ABC-DEF-GHI is a song sung by Big Bird of Sesame Street. It is also erroneously known as Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
Appearance
After finding the Latin alphabet written in chalk on the sidewalk, in one episode, Big Bird mistakes it for a very long word ("abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"). With marching band-like accompaniment, he breaks into song, pronouncing the "word", as /æbkədəfgidʒəkəlmənapkwərstuvwɪksɪz/ His brilliance as a bird, he thinks, will become known to all the world if he can ascertain the word's meaning. A verse lists Big Bird's assumptions of what the word might mean:
- It might be a kind of an elephant
- Or a funny kind of kazoo
- Or a strange, exotic turtle
- That you'd never see in a zoo
- Or maybe a kind of a doggie
- Or particular shade of blue
- Or maybe a pretty flower
- Naah, not with a name like that, uh-uh!
The bridge illustrates the daunting task of trying to spell, let alone pronounce the word:
- It starts out like an A word, as anyone can see
- But somewhere in the middle, it gets awful QR to me.
Next, Big Bird's friends appear and Big Bird tries to stand on the chalked "word", as he thinks to himself, nonverbally, "Oh no! Now all my friends will find out about the abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (as he thinks the word to himself, he pronounces it "(/æbkədəfgidʒəkəlmənapkwərstuvwɪksɪz/)") and my fame will not be published throughout the streets of Sesame!". However, his friends manage to worm him into getting off the chalked word and they, together, explore the skullduggery of finding out its meaning. But each of them have different ideas about how the word should be pronounced, and of its meaning. After much guessing, they finally learn that it is the alphabet.
See also
- The Alphabet song
