ALPHABETS
MODULE 2
Early visual language systems like cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics,
and written Chinese were complex from the start. These systems began
as pictographs—symbols that looked like what they represented—but
over time evolved into more abstract forms:
•Rebus writing (using pictures to represent sounds),
•Ideographs (symbols for ideas),
•Logograms (symbols for words),
•Or even a syllabary (symbols for syllables).
However, learning these systems took years of study. As a result,
literacy was rare, and those who could read and write held great power
in early societies due to their exclusive access to knowledge.
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The invention of the alphabet was a huge breakthrough in human
communication. Fun fact: the word "alphabet" itself comes from the
first two Greek letters—alpha and beta.
Unlike earlier systems that used hundreds of symbols, alphabets use a
small set of characters, each representing basic spoken sounds (called
phonemes). These symbols could be combined to form:
• Syllables,
• Words,
• And ultimately complex language.
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There are many theories about where the alphabet came from.
Scholars have debated sources like:
• Cuneiform,
• Hieroglyphs,
• Prehistoric geometric signs,
• And early Cretan pictographs.
While there’s no single agreed origin, what's clear is that the alphabet
evolved over time. Figure 2-1 shows the development of the Western
alphabets, including the Latin alphabet, which is what most of us use
today (yes, including this sentence!).
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This diagram displays several evolutionary
steps of Western alphabets. The
controversial theory linking early Cretan
pictographs to alphabets is based on
similarities in their appearance
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The Latin alphabet is the modern descendant of this evolution.
Originally developed by the Romans, it came from earlier Greek and
Etruscan forms and has become the most widely used writing
system today—used for English, Spanish, French, Filipino, and many
other global languages.
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Cretan pictographs
As early as 2800 BCE, they were already using picture symbols (Minoan or
Cretan pictographs).By 2000 BCE, there were short pictographic inscriptions,
around 135 symbols that have survived.These symbols included human figures,
body parts, animals, plants, and geometric shapes.
• As early as 2800 BCE, they were already using picture symbols
(Minoan or Cretan pictographs).
• By 2000 BCE, there were short pictographic inscriptions, around
135 symbols that have survived.
• These symbols included human figures, body parts, animals, plants,
and geometric shapes.
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Cretan pictographs
By 1700 BCE, the Minoans had seemingly moved from pictographs
to a more abstract linear script, which might have been an early
precursor to the Greek alphabet.
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The Mystery of the Phaistos Disk
Discovered in 1908 on Crete, the Phaistos Disk is one of the most puzzling
artifacts of Minoan culture:
• Made of terra-cotta and 16.5 cm in diameter.
• Has pictographic and maybe alphabetic symbols stamped in spiral bands on
both sides.
• Each symbol was impressed using stamps, suggesting a very early use of the
movable type printing principle—possibly as early as 2000 BCE.
We don’t know:
•What the inscriptions say,
•Who made them,
•Or whether these stamps were used on
other materials (like papyrus).
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The North Semitic alphabet
The true inventors of the alphabet are unknown, but many scholars
believe the Northwest Semitic peoples—including the early Canaanites,
Hebrews, and Phoenicians—were responsible.
•The term North Semitic writing refers to the earliest alphabetic
scripts from this region.
•The Phoenician alphabet, named after surviving examples from
Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel), is the best-known
early form.
•The Phoenicians were skilled seafaring merchants during the second
millennium BCE, connecting settlements across the Mediterranean
and absorbing cultural ideas from Egypt and Mesopotamia.
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Sui Generis Script of Byblos
In Byblos, the oldest Phoenician city-state, a unique script
called sui generis (meaning "of its own kind") emerged
around 2000 BCE.
• It used pictographic signs that no longer had literal
picture meanings.
• Found on stone and bronze documents, this script
had a syllabary of over 100 characters, representing a
major step toward the alphabet.
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Around 1500 BCE, Semitic miners in Sinai Peninsula
developed the Sinaitic script, using acrophony:
• A symbol represented the first sound of the word for
the pictured object.
• This script combined Egyptian hieroglyphic visuals
with a sound-based system, making it a bridge
between imagery and phonetic writing.
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By 1500 BCE, the Phoenicians were using a fully abstract,
phonetic system with 22 characters (no pictures).
• One of the oldest samples is the sarcophagus of King
Ahiram from Byblos, dating to the 11th century BCE.
• The script was written right to left, probably because
stonemasons held their tools that way.
Phoenician writing was also used on papyrus with pens and
brushes, but sadly, no literature survived, including a nine-
book mythological work by a Byblos author.
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The North Semitic script, particularly the Phoenician
alphabet, was the starting point for many writing systems.
• It likely came from an even older, lost prototype.
• Over time, alphabets branched into two major lines:
• Phoenician alphabet → evolved in Greece and Rome
(basis of Latin and Western writing)
• Aramaic alphabet → gave rise to Hebrew, Arabic, and
other regional scripts.
