All modern alphabets are believed to have developed from a single parent script, which originated sometime in the second millennium BC. With the publication of The World's Oldest Alphabet, a new day has dawned. How did technologies from pen to paper to printing press make it all possible? This first alphabet was adapted by the Phoenicians, whose Mediterranean civilization thrived from 1500 to 300 BC. It was a short, 22-character list with (1) names and (2) a fixed order for characters that could (3) easily be memorized. It's written in Hieratic script, dated to around 1600 BC. The most first Alphabet in The World. The Greek language was originally written from right to left, but eventually changed to boustrophedon (literally, turning like oxen)—where the direction of writing alternated with every line. A common teaching in schools for many decades has been that the Phoenicians developed the world's first alphabet around 1050 BC. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! "What Was the First Alphabet?" English, Phoenician and Arabic are derived directly from Hebrew. From this background, he posits that it's even possible the legendary Palamedes really did invent the (Greek) alphabet. That is, an alphabet requires symbols for vowels. Maybe yes, from a certain point of view. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, now has more than 120,000 workers. Writing has played a vital role in the expansion and domination of cultures throughout history. ‘A’ for Alpha and ‘B’ for Bravo are known by most, but most of us don’t know the other letters, breaking our connection with others just when we want to get our message across. How did … Powell is a Classical scholar with publications in Homer and mythology. A debate exists as to whether the Phoenician or Ugaritic alphabet was first. What Are the Letters of the Greek Alphabet? N.S. Screen Hour 2 of this series: A to Z: How Writing Changed the World . "Remarkable new evidence discovered by Dr. Douglas Petrovich may change how the world understands the origins of the alphabet and who first wrote the Bible. At the beginning of the second millennium B.C.E., Canaanites toiling in the Sinai desert invented the world's first alphabet. “The problems at Alphabet – and created by Alphabet – are not limited to any one country, and must be addressed at a global level,” UNI General Secretary Christy Hoffman told the Verge, which was the first outlet to publicize the global union’s formation. The most first Alphabet in The World. A to Z: The First Alphabet The birth of writing and the first alphabet were among the world’s most vital inventions. A Is for Astonishing – the World’s First Alphabet Was Not Invented by the Elites After All . What Was the First Alphabet? ThoughtCo. All Rights Reserved. Hover the mouse cursor on the map to see the main writin system of each individual country. The Middle East, c.1500–1200 B.C. क or ক (Ka) is the first alphabet of most Indian scripts. Sometime during the second millennium B.C. Celebrate by learning to read hangul. Colonization first only modified certain aspects of the alphabet. Follow the evolution of the written word, from 4,000-year-old carvings in an Egyptian turquoise mine to modern-day alphabets. is "what was the world's first alphabet?" ), a group of Semitic-speaking people adapted a subset of Egyptian hieroglyphics to represent the sounds of their language. Written from right to left and spread by Phoenician maritime merchants who occupied part of modern Lebanon, Syria and Israel, this consonantal alphabet—also known as an abjad—consisted of 22 symbols simple enough for ordinary traders to learn and draw, making its use much more accessible and widespread. Gill, N.S. But researchers are only now uncovering the origin story to our own alphabet. The world’s scripts and alphabets. It includes 3 verses written in Hurrian and 6 lines in Akkadian. Some Phoenician characters were kept, and others were removed, but the paramount innovation was the use of letters to represent vowels. Thus, the unknown Greek created the first alphabet. Latin Alphabet Changes: How the Roman Alphabet Got Its G, Learn the Greek Alphabet With These Helpful Tips. It just claims to have succeeded where others have failed. Do You Know Everything About Consonant Sounds and Letters in English? In it, the God Theuth invents writing and communicates his discovery to King Thamus with great excitement, praising its ability to “make the Egyptians wiser” and to “improve their memories; for it is an elixir of memory and wisdom.” But King Thamus is not amused, and accuses Theuth of the exact opposite, saying that because writing allows individuals to store information on paper, they won’t commit it to memory. By the 8th century B.C., the Phoenician alphabet had spread to Greece, where it was refined and enhanced to record the Greek language. Many scholars believe it was this