The ABC Song

Last updated

Music for the alphabet song including some common variations on the lyrics Alphabet song.png
Music for the alphabet song including some common variations on the lyrics

"The ABC Song" [lower-alpha 1] is the best-known song used to recite the English alphabet in alphabetical order. It is commonly used to teach the alphabet to children in English-speaking countries. "The ABC Song" was first copyrighted in 1835 by Boston music publisher Charles Bradlee. The melody is from a 1761 French music book and is also used in other nursery rhymes like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star", while the author of the lyrics is unknown. Songs set to the same melody are also used to teach the alphabets of other languages.

Contents

History

The melody of "The ABC Song" was first published in the French book of music Les Amusements d’une Heure et Demy (transl.Amusements of an Hour and a Half) (1761) without lyrics. It was adapted in Mozart's Twelve Variations and used in many nursery rhymes around the world, including "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and later "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep", before being used in this song. [1] The author of the lyrics are unknown. [2]

"The ABC Song" was first copyrighted in 1835 by Boston music publisher Charles Bradlee under the title "The A.B.C., a German air with variations for the flute with an easy accompaniment for the piano forte." [3] [lower-alpha 2] The melody was attributed to 18th-century composer Louis Le Maire. [4]

"The ABC Song" is commonly used in preschools across English-speaking countries. Due to the speed at which 'L, M, N, O, P' is spoken, it is a common misconception among children still learning the alphabet to believe that it is in fact its own letter called "elemenopee". Some have proposed teaching slower versions of the song to avoid this issue, but attempts to do so have been criticized for lacking the end rhymes and the 'L, M, N, O, P" part being an essential part of the song. [5] [6] The television series Sesame Street has covered the song many times, collaborating with popular artists such as Stevie Wonder, Katy Perry, Nina Simone and Usher. [7]

Composition and variations

Lyrics: (each line represents two measures, or eight beats)

A, B, C, D, E, F, G... ( /bsdɛf/ )
H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P... ( /(h)kɛlɛmɛnp/ ; "L, M, N, O" spoken twice as quickly as rest of rhyme)
Q, R, S.../ T, U, V... ( /kjuːɑːrɛs|tjuːv/ ; pause between S and T, though in some variants, "and" is inserted)
W... X.../ Y and(/&) Z. ( /ˈdʌbəl.juːɛks|wændz/ ; pause between X and Y, and W and X last for two beats)
Now I know my ABCs.
Next time, won't you sing with me? [8]
The ABC Song

Lyrics for the alternate Zed version: (each line represents two measures, or eight beats)

A, B, C, D, E, F, G... ( /bsdɛf/ )
H, I, J, K, L, M, N... ( /(h)kɛlɛmɛn/ )
O, P, Q, R, S, T, U ( /pkjuːɑːrɛstjuː/ )
V, W... X, Y and(/&) Z. ( /vˈdʌbəl.juːɛkswændzɛd/ ; W lasts for two beats)
Now I know my ABCs.
Next time, won't you sing with me? [9]
The ABC Song

Pronunciation of "Z"

In American English, the dialect in mind by the composer, the letter name for Z is pronounced /ziː/ (Zee), but in most other anglophone countries, the letter name is pronounced /zɛd/ (Zed). In such dialects, the absent Zee-rhyme is generally not missed, although while singing the song, some children may accommodate for Zee which they would otherwise not use on a regular basis. Variants of the song exist to accommodate Zed. One such variation is shown below: [10] [11]

The ABC Song
a-b-c-d-e-f-g
h-i-j-k-l-m-n
o-p-q-r-s-t-u
v-w-x-y-z(ed)

This version has no closing line and the tune is modified accordingly. There is no lengthening of the W in this version.

Backwards alphabet

Several versions exist covering the alphabet backwards, i.e. Z to A. One version is shown below.

z-y-x and(/&) w
v-u-t, s-r-q
p-o-n-m-l-k-j
i-h-g-f-e-d-c-b-a
Now you know your ZYXs
I bet that's not what you expected! [12]

The e-d-c-b part is as fast as the l-m-n-o part in the normal alphabet song.

Versions for other languages

The same melody used for "The ABC Song" has also been used for the German, French, and Arabic alphabets. [13] A French-language version of the song is also taught in Canada, with generally no alterations to the melody except in the final line that requires adjustment to accommodate the two-syllable pronunciation of the French y.[ citation needed ]

See also

Traditional alphabet songs in other languages

Notes

  1. "The ABC Song" is also referred to as "Now I Know My ABCs", "The ABC", "ABC Song", "ABCs" /ˌ.bˈsz/ or "ABC" /ˌ.bˈs/ , as well as "The Alphabet Song", "The Alphabet", "Alphabet Song" or "Alphabet".
  2. The alphabet song is sometimes said to come from another of Bradlee's publications, The Schoolmaster, but the first line of that song is given as "Come, come my children, I must see", in Yale University's library catalog. It is described as "a favorite glee for three voices, as sung at the Salem glee club."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphabet</span> Set of letters used to write a given language

An alphabet is a standard set of letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters correspond to phonemes, the categories of sounds that can distinguish one word from another in a given language. Not all writing systems represent language in this way: a syllabary assigns symbols to spoken syllables, while logographies assign symbols to words, morphemes, or other semantic units.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nursery rhyme</span> Traditional song or poem for children

A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and other European countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.

