There are 44 consonants to memorize, and the task is made easier by associating each one with a word in which the sound is featured. There are also additional marks for tones and for vowels. Most consonants can be written in two different ways, indicating different tones. Written Thai has a complex relationship to the spoken language. There's a third system based on characters adopted from Chinese writing that isn't in the song. Katakana is mostly used for foreign loan words or technical vocabulary, and hiragana is used for Japanese words and word endings. This song names the syllables represented by the katakana and hiragana characters. Japanese is represented with a few different writing systems. Here a group of cuties sings the Jawi "Alif Ba Ta." 6. The Malaysian language can be written with the Latin alphabet or in Jawi, a form of Arabic script. The Russian alphabet has 33 letters, but this song from Russian Sesame Street is so catchy, it doesn't seem like so many. Here, the Bajka children's choir sings them with impressive speed.
This energetic song fits them all in nicely. The Turkish alphabet doesn't have q, w or x, but it has six other letters that English doesn't have, bringing the total to 29. They leave out the 'w,' which was grouped together with 'v' by the Swedish Academy until 2006. The Swedish alphabet is almost the same as ours, but they've got three more letters to cram into the song (å, ä, ö). Here are some other songs from around the world to help them learn their ABCs. Since the 19th century, we've been learning our ABCs through the alphabet song sung to the same tune as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." But ours is not the only alphabet, and not every alphabet will fit into that song.