CHAT: Names of Latin alphabet letters

It turns out that it was the Etruscans who gave the alphabet
letters their modern European names, breaking with the
Greek < Phoenician names alpha < alef, beta < bet, etc.

Their convention was:

1)
Vowels were named after the vowel sound.

2)
Stop consonants were named by *suffixing* the stop with /e/.

3)
Sonorant consonants were named by *prefixing* the stop with /e/.

This pattern is remarkably well preserved in Modern English, allowing
for vowel shortening in closed syllables, the change of /e/ to /i/
in the Great Vowel Shift, and the softening of "c" and "g", which were
originally always /k/ and /g/.

Vowels:

a
/ei/
e
/i/
i
/ai/
o
/ou ~ @u/
u
/ju/

Stops:

b
/bi/
c
/si/
d
/di/
g
/dZi/
p
/pi/
t
/ti/

Sonorants:

f
/ef/
l
/El/
m
/Em/
n
/En/
r
/Ar/ (mysterious change in vowel)
s
/Es/
x
/Eks/

Irregulars:

h
/ejtS/
k
/kei/ (perhaps influenced by name of "j"?)
q
/kju/

Post-Etruscan Letters:

j
/dZei/
v
/vi/
w
/d@b@(l)ju/
y
/wai/
z
/zi/ or /zEd/ < zeta

Oddly, the letter names are quite standardized, except for /zi/ vs.
/zEd/, but there are no standard spellings at all.

ObConlang:  In Esperanto, the consonants are named bo, co, cho, etc.;
in Lojban, the consonants are by, cy, dy, etc. (y = /@/) and the vowels
.abu, .ebu, .ibu, etc. ("." = /?/).

--
There is / one art             || John Cowan <jcowan@...>
no more / no less              || http://www.reutershealth.com
to do / all things             || http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
with art- / lessness           \\ -- Piet Hein