"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in Rhymes for the Nursery, a collection of poems by Taylor and her sister Ann. It is now sung to the tune of the French melody "Ah! vous dirai-je, maman", which was first published in 1761 and later arranged by several composers, including Mozart with Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman". The English lyrics have five stanzas, although only the first is widely known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Slovene alphabet</span>

The Slovene alphabet is an extension of the Latin script used to write Slovene. The standard language uses a Latin alphabet which is a slight modification of the Croatian Gaj's Latin alphabet, consisting of 25 lower- and upper-case letters:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English alphabet</span> Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters

Modern English is written with a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 letters, with each having both uppercase and lowercase forms. The word alphabet is a compound of alpha and beta, the names of the first two letters in the Greek alphabet. Old English was first written down using the Latin alphabet during the 7th century. During the centuries that followed, various letters entered or fell out of use. By the 16th century, the present set of 26 letters had largely stabilised:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphabetical order</span> System for ordering words, names and phrases

Alphabetical order is a system whereby character strings are placed in order based on the position of the characters in the conventional ordering of an alphabet. It is one of the methods of collation. In mathematics, a lexicographical order is the generalization of the alphabetical order to other data types, such as sequences of numbers or other ordered mathematical objects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digraph (orthography)</span> Pair of characters used to write one phoneme

A digraph or digram is a pair of characters used in the orthography of a language to write either a single phoneme, or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined.

When used as a diacritic mark, the term dot refers to the glyphs "combining dot above", and "combining dot below" which may be combined with some letters of the extended Latin alphabets in use in a variety of languages. Similar marks are used with other scripts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kabardian language</span> Northwest Caucasian language natively spoken by Circassians

Kabardian, also known as East Circassian, is a Northwest Caucasian language, that is considered to be the east dialect of Adyghe language. Circassians reject west and east dialects to be different languages and refer to them both as "Circassian".

"Ar Hyd y Nos" is a Welsh song sung to a tune that was first recorded in Edward Jones' Musical and Poetical Relics of the Welsh Bards (1784). The most commonly sung Welsh lyrics were written by John Ceiriog Hughes (1832-1887), and have been translated into several languages, including English and Breton. One of the earliest English versions, to different Welsh lyrics by one John Jones, was by Thomas Oliphant in 1862.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bukharian (Judeo-Tajik dialect)</span> Jewish dialect derived from the Tajik branch of the Persian language

Bukharian is a Judeo-Persian dialect historically spoken by the Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. It is a Jewish dialect derived from—and largely mutually intelligible with—the Tajik branch of the Persian language.

Wong Shik Ling published a scheme of phonetic symbols for Cantonese based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in the book A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced According to the Dialect of Canton. The scheme has been widely used in Chinese dictionaries published in Hong Kong. The scheme, known as S. L. Wong system (黃錫凌式), is a broad phonemic transcription system based on IPA and its analysis of Cantonese phonemes is grounded in the theories of Y. R. Chao.

Wong Shik-Ling published a romanisation scheme accompanying a set of phonetic symbols for Cantonese based on International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in the book A Chinese Syllabary Pronounced according to the Dialect of Canton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alphabet book</span> Childrens book designed to teach the letters of the alphabet

An alphabet book is a type of children's book giving basic instruction in an alphabet. Intended for young children, alphabet books commonly use pictures, simple language and alliteration to aid language learning. Alphabet books are published in several languages, and some distinguish the capitals and lower case letters in a given alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apple Pie ABC</span> English alphabet rhyme for children

"Apple Pie ABC" is an old and enduring English alphabet rhyme for children which has gone through several variations since the 17th century.

The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as rōmaji.

Luchazi is a Bantu language of Angola and Zambia. Luchazi is the principal language of the Ngangela Group. Ngangela is a term coined by the Vimbundu traders and missionaries in 18th century to describe the tribes occupying the area of eastern-central Angola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ah! vous dirai-je, maman</span> French childrens song

"Ah! vous dirai-je, maman" is a popular children's song in France. Since its composition in the 18th century, the melody has been applied to numerous lyrics in multiple languages – the English-language song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is one such example. It was adapted in Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

References

  1. Fuld, James J. (2000) [1966]. The Book of World-famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (5th ed.). Dover Publications. pp. 593–594. ISBN   9780486414751.
  2. Dwyer, Rachael (14 June 2017). "Curious Kids: Who made the alphabet song?". The Conversation . Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  3. Uitti, Jacob (15 June 2023). "The Meaning Behind the ABCs of "The Alphabet Song"". American Songwriter . Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  4. Lynch, Jack (2016). You Could Look It Up . Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 50. ISBN   9780802777942.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. Fortin, Jacey (30 October 2019). "How Do We Sing Our ABC's? L-M-N-O-Please Not Like That" . The New York Times . Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  6. Bruner, Raisa (29 October 2019). "The People Have Spoken and They Don't Want This Updated Alphabet Song Remix". Time . Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  7. Ryzik, Melena (27 September 2019). "How 'Sesame Street' Keeps the ABCs Fresh, Every Single Time" . The New York Times. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  8. "Listen to the song sung". Archived from the original (RealPlayer) on 28 September 2007.
  9. "Listen to the song sung". Archived from the original (RealPlayer) on 28 September 2007.
  10. "Definition of ZED". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  11. "Zed | Definition of Zed by Oxford Dictionary on Lexico.com also meaning of Zed". Lexico Dictionaries | English. Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  12. Schiller, Pamela Byrne; Willis, Clarissa (2006). School Days: 28 Songs and Over 300 Activities for Young Children. Gryphon House. p. 26. ISBN   978-0-87659-019-5.
  13. "Who Wrote The Alphabet Song?". Dictionary.com . 2 October 2018. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  14. Children sing the ADLaM alphabet, as obtained from Bach, Deborah; Lerner, Sara (29 July 2019). "Adlam Comes Online". Microsoft . Retrieved 18 August 2019.
  15. Dene Syllabics Alphabet, Indigenous Languages of Manitoba Inc., 4 May 2018, archived from the original on 23 November 2021, retrieved 27 October 2021 via YouTube