T h e a l ph a b e t

is a se

ries of

element

al visu

al sign

s in a f

ixed s

e-

quence

, repre

senting

spoke

n soun

ds. Each

letter

signi-

fies on

ly one

thing: i

ts elem

entary

sound

or nam

e.

This is the magic of writing and typography, which

have been called “ thoughts-made-visible” and “frozen

sounds.”

The twenty-six characters of our alphabet can be com-

bined into thousands of words, creating a visual record

of the spoken language.