Would anyone attempt this one : who decided the alphabets? For example why is A called A and not something else. Why is a bottle called a bottle - who decided to name it a bottle and what sense did it make to name it so?
2006-06-08 23:13:57 · 17 answers · asked by caprichoso 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Trivia
It started off with humans trying to find a method of expressing themselves, and it started from making actions, to drawing and writing and speaking. They passed this down and here we are.
You could always try to invent a new language- wouldn't that be cool?
2006-06-08 23:17:41 · answer #1 · answered by smashingly.smashing 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Languages and alphabets have evolved over hundreds of years and are still evolving and changing regularly. There is not enough room or time here to explain the whole subject, since it takes at university three years to study it for the basic degree.
If you want to know details, read some books about ethymology, the structure of speech and language, the development of the different alphabets and the linguistic connections between the various Indo-Germanic languages.
Any decent library and any good book shop will be able to point out suitable titles.
2006-06-08 23:19:45 · answer #2 · answered by Alex B 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
this question is like "why is blue called blue and not green"? which brings up the question of "is the green i see the green jane sees?" it boggles the mind.
but back to your question. A is called A because it is short for alp (alpha in Greek) in Middle age bronze alphabet, which is the oldest modern alphabet (the word "alphabet" itself is just an amalgamation of the first two letters of the greek alphabet, "alpha" and "beta", minus the a for some reason...). so i guess scholars from the middle bronze age decided.
Etymology for "bottle" :
Middle English "botel",
from Middle French "bouteille",
from Medieval Latin "butticula",
diminutive of Late Latin "buttis", which means cask or barrel
makes sense, no? "bottle" means "little barrel". cute. :)
most words go back to greek or latin ultimately and (if they're nouns) reflect what the object looks like or does.
2006-06-08 23:35:25 · answer #3 · answered by luckyduck74 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A should be called as A only .
suppose if A is called as B, you may ask the same question in the other way
ie.,"why is A called as B and not something else" .
not only english in all the other languages whatever our ancestors thought
have became an alphabet, name for every thing in the universe.
we are following that for thousands of years
2006-06-08 23:26:33 · answer #4 · answered by karthi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The first word comes from a little baby's mouth is "Mother". What power teach the baby to say this?????? The same power decided the alphabets to run comunication in the world. YES it's true that the POWER finally selected the Human to promot the way of comunications
2006-06-08 23:29:54 · answer #5 · answered by Sona 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
alphabet letter forms evolved in time. they looked different at the beginning, were fewer and easier to remember. people needed a way to communicate mainly on long distances. and since this happened on many places in the world, we suddenly had many alphabets and writing techniques. later it was decided that a universal alphabet is required and i guess this one was made. some cultures still use ancient alphabets because they want to stay true to their tradition!? anyway, take any object. you can find many valid names for it. it's not just one name, you can trace names back to it's creation. everything needs a name to be easily identified thus allowing communication.
2006-06-08 23:28:49 · answer #6 · answered by fluorescent`pen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Languages evolve and change over time. English, like Dutch, Danish, Swedish is part of the group of Germanic languages which are very much related.
Alphabets evolve too. The A evolved from an image of a bull, one can still see the head and the horns.
2006-06-08 23:27:23 · answer #7 · answered by Sue_C 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Look in broader sense. The most scientific language on earth is hindi. You read what is written in Hindi, which is not there in any language.Eg Apple, you cannot pronounce a-p-p-l-e. Words were originated by a community and was spoken by them. This might have universal effect. The words take birth and die their natural death. From where it has originated is difficult to follow. One thing to be kept in mind, simple goes longer.
2006-06-08 23:23:22 · answer #8 · answered by sbbaby 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
THe English language that we speak is a mix of different words from different languages. Some are German (which English is a dialect of) Some are asian, So who made what what i do not think we will ever know. I think with time we developed the english that we speak today.
2006-06-08 23:20:24 · answer #9 · answered by jibbers4204 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is only one alphabet in English i.e. A to Z. However, there are 26 letters in English. I beleive these letter are originated from Nature.
2006-06-08 23:18:24 · answer #10 · answered by Deepak S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