A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q or is it R...
That always confuses me…
Wait, no it’s definitely Q.
Start again.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y and Z.
The alphabet, something we all learn at the beginning of our education, something take for granted as we grow older and never really look back on. The alphabet really never enters our minds once we learn it and I mean why would it really? It never really entered my thoughts until the second week of MAS110.
Admittedly, I wasn’t all that interested at first and was like many of the other students who were too nervous to contribute to the discussion our tutor was holding, but as the day, well… Days… went on.
I began to think about it a bit more and that’s when the flood of questions burst through my head.
Where did the alphabet come from?
When did the English alphabet first form?
Where did these 26 letters that form the connection between marks and sounds come from?
Why isn't a topic of discussion among your everyday person?
Why haven’t I thought of these questions prior to this class?
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| “Books” by Moyan Brenn license: Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0) |
Well, the answer to these questions suddenly became apparent upon research. Dating back approximately four thousand years ago, where early alphabetic writing, as opposed to other early forms of writing like cuneiform (the use of different wedge shapes) or hieroglyphics (pictographic symbols), depended on simple lines to represent spoken sounds. Scholars attribute its origin to a little known Proto-Sinatic, Semitic form of writing which was developed in Egypt between 1800 and 1900 BC.
Building on this ancient foundation, the first widely used alphabet was developed by the Phoenicians about seven hundred years later. Consisting of 22 letters, all consonants, this Semitic language then became popular and was used throughout the Mediterranean, including the Levant, the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa and Southern Europe.
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The Greeks built on the Phoenician alphabet by adding vowels around 750 BC. Considered the first true alphabet, it was later adopted by the Latin’s (later to become the Romans) who combined it with important Etruscan characters including the letters “F” and “S”. Although ancient Latin overlooked G, J, U, V, W, Y and Z, by about the third century, the Roman alphabet looked very similar to our modern English, containing every letter except J, U or V and W.
Now that brings me to the next part… What about the English alphabet that many of us take for granted today?
Well the history of writing in Britain, begins with the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth century AD. With links to Scandinavia and other North Seas cultures, ancient Anglo-Saxon writing, called futhorc, was a runic language. Flexible, new runes were routinely added such that, although it first appeared in England with 26 characters, by the time of its demise (by the 11th century AD), it had 33.
In the seventh century AD, the Latin alphabet introduced by Christian missionaries had begun to take place. In 1011, a formal list of the Old English alphabet was made and included all of our present letters except J, U or V and W.
However, shortly after the Old English alphabet was developed, the Normans invaded (1066 AD). English as a language was then relegated primarily to the low born, with the nobility, clergy and scholars speaking and/or writing in Norman or Latin.
By the 13th century when writing in English began to become more prominent again, the language reflected two centuries of Norman rule. The Old English letters thorn and eth were replaced by “th”; wynn eventually became u-u or “w”; and the other English letters were discarded.
A great example of a Middle English writing is Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath from Canterbury Tale, lines 1-13.
“Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, were right ynogh to me
To speke of wo that is in marriage;
For, lordynges, sith I twelf yeer was of age
Thonked be God, that is eterne on lyve,
Housebondes at chirche-dore I have had five-
For I so ofte have ywedded bee-
And alle were worthy men in hir degree.
But me was toold, certeyn, nat longe agoon is,
That sith that Crist ne wente nevere but onis
To weddyng in the Cane of Galilee,
That by the same ensample, taughte he me,
That I ne sholde wedded be but ones.”
The translation can be found here (lines 1-13)
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| “Alphabet” by Jiří Zralý license: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) |
Furthermore, with the introduction of the printing press (which was invented by Johann Gutenberg in 1448) to Great Britain in the mid-15th century by William Caxton (Bbc.co.uk, 2014), English became more standardised and modern English appeared. Sometime in the mid-16th century, V and U were split into two letters, with U becoming the vowel, and V, the consonant. In 1604, Robert Cawdrey published the first English dictionary, the ‘Table Alphabeticall’, and also around this time, J was added to create the modern English alphabet we know today.
The fact is without the “…non-alphabetic systems” (Myres 1948) the alphabet we take for granted today, wouldn’t be here. And if the objections of philosophers such as Plato received a greater following and the alphabet never existed… The world as we know it, would most definitely not be the same.
On a final note, researching the origin of the alphabet was not something I could see myself doing or find interesting, but upon reading, I found myself not being able to stop.
And as my eyes have been widened, it has become clear that the alphabet is an integral element to the history and development of mankind.
