2006-09-06 03:19:04 · 19 answers · asked by orhyswilliams 3 in Social Science ➔ Other - Social Science
Has it not occurred to you that if it were arranged in any other order you'd still be asking the same damned question!
2006-09-06 03:38:20 · answer #1 · answered by clausiusminkowski 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dear Yahoo!:
Why are the letters in the English "alphabet" in the order that they are?
Michael
Elmhurst, Illinois
Dear Michael:
The alphabet has often been described as an arbitrary collection of symbols representing an arbitrary collection of sounds. Its order is equally random. The origins of the earliest alphabets, which were probably created around 4,000 years ago, are quite murky.
The earliest form of the alphabet was invented by the Semitic peoples living in Egypt. This original alphabet eventually gave rise to written Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and the modern Roman languages.
The alphabet developed much out of laziness. Early pictograms required readers and writers to memorize hundreds of specific images representing words and ideas. The alphabet, on the other hand, was a kind of phonetic shorthand in which thirty basic sounds could be strung together to form words.
Egyptian hieroglyphics used both pictograms and phonemes (symbols that represent sounds). The first phonemes were based on pictograms -- for example, the symbol representing house, or "beth" in spoken Semitic, eventually became the letter "B."
2006-09-06 03:36:54 · answer #2 · answered by miles_muso 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Our alphabet was developed from previous alphabets in Hebrew, Roman, Arabic, Greek and on and on. It's just an arbitrary tradition.
Answer B: because of the song.
2006-09-06 03:25:26 · answer #3 · answered by anyone 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Cos if it wasn't it wouldn't be in alphabetical order.
2006-09-06 03:29:30 · answer #4 · answered by J C 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Nobody seems to know. One good explanation is in Robert Gaves' book "The white Godess" where he writes that ours is a deliberately mixed up sequence of the starting letters of an ancient invocation.
2006-09-06 03:25:42 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are arabic numbers alphabets or numbers?
2006-09-06 03:21:13 · answer #6 · answered by changmw 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the first two letters of the alphabet have to be alpha and beta (a and b) otherwise it would have to be called something else.
2006-09-06 03:25:40 · answer #7 · answered by Simon K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Don't know I still am wondering why or who came up with the way we say the letters. But starting with A seems to make sense. Great question.
2006-09-06 03:31:20 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because a comes first and then b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z come next. It's the law.
I wonder how many people actually read through that list, to see if I'd made a mistake. Hands up!
2006-09-06 05:37:45 · answer #9 · answered by Princess415 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
its in alphabetical order...everyone knows that...duh
2006-09-06 03:23:52 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