--- title: Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 3: «the Alphabet, all complete», and how letters really began — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, How the Alphabet Was Made, part 3: «the Alphabet, all complete», and how letters really began», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Her broken-spear drawing becomes the sign for la. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/) [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 3: «the Alphabet, all complete», and how letters really began Lesson 89 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 25 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/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/). - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/2/) — Her broken-spear drawing becomes the sign for la. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/3/) — For «maru» they draw a shut mouth for the mum-sound, and for the rough rrr, a saw-edge like Daddy's shark-tooth saw, but with only one tooth, because the simpler the signs, the better for everybody. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/4/) — Taffy asks for a little space between words so they will not jostle, and she reads the whole message out sound by sound. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/5/) — All evening they draw signs in the smoke on the Cave wall and giggle, and Mummy says «Really, Tegumai, you're worse than my Taffy.» Next morning Taffy finds «Ya-las», water is running out, chalked on the water-tank, and she fills it before running to pull her Daddy's left ear. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/6/) — They draw all the other signs that day. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/7/) — The T is a family group, Tegumai holding hands with Taffy and Teshumai, drawn so often that it becomes a thin line with arms out. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/8/) — They turn the snake round for Z, make a twiddle for E, beavers for B, noses for N, a pike's mouth for G and K, and the winding river for W, and there is the Alphabet, all complete. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/9/) — The closing poem is sad and tender: none of the Tribe remain, but each spring Taffy seems to come dancing through the fern on Merrow Down, and far behind comes Tegumai, looking for «the daughter that was all to him». - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/10/) — «Shu-ya-las, ya maru» means «Sky-water ending. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/11/) — River come to», or «the rain is stopping, come down to the river». - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/12/) — «Las» means ending, breaking or finishing; «to-las» means no water in the tank for Mummy, and «shi-las» means the spear is broken. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/13/) — Taffy: «If I'd only thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the Stranger!» Her broken-spear sign (14.) becomes «la» (15.). - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/14/) — «Mum shuts one's mouth up», so a shut mouth is the m-sign (16.); with the open carp-mouth after it, it makes «ma». - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/15/) — The rrr-sound is «all rough and edgy, like your shark-tooth saw»; Tegumai draws one tooth only: «the easier we make our sound-pictures the better for everybody». - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/16/) — Taffy asks for «a little bit of stick or something between each word, so's they won't rub up against each other and jostle»; Daddy says he will leave a space. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/17/) — «Ya-las», water is ending, is chalked on the big stone water-tank; Taffy fills it from the spring with a bark bucket, then pulls Daddy's left ear, «the one that belonged to her to pull when she was good». - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/18/) — T: Taffy, Tegumai and Teshumai all begin with that sound, so they drew a family holding hands, which became «a thin long Tegumai with his arms out». - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/19/) — Other signs: the snake turned the other way round for Z, «a twiddle for E» (it came into the pictures so often that it got smaller and smaller), the sacred Beaver for B, noses for N, the big lake-pike's mouth for G, the pike's mouth with a spear behind it for K, and the winding Wagai river for W. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/21/) — Real life: the alphabet was not made in one day by one family; it grew over about 2,000 years. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/22/) — The Phoenicians, sea-traders of the eastern Mediterranean, spread a 22-letter alphabet about 3,000 years ago; it had no letters for vowel sounds. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/23/) — Real life: the Greeks borrowed it and added vowels; the Romans took it from the Greeks and the Etruscans and made the Latin alphabet, which English uses. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/24/) — J, U and W were added to English only in the last thousand years. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/25/) — Real life: our M probably began as wavy water, B as a house, K as an open hand; G was made by the Romans by adding a little bar to C. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/26/) — Old Greek and Latin were often written with no spaces between words; Irish and English monks helped make spaces normal about 1,300 years ago. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/89-justso-alphabet-3-the-alphabet-all-complete/27/) — Real life: Kipling's own daughter Josephine, the first «Best Beloved» for whom he told these stories, died of an illness in 1899 when she was six, three years before the book came out; many readers hear his sadness in the closing poem. - ← previous: [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/) - next →: [Just So Stories, The Crab that Played with the Sea, part 1: the Eldest Magician and the sea that will not behave](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/90-justso-crab-1-the-eldest-magician/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)