addition—which allowed text to be read and pronounced without ambiguity—that marked the creation of the first “true” alphabet. Most or nearly all alphabetic scripts used throughout the world today ultimately go back to this Semitic proto-alphabet. The aleph, he, heth (originally an /h/, but later long /e/), yod, 'ayin, and waw became the Greek vowels alpha, epsilon, eta, iota, omicron, and upsilon. Writing, the first technology to make the spoken word permanent, changed the human condition. Plato recounts the Egyptian-origin myth of writing in Phaedrus, one of his famous Dialogues. Share This Program The language of the world's first alphabet could have been Hebrew. The Middle East, c.1500–1200 B.C. This year, however, for the first time in 22 years, Hangul Day was reinstated. By using ThoughtCo, you accept our, Greek Modification of the Phoenician Symbols, The Semitic Letters That Became Greek Vowels. The language of the world's first alphabet could have been Hebrew. The usual name of the script is given first; the name of the language(s) in which the script is written follows (in brackets), particularly in … Hebrew is the world’s Oldest Alphabet. This is according to an archaeologist who has spent the past four years piecing together the letters of the alphabet. The article states, “North Semitic alphabet, the earliest fully developed alphabetic writing system … was used in Syria as early as the 11 th century BC and is probably ancestral, either directly or indirectly, to all subsequent alphabetic scripts, with the possible exception of those scripts classified as South Semitic (e.g., Ethiopic, Sabaean).” 1 ThoughtCo uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. Phoenician colonization allowed the script to be spread across the Mediterranean.In Greece, the script was modified to add the vowels, giving rise to the first true alphabet.The Greeks took letters which did not represent sounds that existed in Greek and changed them to represent the vowels. Hebrew is the Mother Alphabet of all other languages. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-was-the-first-alphabet-119394. Before the alphabet was invented, early writing systems had been based on pictographic symbols known as hieroglyphics, or on cuneiform wedges, produced by pressing a stylus into soft clay. Egypt could be named as the nation with the first alphabet were the provision of vowels was considered unnecessary. Interesting Facts About the English Alphabet. West Semitic people from the eastern coast of the Mediterranean (where Phoenician and Hebrew groups lived) are usually credited with developing the world's first alphabet. The earliest known example of an alphabet - that is, a writing system in which a small number of symbols are used to represent single sounds rather than concepts - dates back to around 1900 BC and was found carved into limestone in Wadi el Hol near Luxor in Egypt by Yale University Egyptologist John Darnell (USA) in the early 1990s. It is the world's first complete alphabet in the sense that it has a letter to represent each unique vowel and consonant character. The alphabet is the standard set of symbols used to write a language based on a set of principles that guide a particular language. In Egypt, too, writing has been found that uses only consonants. The first internationally recognized phonetic alphabet was created by Nato in 1956. For example, the following sentence: This may be opaque to someone not raised with English, perhaps especially if his native language is written without an alphabet. By Douglas Petrovich What is the language behind the world’s first alphabet? (estimated between 1850 and 1700 B.C. World: Middle East Oldest alphabet found in Egypt ... Dr Darnell and his wife Deborah first found the letters in 1993, carved into soft limestone cliffs in a valley called Wadi el-Hol, beside an ancient road that linked Thebes and Abydos, west of present-day Luxor. These first two signs came to form the name of the system itself: alphabet. ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/what-was-the-first-alphabet-119394. The first complete alphabet in world history is the Greek alphabet, as it emerged around the start of Ancient Greece, roughly 800 BCE. If the vowels are dropped from English sentences, while the consonants remain in their correct position with respect to the other consonants, literate, native English speakers can usually still understand it. Barry B. Powell says it is a misnomer to refer to the Semitic abecedary as an alphabet. The First Alphabet: Follow the evolution of the written word, from millennia-old carvings in an Egyptian turquoise mine to our modern-day alphabets. The history of alphabetic writing goes back to the consonantal writing system used for Semitic languages in the Levant in the 2nd millennium BCE. Waw was also kept as a consonant called wau or digamma, and located in the