[analphilosopher] Keith Burgess-Jackson: Ambrose Bierce

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Posted by Keith Burgess-Jackson:
Ambrose Bierce
http://www.analphilosopher.com/posts/1161904087.shtml


   W (double U) has, of all the letters in our alphabet, the only
   cumbrous name, the names of the others being monosyllabic. This
   advantage of the Roman alphabet over the Grecian is the more valued
   after audibly spelling out some simple Greek word, like
   epixoriambikos. Still, it is now thought by the learned that other
   agencies than the difference of the two alphabets may have been
   concerned in the decline of "the glory that was Greece" and the rise
   of "the grandeur that was Rome." There can be no doubt, however, that
   by simplifying the name of W (calling it "wow," for example) our
   civilization could be, if not promoted, at least better endured.

   (Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, c. 1911)