H has no word for the opposite reason. The letter H ("aich" or "eitch") does not give much of a clue as to what sound an H will make. In fact, H is more of a hard breathing than a letter.
All the letters of the Greek alphabet from ALPHA to OMEGA are acceptable letter words. For some reason, other alphabets are used more sparingly. The first letters of the Arabic and International NATO alphabets, ALIF and ALFA respectively, are viable Scrabble plays, but other letters are not valid. The Old English rune for W (WYNN) also stands alone, possibly because there is no other word for W. I also enjoy the British letter word ZED more than the more American ZEE.
In honor of a friend who just finished his Masters in Hebrew Letters, today's word list contains all the acceptable forms of the Hebrew alphabet. Greek and Hebrew are the only complete alphabets in the Scrabble dictionary, but while Greek is fairly straightforward, Hebrew has many alternate Anglicized spellings. Remember, all these words can be pluralized under normal rules as well!
א ALEF, ALEPH
ב BES, BET, BETH, VET
ג GIMEL
ד DALEDH, DALETH
ה HE, HEH
ו VAU, VAV, VAW, WAW
ז ZAYIN
ח CHETH, HET, HETH, KHET, KHETH
ט TET, TETH
י YOD, YODH
כ KAF, KAPH, KHAF, KHAPH
ל LAMED, LAMEDH
מ MEM
נ NUN
ס SAMECH, SAMEK, SAMEKH
ע AIN, AYIN
פ FE, FEH, PE, PEH
צ SADE, SADHE, SADI, TSADE, TSADI
ק KOPH, QOPH
ר RESH
ש SIN, SHIN
ת TAV
-Jiff Z. Moneyer
posted by Jiff Z Moneyer at
6:24 AM
1 Comments:
Several letters need to change so that the letter is in the first position of the spelled name of the letter. For instance: "haitch," ('t' added for emphasis) "qu" (pronounced coo) "wubble-wu" and "xi" (pronounced same as the Greek.)
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