Icons of the Alphabet

Reese Heitner (PhD, Philosophy of Language; MA, Linguistics, CUNY, Graduate Center) taught at Drexel University, USA and also served as Interim Director of its English Language Center. He lives with his wife, son and dog in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania and is researching another linguistics book entitled The Semantics of Sound Change: A Semiotic Approach to the Paradox of Phonologization. He can be reached at reeseheitner@hotmail.com. 

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO ICONS OF THE ALPHABET.- Chapter 1. Another book on the alphabet?.- PART II: THE CONTRONYMS.- Chapter 2. Aitch: When a letter loses its phonetic 'ead but gains an orthographic foothold.- Chapter 3. Double U: When two /u/ make one /w/ and the phonetics of consonantalization.- PART III: THE AMBINYMS.- Chapter 4. The vocalic ambinyms: Pronouncing Ay as /e/, Ee as /i/ and I as /a / but Oh as /o/ and Yue as /ju/.- Chapter 5. Cee and Gee: The consonantal ambinyms and the digraph combination plus .- PART IV: THE TAUTONYMS.- Chapter 6. Vee and Zee: English fricatives find their voice.- Chapter 7. The vowel-consonant tautonyms: Syllabic consonants in Etruscan and English.- Chapter 8. Procrustean vowel length: The bimoraic weight of VC and CVV tautonyms.- PART V: CONCLUSION.- Chapter 9. Alphabetic iconography: A metalinguistic guide to phonologies and orthographies.