Why There are 26 Letters in the Alphabet

Aug. 31, 2014

This story happened many years ago when school children were writing with ink pens and there were still 23 letters in the alphabet.

One day a little Italian girl was practicing writing letters. It was a hard task for her because every time she wrote letters V and I she would put a blot on her paper. She was very upset about it because she wanted to please her Daddy with beautifully written letters.

The little girl was writing letter V, when suddenly……oops, a blot! ‘What shall I do?’ thought the girl looking at the letter. ‘The eraser didn’t help much last time…hmm, why not doing like this?

‘Looks a little different, though,’ thought the girl and continued writing V another time, and one more time.  

‘Enough with consonants! Time to write a vowel!’ thought the girl and started writing letter ‘I’, when …oops, another blot!

Now she confidently turned a tiny blot into a line.


‘Nice work!’ said her Dad, when he saw the letters. ‘But what letters are these?’ he asked pointing at U and J.

'Well, I put some blots on my paper when I was writing V and I, and I didn’t know what to do with all that, so I changed some lines,’ the little girl was about to cry...

‘Don’t be upset, let’s give them a name! Let’s call them U and J, and this,’ he said looking at VV, will be a W!’

Since then there have been 26 letters in the alphabet.