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The Aramaic alphabet and its descendants
The Aramaic alphabet originated from tribes in Aram (now Syria) and
is an early derivation of the North Semitic script. Its oldest specimen
dates to about 850 BCE, with 22 consonantal letters, written right to
left. A wide pen at a 45° angle made horizontal strokes heavy and
vertical strokes thin. It became the dominant script across the Near
East, with findings in Afghanistan, Egypt, Greece, and India. It is the
ancestor of many scripts, including modern Hebrew and Arabic, both
still written right to left.
The gestural curves of the Aramaic alphabet
evolved into the Hebrew and Arabic alphabets 15
Early or Old Hebrew alphabet examples date to around 1000 BCE.
After the Babylonian exile (586–516 BCE), returning Israelites found
that Aramaic had replaced Old Hebrew. This influence led to the
development of the Square Hebrew alphabet, which later evolved
into modern Hebrew. (figure 2-5)
The Hebrew alphabet has 22 consonantal letters from North
Semitic, with 4 letters for long vowels and 5 final-form letters. As
Hebrew evolved, dots and dashes (niqqud) were added to
represent vowels.
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Die Hebräische Schrift (The Hebrew Script)
The graphic forms of the Hebrew alphabet are
squared, bold letters whose horizontal strokes
are thicker than their vertical strokes.
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The Arabic script began forming before 500 CE. It added 6
characters to the original 22 Semitic sounds, uses 3 long vowels,
and diacritical marks for short vowels and consonant distinctions.
The two main styles are:
• Kufic (bold, thick, formal – used in inscriptions, coins,
manuscripts)
• Naskhi (cursive, flowing – became the dominant style after
1000 CE)
Naskhi script, ideal for papyrus, evolved into modern Arabic
scripts. Its vertical ascenders and horizontal curved strokes create
a kinetic rhythm. Arabic letters change form depending on position
in a word (beginning, middle, end). Only 6 letters don’t connect.
Changes are stylistic, not structural.
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Kufic characters are bold, elongated, and angular;
their aesthetic properties are widely admired Kaskhi Style. Giambattista Bodoni, page from
Manuale tipografico, 1818. Arabic type
specimen.
Arabic is the second most used alphabet after Latin. The
Muslim conquests (7th–8th centuries CE) spread Arabic
and Islam from North Africa to India. The Qur’an, written
in Arabic, is believed to be divine revelation from Allah to
Prophet Muhammad via Archangel Gabriel, elevating
Arabic calligraphy as a sacred art.
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Aramaic is thought to be the
ancestor of Indian scripts,
arriving around the 7th
century BCE. Indian
languages required further
elaboration of the alphabet.
Sanskrit and other scripts
feature strong vertical and
horizontal structures,
especially the top horizontal
stroke, which likely came Gujarati Type Foundry, Bombay, 1930. Indian Sanskrit
from writing under a ruled type specimen.
line. 21
The Greek alphabet
Greek civilization made many important contributions to the
Western world, including science, philosophy, and
democracy. The Greeks also improved the alphabet, making
it more useful and beautiful after they adopted it. Their art,
buildings, and writings are still valued today.
Around 1000 BCE, the Greeks took the Phoenician alphabet
and spread it through their cities. The oldest Greek writing
found is from the 8th century BCE, but the alphabet may
have started earlier. The Greeks changed five Phoenician
consonants into vowels.
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The Greeks made the letters from the Phoenician alphabet more
organized and beautiful. They gave the letters a balanced and
neat look by using shapes like lines and curves.
In stone carvings, the letters became perfect geometric forms.
For example, E and M were based on squares, A on a triangle,
and O was almost a perfect circle. Even though carvers added
creative touches, they still followed the structure of the 24-letter
Greek alphabet, which is still used today.
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At first, Greeks wrote from right to left like the Phoenicians. Then
they used a style called boustrophedon, where each line
switches direction—first right to left, then left to right—like an ox
plowing a field. Later, they switched to writing from left to right,
which is how we write today in most Western countries.
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By the second century CE, the
Greeks created a rounder style of
writing called uncials. This style
was faster to write because it used
fewer strokes. Uncials were used
on scrolls, wax tablets, clay, and
wood. This writing style also
shows how tools affected style.
Greek pens were made from hard
reeds with split tips, making sharp
lines—unlike Egyptian brushes
made from soft reeds, which made
softer strokes.
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THE LATIN ALPHABET
Around 750 BCE, rome was just a small and simple village by the tiber
river in the middle of italy.
Rome grew into a powerful empire that ruled many parts of the world.
Later, the empire fell, but its story is one of the most important in
history.
By the first century ce, the roman empire became huge. It reached
from britain in the north to egypt in the south, and from spain in the
west to the persian gulf near mesopotamia in the east.
The Romans also used and improved the Greek alphabet. This became
the Latin alphabet, which is what we still use today in writing English and
many other languages.
ORIGINS OF THE LATIN
ALPHABET
The Latin alphabet that the Romans used came from the Greeks, but
it passed through another group first—the Etruscans. The Etruscans
lived in Italy and were most powerful around 600 BCE.
Etruscan Bucchero vase, seventh
or sixth century BCE. A
prototype of an educational toy,
this rooster-shaped toy jug is
inscribed with the Etruscan
alphabet.
