A is not the first letter of the alphabet.
Despite the fact that dictionaries, encyclopedias, and English-class roll call all start with A-words for alphabetical order, despite the fact that the word alphabetical itself starts with the letter A, for philosophical and not language-history reasons, there is a letter of far greater primary importance to communication in English. For an explanation, I yield the floor to one Mr. Ambrose Bierce, from his The Devil’s Dictionary:
‘I’ is the first letter of the alphabet, the first word of the language, the first thought of the mind, the first object of affection. ... The frank yet graceful use of‘I’
194
Bill Brohaugh
distinguishes a good writer from a bad; the latter carries it with the manner of a thief trying to cloak his loot.
So, of course, Mr. Franklin’s modest proposal notwithstanding, A is the first letter of the alphabet, the first letter of the word alphabet, the first letter of a series of Sue Grafton mysteries, the first . . . well, you get my point. I concede. To do otherwise would be to carry my first tongue-in-cheek claim with the manner of Mr. Bierce’s thief.