alphabet

The Alphabet

An alphabet is a set of letters. The letters are written symbols that roughly represent the sound of a spoken language.
The word alphabet comes from alpha and beta, the first two symbols of the Greek alphabet.

Before the alphabet that we know today, people drew pictures on cave walls or on animal hides.

Ancient cave paintings

Later, systems of symbols representing people, places or things were invented. People carved the symbols onto rocks, stones or shells. One of the best examples of a system of symbols was found in Egypt. The ancient Egyptians used hieroglyphs. Symbols were also used to stand for the gods, water, buildings, food, and other features of daily life. The hieroglyphs represented whole words, not just sounds.

The first alphabet

Cunieform script on a stone, invented by the Sumerians

Some historians believe that people known as the Sumerians were the first to use a written language, about 5000 years ago. Others claim that the Chinese and Indians had the first written language. Still others say that the idea of an alphabet, where one symbol stands for only one sound, was first used in ancient Egypt about 4000 years ago. People who traded and fought against the Egyptians spread the idea of an alphabet to other places around the world.

The ancient Greeks created their own alphabet and so did the ancient Romans. Soon people began joining letters together to make words.

Look at these letters from ancient alphabets to see how we have used them in our modern alphabet.

Here, on the right, are some letters and symbols or modern hieroglyphs that we use today to communicate a message.

If you use any part of this, write the source in your bibliography like this:
Thomas & Sydenham, Alphabet [Online] www.kidcyber.com.au (2007)