--- title: Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 1: a carp-fish's mouth, a tail, an egg and a snake — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 1: a carp-fish's mouth, a tail, an egg and a snake», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A week after the picture-letter muddle, Taffy slips off to go carp-fishi --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was… # Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 1: a carp-fish's mouth, a tail, an egg and a snake Lesson 87 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 17 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/0/) — A week after the picture-letter muddle, Taffy slips off to go carp-fishing with her Daddy again instead of helping Mummy hang hides. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/1/) — She giggles about the Head Chief's puffed cheeks and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair; Daddy says he had to pay the Stranger-man two soft deerskins to say sorry. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/2/) — Over lunch Taffy has «a secret surprise» idea. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/3/) — She asks Daddy to make a noise. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/4/) — He says «Ah!», and she thinks he looks like a carp-fish with its mouth open, so she scratches a carp's open mouth on bark: that picture will mean the sound ah. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/5/) — Daddy shows her how to make the drawing simpler and clearer, with the feeler across the mouth. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/8/) — Tegumai's eyes shine: he thinks his daughter has found the biggest secret of the world, better even than shark's teeth instead of flints. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/10/) — Tegumai says: «I had to pay two deerskins, soft ones with fringes, to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.» Taffy: «We didn't do anything», it was Mummy and the other Neolithic ladies, and the mud. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/11/) — Taffy says «inciting» and «incitement» when she means exciting and excitement, «s'prise» for surprise and «thinked» for thought; these are her funny child's words. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/12/) — Taffy «sat mousy-quiet for ten whole minutes» while her Daddy scratched on birch-bark with a shark's tooth. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/13/) — Taffy plans to draw the carp-mouth in the smoke at the back of the Cave, as a surprise for Daddy. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/17/) — For «Oh!» they draw a round shape like an egg or a stone, because your mouth is round when you say it. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/19/) — Tegumai: «I believe we've found out the big secret of the world.» The book has small pictures of each sign, numbered (1.), (2.) and so on. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/20/) — Real life: the idea in this story is close to the truth. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/21/) — About 3,800 years ago, workers who spoke a language related to Hebrew and Arabic, living in or near Egypt, took Egyptian picture-signs and used each one only for the FIRST sound of its name. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/23/) — Real life: our letter O began as a picture of an eye, a round shape, not an egg; Kipling's egg is not so far off. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/24/) — Talk in this lesson: «highkey» = very, openly; «nesh» (North and Midlands England) = feels the cold easily; «lekker» (South Africa) = nice, great. - ← previous: [Just So Stories, How the First Letter Was Written, part 3: «a great invention» and the road on Merrow Down](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/86-justso-first-letter-3-a-great-invention/) - next →: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)