Full Description
First published in 1961, this book explores the form of the comic alphabet. Whether through poems, prose or phonetics, the alphabet has become a way in which mankind has taken pleasure in playing with words and phrases. Indeed, approaches can vary significantly from the almost moronically humorous to the ingenious and genuinely witty and this book looks at the reasons how and why the comic alphabet came to possess the arguably sophisticated form in which people know it today.
Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Part 1: Comic Alphabets 1. The Origin of Comic Alphabets 2. Victoriana 3. Ribaldry- A Brief Note 4. Exortica Part 2: The Comic Phonetic Alphabet 5. Before Clapham and Dwyer 6. The Age of Clapham and Dwyer 7. After Clapham and Dwyer 8. Geographical Distribution 9. Linguistic and Social Stratification 10. Variants 11. The Comic Phonetic Alphabet as a Game; Index of Subjects and Authors
