Home » Culture & Society » Legends & Folklore » Fables

How the Alphabet Was Made

16 Comments

44 Like

Like 44

Pin It

Ranked #3,936 in Culture & Society, #85,390 overall

Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

When I was a little girl - somewhere between the ages of 6 and 10, one of the classic authors I was introduced to was Rudyard Kipling. I remember reading the Jungle Books and the stories about Mowgli. But there was one other book by Rudyard Kipling that I was also introduced to. That book was called Just So Stories.

It is essentially a book of stories about animals - and I am not an animal lover so I dont remember most of the stories in this book. But there are 2 stories in this book that are NOT about animals. These 2 stories were about writing and about the alphabet. I have been interested in the history of alphabets and writing ever since. .

Image Source - St Mary's Rare Books and Prints - Stamford, Lincolnshire, England.

Teaching my son to read

Today (January 21, 2012) I came across a website called Children of the Code. This website describes in scientific and minute details (through articles and video interviews) exactly how children's brains are changed when they learn to read and write. The website gives details of the history of the alphabets and how reading and writing changed civilisations.

The website goes on to explain what happens when a child does not learn how to read - and describes just how much the child misses out on, in life, because they cannot read - or they cannot read past a basic level.

As I was reading this website and watching these videos I thought back over the last 9 years. I am sitting here watching my son reading and typing on the internet. I am proud that I was able to teach my son to read. I am so pleased that I have set him up to be able to go through life without struggling because he knows how to read and write and spell and type.

Did you know my 9 year old son can type faster than me already? I was flabbergasted when I discovered this. Like me, he prefers to type rather than to actually write. Writing with a thin pen and a cramped hand is very painful. But he can read, and spell and write and type - he can communicate. Typing is just as good as writing - better in some ways. After all it is just another means of communication. If I was not able to read and write and spell and type - I would not be able to create this lens for you to read from.

I have been reading books to my son since he was 2 years. I remember teaching him the alphabet song. I remember teaching him his colours by having him learn the colours of the cars parked along the roadside as we walked to and from daycare every day. I remember him knowing how to spell ELECTRICITY by the time he was 4 years old because it was in a favourite book about trains.

While he doesnt have the passion for reading for pleasure like I do - he does know how to read and how to find information in an encyclopedia and online. His vocabulary is very extensive and has increased considerably, mostly due to his internet activities. Frequently in the course of a conversation with me, he will often mention a word that I dont expect a 9 year old to know. He not only knows what the word means, and uses it correctly, he can often spell it correctly as well. Most of this new vocabulary comes from his interactions online.

Anyway, getting back to this website - Children of the Code - eventually I got to thinking about the history of the alphabet and I was wondering just how did I become so interested in that subject. It didn't take me long to remember reading these Just So Stories about how the first letter was written and how the alphabet was made. I must have read these stories a good 40 years ago now.

Over the last 40 years, my interest in history has grown and spread to cover many other areas as well. But I still love reading about ancient scribes and ancient writing systems - all because of those 2 stories from Rudyard Kipling in a book called - Just So Stories.

Image source - Personal Photo - Copyright to Serenia

.

Egyptian Hieroglyphics

Image source - Metalife Trends

3000 BCE - one of the earliest forms of writing - called Hieroglyphs.

Hieratic script did not come from Hieroglyphics. It actually developed before Hieroglyphs were invented. Hieratic is now seen as a parallel system to Hieroglyphics, and not as an evolved system. It was written using pen and ink on papyrus.

Hieroglyphs did later evolve into another writing system called Demotic script.

Demotic script developed around 600 BCE. It was used most often for papyrus documents and was called frequently called Document Writing, because it could be written so easily on papyrus using pen and ink.

The Demotic script was used for around 1000 years - from 600 BCE to 400 CE.

The Rosetta Stone

Lets Face it - without the Rosetta Stone, we would probably still be as ignorant of Egyptian ancient history now, as we were 300 years ago.

It was a major breakthrough. In 1799, a soldier from Napoleon's army, discovered a large stone carved with the translation of a Hieroglyphic text as well as the Demotic and the Greek. The Greek was known. The Hieroglyphic and Demotic were still unknown. This text on this stone was carved around 196 BCE, being a decree established by Ptolemy V.

Jean Francois Champollion was the young French prodigy who felt driven to learning these ancient languages so that he might translate the Rosetta Stone and make the historical breakthrough that history so desperately needed.

Image source - Wikipedia - A giant copy of the Rosetta Stone (created by Joseph Kosuth) - laid down in Figeac, France - the birthplace of Jean-François Champollion.

Wikipedia - This is a close up look at the Demotic script on the Rosetta Stone

Phoenician Alphabet

The Phoenicians were great sailors and merchants. They sailed all over the Mediterranean, and started up many new colonies in Spain and North Africa. They even sailed out past the Pillars of Hercules (now called the Straits of Gibraltar) out into the north Atlantic as far as the British Isles. They took their language and their alphabet with them. This spread of the Phoenician alphabet was taking place as early as 1000 BCE.

Many later alphabets are derived from the Phoenician. The most important derivation is Greek. - as that gave rise to the Latin alphabet - which is the one I am using today.

Image Source - The History of Typography

Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet has been around since 700 BCE and is one of the oldest alphabets currently still in use today. Unlike the Phoenician alphabet which had no signs for the vowel sounds - Greek was the first alphabet to have letters representing the vowel sounds.

In addition to be used for language, the letters of the Greek alphabet are also used for scientifc and mathematics notations - such as for the constant number known as Pi.

The Greek alphabet has given rise to a number of modern alphabets - the most important of which are Gothic, Latin and Cyrillic. The Gothic alphabet was used by the Roman Catholic church during the medieval ages but that has now died out.

Image source - The History of Typography

Latin (Roman) Alphabet

The Latin alphabet was used for the language of Latin - which was spoken by the Romans. It was developed around 400 BCE. Since the Roman Empire covered a good portion of Europe - the Latin alphabet was spread throughout Europe - and later around the world.

Most western European languages use the Latin alphabet - English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch as well as the Scandinavian languages. Most Slavic languages (from eastern Europe) use the Cyrillic alphabet - Russian and Bulgarian are the most well known.

Interestingly enough, there are also some eastern European languages that also use the Latin alphabet - Polish, Romanian, Hungarian and Turkish are the most well known ones that come to mind.

The closest modern derivative to the Latin language spoken by the Romans - is Italian. Other "Romance" national languages (those which descend directly from the Roman language) include French, Spanish, Portugese and Romanian. Some regional languages include Catalan, Provencal, Walloon and Sardinian.

Image source - The History of Typography

Children of the Code

This is a screenshot from the Children of the Code website. This particular menu is about the History of the Alphabet, and how Civilisations arose directly as a result of Writing.

How the First Letter was Written

Just So Stories - Chapter 8