File under “Ash to Ashes, Dust to Dust”: A, E, I, O, U, and sometimes Y are not the only English vowel letters.
Name the Beatles. Paul McCartney, }ohn Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and sometimes session man Billy Preston. But many of us remember, as well we should, that there was another Beatle— original drummer Pete Best.
The musical-language group The Vowel Vocal Band has a similar oft-forgotten drummer. In addition to the core group members A, E, l, O, U, and occasional session vowel Y is a Pete- Best vowel known as “ash.” Ash was one of a few runic symbols added to the Roman alphabet, used by Latin-literate priests transcribing Old English. Because transcriptions at the time were done phonetically (a “primitive” practice that we have since largely abandoned), and because Englisc speakers used sounds not represented in the Roman alphabet, the occasional rune was employed to communicate those sounds. Ash is pronounced like the A in its name, and is represented by the symbol JE. The word ash has also been spelled ce.sc and asc, which confuses me a bit: I don’t understand why the vowel’s name wasn’t always spelled cesh. Surely all the Old English keyboards had the symbol.
The letter ash bit the dust sometime during the Middle English period, leaving us with a simple A to do its former work.
Now, bringing the discussion back to the moptop mania that began this little essay, I must note that in the very early days of the Beatles, when Pete Best was still the drummer, the group called themselves the Quarrymen, and for a time before assuming the name we know them by now, they called themselves (yes, it’s almost true, and you’ll see it in a bullshitternet post soon) . . . the Beetles.
"I waennae hold your haend!”
7 go
Bill Brohaugh