Hello Everyone
English is an interesting language.
The word ‘and’ is the fifth most popular word in the English
language and has its own logogram. A
logogram is a representation of a word
or the smallest meaningful unit of language.
The word ‘and has its own logogram the ampersand ‘&’.
This is interesting because the most common word in the
English language accounting for 6% of the written spoken language is the word
‘the’. Surely ‘the’ is entitled to its own logogram.
The history of the ampersand makes sense as to its
existence. According to Wikipedia, in
English-speaking schools when the alphabet was recited, any letter that could
also be used as a word in itself ("A", "I", and, at one
point, "O") was preceded by the Latin expression per se which means "by
itself".
It was usual to add the "&" sign at the end of
the alphabet as if it were the 27th letter.
It was pronounced and. The result was that the alphabet being recited
would end in "X, Y, Z, and per se and". This last phrase was
slurred to "ampersand" thus the term had entered into common English
usage by 1837.
Be, to and of are the 2nd 3rd and 4th
most popular words in the English language.
In fact ten words make up 20% of the written and spoken language in
English. Perhaps it is time to give all 10 a logogram to speed up reading and
writing.
Technology has moved ahead but written language skills have
considerable room for progress. Certainly this can be seen in sms texting where
new language is developing. Perhaps it is time to formalise it and see it
in everyday use as well.
Enjoy language!
Roz Townsend
