How the alphabet was invented
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Video: History of the alphabet | Journey into information theory | Computer Science | Khan Academy 2024, July
Both in the history of mankind and in modernity, various forms of writing existed and continue to exist. One of the most common forms is the alphabet.
The appearance of alphabets was a true breakthrough in comparison with other types of writing. Pictographic writing based on images of specific objects is too complicated, not always clear, and cannot convey either grammatical rules or text structure. Ideographic writing is also no less difficult, where signs denote concepts. For example, among the ancient Egyptians the number of hieroglyphs was estimated in thousands! Not surprisingly, the scribe was a respected man in ancient Egypt.
Sounds in any language are much less than words, concepts and even syllables. Having come up with signs denoting individual sounds, it was possible to create a writing system that accurately captures speech and at the same time would be quite simple to learn. Writing to a certain extent ceased to be the "privilege of the elect" and turned into a convenient "working tool."
The emergence of alphabets
The first prototype of the alphabet appeared in ancient Egypt. The system of hieroglyphs did not allow to indicate changes in words, as well as foreign words. For this, around 2700 BC developed a set of hieroglyphs for consonants, there were 22. However, this could not be called a full-fledged alphabet, it occupied a subordinate position.
The first real alphabet was Semitic. It was developed on the basis of ancient Egyptian writing by the Semites living in this country, and brought to Canaan - to the west of the Fertile Crescent. Here, the Semitic alphabet was adopted by the Phoenicians.
Phenicia was located at the intersection of trade routes, which contributed to the spread of the Phoenician alphabet in the Mediterranean. His "descendants" were the Aramaic and Greek alphabets.
The Aramaic alphabet spawned modern Hebrew, Arabic and Indian alphabets. The descendants of the Greek alphabet are Latin, Slavic, Armenian and some other alphabets that are not used today.