THE ALPHABET

The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters (each having an
uppercase and a lowercase form);

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

Majuscule forms (also called uppercase or capital letters)

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Minuscule forms (also called lowercase or small letters)

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Phonology – (the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute the
fundamental components of a language.)

The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they
represent vowels; the remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not
silent they generally represent consonants.

However, Y commonly represents vowels as well as a consonant (e.g., "myth"), as very rarely
does W (e.g., "cwm").

Conversely, U and I sometimes represent a consonant (e.g., "quiz" and "onion" respectively).

W and Y are sometimes referred as semivowels.