ORIGINS OF THE LATIN
ALPHABET
The 21 Letters of the Early Latin Alphabet
• Around 250 BCE, a man named Spurius Carvilius created the letter
G to replace Z
• The 21 letters in the old Latin alphabet were:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, V, X.
The letter R came from a changed form of the letter P.
• Romans added Y and Z to the end of their alphabet. That’s because
Greek words had sounds that needed those letters.
Middle Ages: Alphabet Reaches 26 Letters
• Later, in the Middle Ages, 3 more letters were added. That gave us the 26
letters we now use in modern English. These letters are J, U, W
• I → J. The letter J came from the letter I. In the 1300s, scribes started
making I longer when it was used as a consonant (like in “Jesus”). That’s
how J started.
• V → U. In old times, the letter V was used for both a vowel (like U) and a
consonant (like V) sound. Around the 900s, people made the letter U to
show the soft vowel sound, while V stayed for the consonant sound.
• V → W. The letter W was made by joining two V’s (VV) together. This
happened in 1100s England
Rome celebrated its conquests by creating monumental letterforms for
inscriptions, specifically capitalis monumentalis (monumental capitals).
These letters had thick and thin strokes with balanced straight and
curved lines, and were carefully crafted with attention to both the
letters themselves and the spaces between them. Inspired by geometric
forms like squares, triangles, and circles, these inscriptions formed a
visual harmony with their surroundings.
• The origins of Roman serifs (the tiny lines at the ends of strokes)
are still debated. One theory says they came from chisel cleanup
marks by stonemasons. Another claims they originated from a
brush technique used before carving. Either way, the original
letters were first drawn with a flat brush, then carved into stone.
• Roman letter shapes were not created with strict mathematical
precision. Letters of the same kind would vary slightly. When
space was tight, both letters and spaces were artistically
adjusted by the brush writer, not calculated precisely. Some
inscriptions still show traces of red paint, indicating that
carved letters were painted. Monumental capitals had wedge-
shaped cuts with angled edges to resist chipping.
The capitalis quadrata (square capitals) was the most important Roman
writing style from the 2nd to 5th century CE. Written slowly with a
flat pen, it had clear proportions and no space between words. Some
letters like F and L rose slightly above the top guide line. Serifs were
also added with the pen.
The capitalis rustica (rustic capitals) was also used during this time. These
letters were narrower and written faster, which allowed more letters to
fit in a small space—important since papyrus and parchment were
expensive materials.
In places like Pompeii and
Herculaneum, brush writers painted
public notices, ads, and political
messages directly on walls. They used
both square and rustic capitals.
Professional letterers handled signs,
posters, and branding on reusable
wooden panels. Roman trademarks
identified product origins. Other
materials included papyrus, wood, clay,
metal, and reusable wax tablets. (Fig.
2–20)
Rise of Parchment (and Vellum). When Ptolemy V blocked papyrus
shipments to rival Eumenes II, parchment became popular. Made from
animal skins (goat, calf, sheep), parchment was smoother, stronger, and
more flexible than papyrus. Vellum, its finest form, came from newborn or
unborn calves. The process involved washing, stretching, scraping,
whitening, and polishing the skins.
The Codex: The First “Book”
The codex replaced the scroll around the time of Christ. Parchment sheets
were folded and sewn like modern books. Codices were more practical—
easier to flip, could be written on both sides, and took up less space than
fragile papyrus scrolls, which couldn’t even be folded.
Codex vs. Scroll: Christian Edition
From 1–400 CE, both codices and scrolls were used. Christians preferred
codices for sacred writings (mas durable and easier to study), while pagans
stuck to scrolls. The codex symbolized Christian identity and modernity,
while scrolls became associated with pagan tradition. Emperor Constantine
declared Christianity Rome’s state religion in 325 CE, boosting the book’s
status even more.
KOREAN ALPHABET (HANGUL)
King Sejong (1397–1450 CE) introduced the Hangul alphabet in 1446
through a royal decree. Before this, Koreans used Chinese characters
(which were hard to learn) even though Korean and Chinese are totally
different spoken languages.
Sejong created a simple vernacular alphabet with 14 consonants and 10
vowels, aiming to make literacy accessible to ordinary people. He worked
with talented scholars to study other writing systems and invent a scientific
and innovative script.
The 14 consonants are based on the shape of the mouth and tongue when sounds are
made and are divided into five groups of related sounds. The 10 vowels use dots and
lines:
•Vertical line = person
•Horizontal line = earth
•Dot = heaven
These visual symbols make the system easy to understand and learn.
Hangul is not written in a straight line like the Greek or Roman alphabet.
Instead, letters are grouped into blocks called syllabic clusters. Each syllable has
at least one consonant and one vowel.
•If the vowel is vertical, the syllable is written horizontally (left to right).
•If the vowel is horizontal, the syllable is written vertically (top to bottom).
More complex syllables are made by adding more letters or combining simpler
syllables. With 24 letters, Koreans can make over 2,000 common syllables used
daily.
