And, The 27th Letter of the Alphabet

There are 26 letters to the English alphabet, with two of the letters -- "A" and "I" -- themselves also constituting words. But as seen above, another character -- the ampersand (&) -- also, at times, was included among the current 26. And amazingly, the word "ampersand" is probably a byproduct of the symbol's inclusion.

The picture above is from a 1863 book called "The Dixie Primer, For The Little Folks," available here in its entirety -- a book which like many around even today, aimed at teaching children their ABCs and some basic words and phonics. Notably, the ampersand is included in the alphabet, just next to the Z and ending the entire set. While not necessarily the standard usage, it was not terribly uncommon either to include the ampersand here -- it had been there for centuries.

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I think I saw a question about this on Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

It just doesn't fit in the ABC Song

Speaking of which, do kids still learn the alphabet from the ABC Song? For that matter, do they still learn the alphabet at all? For some of the adults I know, the order of the alphabet seems to be a foreign concept, since they can't follow it for basic filing.

You have to know the alphabet to file? Say is isn't so!!!

jf1acai wrote: It just doesn't fit in the ABC Song

That was my first thought, too! rofllol

Yes, it fits in the song. They just have it listed in the wrong place. In the song it goes "W, X, Y & Z, now I know......"

Smartypants