Traditionally A is seen as the first alphabet, I dont know why. A baby normally learns to say Mama and Papa forst so why not have M or P as the first alphabet.
2006-07-24 21:41:28 · 5 answers · asked by allinone47 1 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
Wow. That's a good observation. I don't think it would really matter if we scrambled the entire alphabet. But just for the sake of having things in order, I guess that's why it is the way it is.
2006-07-24 21:46:24 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
As your remarks suggest, the order of the alphabet had nothing to do with the first sounds a child makes. But why should it? Writing systems were invented by scholars who had developed a means THEY could use to record things -- not first of all for children but for the learned.
You are correct that there is no particular "logical" reason our alphabet should have to take the order it does and not some other. But there is no good reason to CHANGE that order, by which VAST amounts of material have been organized and cataloged.
Also, it's not surprising you don't know the reason for the ordre when the order of our alphabet goes back to the work of Semitic people living (we think) in or near Egypt over 3500 years ago.
The order we know seems to have been established fairly soon after the system of symbols itself. And much of it has, amazingly, been passed down to this day.
Thus we know that the first two letters of the alphabet of the Hebrews & Phoenicians were "aleph:" and "beth" (picked up as "alpha" and "beta" by the Greeks), which come down to us in the same position as "A" and "B".
Now WHAT was the reason for this ancient order that we all (at least roughly) still follow? (Did it correspond to something in their culture? Was it a mnemonic device?) Frankly, we do not know enough about how the letters were first invented and used to say. (No one left us an account of it!) But that does not prove there WAS no reason!
As for your suggestion about maybe putting "O" at the end... you weren't the first with this idea!
When adaptors of the Semitic alphabet added their own letters to the system they most often put them at the END. (Note that the last letter in the Semitic alphabet was "tau" > "T". So you see we have added several after it!) And the final letter added to the GREEK alphabet was the letter "Omega", meaning "big [that is, long] O" !
2006-07-26 16:27:57 · answer #2 · answered by bruhaha 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Even I have wondered for long as to why A is the first alphabet. But I was scared to ask someone thinking that they would laugh at me.
But now that you have asked let me give what I think to be the answer.
I think the order of the aplhabets was chosen randomly and that it does not matter whether A is the first letter or not. Someone during sometime must have made a list of all the alphabets and he must have written it in this order which we know today. Had he written P as the first letter and O as the last letter then probably we would now be reading it as
PBCDEFGHIJKLMNZAQRSTUVWXYO!!!
2006-07-24 22:35:39 · answer #3 · answered by ramc 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Yes it would. The symbols that designate A-Z have tones that apply for pronunciation and rules that apply for spelling and grammar. And mankind in it's infancy developed utterances into words that needed pictures or symbols to convey the meaning.
Ah, aa,...
Wait a second here. I get you now.
If you don't read or write it make no difference at all.
2006-07-24 22:14:53 · answer #4 · answered by allannela 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Mama and Papa
This is not for the all children so you can't do that. any ways if that is done(P as first alphabet) please mail me so that I just go to KG agian to learn the new list.
2006-07-24 22:17:28 · answer #5 · answered by ? 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