alphabet's order between epsilon and zeta. The First Alphabet The printing press transformed the spread of information, igniting the Industrial Revolution. Hebrew is the world’s Oldest Alphabet Hebrew is the Mother Alphabet of all other languages. E to syria ugarit the acropolis phoenician alphabet and other early meanings of the first alphabet letters written record of semitic alphabet hand of ugaritic stus brill Index Ugarit Photo Gallery Latakia Syria Firstalphabet 1400bcUgarit SyriaUgarit Syria The Place Where Alphabets Began Gonomad TravelDay Dreams The World S Oldest AlphabetUgarit… So, my work does not claim to be the first to make this connection. The stele on which he inscribed this is older than any alphabetic inscription, which made me realize that (1) Jacob’s relocation of Ephraim and Manasseh to the settlement of their uncles led to their invention of a Hebrew script, and (2) Hebrew is the language behind the world’s first alphabet. By Douglas Petrovich What is the language behind the world’s first alphabet? The application features a beautiful, bright, colorful design and a child-friendly interface. German for Beginners: Pronunciation and Alphabet, M.A., Linguistics, University of Minnesota. The inclusion of the names of Mesopotamian musical notes, indicate that this was poem accompanied by music. The Phœnician Letters (and its transliteration). The idea of an alphabetic writing system was conceived only once in history, and all known alphabets derive from that seminal script. A to Z: The First Alphabet Writing shaped our world and the rise of human knowledge, from the trading of goods to tales of ancient goddesses and kings. Barry B. Powell in his 2009 publication provides invaluable insight into this question. The earliest (deciphered) Phoenician inscription is of 1100 BC. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Gill, N.S. By the 5th century B.C., the direction had settled into the pattern we use today, from left tor right. NOVA: A to Z - The First Alphabet and How Writing Changed the World DVD,The First Alphabet: Follow the evolution of the written word, from millennia-old carvings in an Egyptian turquoise mine to our modern-day alphabets. English, Phoenician and Arabic are derived directly from Hebrew. Gill is a Latinist, writer, and teacher of ancient history and Latin. On one of the tablets is the world’s oldest musical composition. Phoenician and Greek alphabets and languages. German ophthalmologist Dr. Werner Weber called Serbian Cyrillic “the world’s first alphabet”. Whereas it once was written from the bottom up, it began to flow from left to right, and the characters were rotated 90 degrees. In this first of a three-part series, the background and importance of this issue will be explored before some of the specifics of the new finds and the pushback from other scholars is covered in part two. Thus, the unknown Greek created the first alphabet. The first line of the Iliad in the same abbreviated form is unrecognizable: Powell attributes the Greek invention of the first real alphabet to the need for vowels to transcribe the meter (dactylic hexameters) of the great epics, Iliad and Odyssey, attributed to Homer and the works of Hesiod. Powell is a Classical scholar with publications in Homer and mythology. This Proto-Sinaitic script is often considered the first alphabetic writing system, where unique symbols stood for single consonants (vowels were omitted). The Greek alphabet originally had only 5 vowels; the additional, long ones were added over time. It is the world's first complete alphabet in the sense that it has a letter to represent each unique vowel and consonant character. He defended his doctoral dissertation in Leipzig in 1937 on the topic of “Alphabets of the World” when he established that the Serbian Cyrillic alphabet was a “holiday for the eyes”. All of the disputed letters have been resolved, while the language has been identified conclusively as Hebrew, allowing for the translation of 16 inscriptions that date from 1842 to 1446 BC. The first complete alphabet in world history is the Greek alphabet, as it emerged around the start of Ancient Greece, roughly 800 BCE. Preschool ABC balloons letter present the wonderful world of letters in four great games that besides knowledge of letters, words and names also help toddlers in the areas of matching and learning several words that begin with each letter of the alphabet. It appears we owe our thanks to a group of Canaanite miners who toiled the Sinai desert and gave birth to every written system we know today. The Probable Inventors of the First Alphabet:Semites Functioning as rather High Status Personnel in a Component of the Egyptian Apparatus - Christopher Rollston Introduction: For some time, there has been discussion about the social status of those that developed (“invented”) Alphabetic Writing (i.e., elites or non-elites).