THE English alphabet used to have extra letters that have been lost as centuries went by. While today our alphabet consists of 26 letters, the people of Middle Age Britain had an additional six ...

Why is “A” the first letter of our alphabet? Therein lies a “tail.” The ancient Phoenicians, who devised the precursor of our English alphabet about 3,000 years ago, depended heavily on oxen for the ...

Think you know your ABCs? Think again! From the letter J (which showed up centuries late) to the silent K that once loved the sound of its own voice, the English alphabet is packed with quirky ...

Johnny in Topeka can’t read, but Janne in Helsinki is effortlessly finishing his storybooks. Such a disparity may be expected by now, but the reason might come as a surprise: It probably has much less ...