Illustrated book about alphabets... all the alphabets
March 1, 2019 12:19 PM Subscribe
My son is four and has always loved the alphabet. Recently, we've been having fun introducing him to letters from other languages, like Greek or Hebrew; he also sometimes make up his own letters. What I'd really like is a beautifully illustrated book that shows alphabets from all around the world.
I'm envisioning something along the style/level of those big illustrated books of e.g. dinosaurs, but for little letter lovers. Ideally it would have some explanation of the names of the letters, what sound they make, how to draw them. I don't want just European alphabets; Korean Hangul, Japanese kanji, Arabic, etc. most definitely welcome!
The closest I can find, for grownups, is Writing Systems of the World by Akira Nakanishi, which seems to be several decades out of date and is (supposedly) not that well illustrated. (On request at the local library.)
... any other suggestions?
I'm envisioning something along the style/level of those big illustrated books of e.g. dinosaurs, but for little letter lovers. Ideally it would have some explanation of the names of the letters, what sound they make, how to draw them. I don't want just European alphabets; Korean Hangul, Japanese kanji, Arabic, etc. most definitely welcome!
The closest I can find, for grownups, is Writing Systems of the World by Akira Nakanishi, which seems to be several decades out of date and is (supposedly) not that well illustrated. (On request at the local library.)
... any other suggestions?
Best answer: I used to own the Nakanishi. It was reasonably well illustrated with photographs and so on, and it explained the bases of different writing systems, not all of which are alphabets. For example, kanji are logographs; Korean is in fact an alphabet that is also a featural code; abjads and abugidas and all that fun stuff. I think it's pretty worthwhile.
Meanwhile, if you're okay browsing the web with him, might I recommend Omniglot: the online encyclopedia of writing systems? Even if you don't want to put him on the web at this age, might be something to save for when he's older.
posted by yhlee at 1:07 PM on March 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Meanwhile, if you're okay browsing the web with him, might I recommend Omniglot: the online encyclopedia of writing systems? Even if you don't want to put him on the web at this age, might be something to save for when he's older.
posted by yhlee at 1:07 PM on March 1, 2019 [2 favorites]
Best answer: Julian Rothenstein has done some books on alphabets – 130 Alphabets and Other Signs, ABZ: More Alphabets and Other Signs. Nice stuff, not specifically for kids but nothing inappropriate.
posted by zadcat at 7:27 PM on March 1, 2019
posted by zadcat at 7:27 PM on March 1, 2019
I haven't seen one with multiple languages, but here's some kid-friendly illustrated Hindi board books by a friend of mine.
posted by Bunglegirl at 12:35 PM on March 2, 2019
posted by Bunglegirl at 12:35 PM on March 2, 2019
Response by poster: Thanks for the answers so far -- although not my original vision, I am liking the single language kids books, too, so keep the suggestions coming if you've got them...
posted by puffyn at 5:02 AM on March 4, 2019
posted by puffyn at 5:02 AM on March 4, 2019
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posted by Cosine at 12:23 PM on March 1, 2019