--- title: Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Tegumai shows Taffy the big secret: put two sound-signs side by side and you --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/) [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 2: yo, so, sho, shi, and shu-ya, the sky-water Lesson 88 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 21 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/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/0/) — Tegumai shows Taffy the big secret: put two sound-signs side by side and you get a word. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/1/) — A carp-tail and a round egg make «yo», bad swamp-water; scratched beside a pool, it would warn Taffy «don't drink this» even if Daddy were miles away hunting. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/4/) — If she mixed up so and sho, she would come running for dinner and be put to work! - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/5/) — So they make a new sign for the sh-sound: a picture of the drying-poles themselves. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/6/) — Daddy jokes with «shi», the word for spear, and draws it as one straight line: «Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.» Taffy asks him not to tease. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/7/) — For «shu», sky, they need a thin oo-sound, so Daddy draws the round egg with a little hole at the end, where the sound runs out thin. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/8/) — Then Daddy writes a whole word and tells Taffy not to look up. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/9/) — She reads it sign by sign: «Shu-ya. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/10/) — Sky-water (rain).» Just then a real raindrop falls on her hand. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/11/) — Daddy told her it would rain without saying a word, and they both dance for joy. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/13/) — Sign (8.), which Tegumai scratches, is carp-tail plus round egg = yo. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/15/) — Yo, bad water.» - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/18/) — Tegumai first thinks of «a spotty snake that hisses sh-sh», but Taffy fears the spots could be left out in a hurry, so for sh they put a picture of the drying-poles themselves «just after the hissy-snake», «to make quite sure». - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/19/) — «Shi» is Tegumai for spear; he draws it as a plain straight line, «We won't have beavers or hills this time». - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/20/) — «Shu» means sky; its end sound is «the round-egg-sound made thin». - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/22/) — So Daddy opens «a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the O-noise runs out all thin, ooo-oo-oo». - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/26/) — Real life: using pictures for their SOUNDS, not their meaning, is called the rebus idea; a picture of an eye and a saw can spell «I saw». - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/27/) — The first writers in Egypt and Mesopotamia used it too. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/28/) — Real life: with a small set of sound-signs you can write ANY word, even words for things you cannot draw, like «ending» or «come». - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/29/) — That is why an alphabet is so powerful: English needs only 26 letters, but Chinese writing uses thousands of characters. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/88-justso-alphabet-2-shu-ya-sky-water/31/) — Talk in this lesson: «mid» = only so-so, not good; «gurt» (West Country) = great, big; «dreich» (Scotland) = grey, wet, gloomy weather. - ← previous: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 1: a carp-fish's mouth, a tail, an egg and a snake](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/87-justso-alphabet-1-a-carp-fishs-mouth/) - next →: [Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 3: «the Alphabet, all complete», and how letters really began](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)