does anyone know the first alphabet. and where it started.and what was the first letter of it.?

Question

this guy at work say's the first letter was " I " and the alphabet was not english. i don't know if he is full of it or what. thank's for any help.

Answer 1

Several have pointed out the basic origins of our alphabet, ultimately in the early Semitic alphabets of the 2nd millennium BC, a form of which Phoenician traders of the 1st millennium BC spread around the Mediterranean (esp. to the Greeks, and from one group of Greeks to the Etruscans, and from them to the Romans -- hence the Latin alphabet we now use a form of).

As for the ORDER of these alphabets, some clarification is needed.

Below I will explain where your friend's suggestion may come from (I'm assuming he misread a lowercase for a capital and meant the letter "L"). But here's the big picture:

1) Our very term "alphabet" is based on a Greek version which began with the letters "alpha" and "beta". These words were nonsense in Greek, borrowed from the Phoenician names "aleph" and "beth" (meaning "ox" and "house" --words that began with these respective letters). That is, the essential order of our alphabet (with modifications for letters added later by the Greeks and Romans), is an order used by the Phoenicians, as well as by others in their region who spoke related languages --this included speakers of Hebrew .

2) Specific evidence for THIS order among the Semitic groups? Of the texts we have in Phoenician, I do not know of any of these that are specifically "abecedary" texts (that is, lists of the letters in a standardized a-b-c type order). But the evidence for this order in first millennium BC Hebrew is quite strong in the biblical texts, esp. in their "acrostic poems", in which successive verses or sets of verses begin with the letters in the 'order of the alphabet'. The most famous example is Psalm 119 in which the eight verses of each stanza start with the same letter. In fact, almost any English Bible you pick up will display the Hebrew characters and names above the stanzas of this psalm.

3) Actually, the evidence for this order -- beginning with "aleph" -- goes back to about 1300 B.C., where it is found in a number of "abecedary texts" apparently written in scribal schools in the Syrian port city of Ugarit. (The characters are in an alphabet adapted to be written in "cuneiform", but are still the same basic letters as the other alphabetic texts we know.) There is some suggestion that the order reflects the propsed Egyptian roots of the whole Semitic alphabet, but no evidence of this has been found. (And at least one writer has proposed that the Ugartic alphabet was organized as a mnenomic device, and has attempted to reconstruct a poem based on the word-names of the letters.)

4) This is at least the DOMINANT order. But there is another group of languages -- including writings in "Old South Arabiab" and later in "Ge`ez" (also called "Classical Ethiopic") that used a different order, that starts with the equivalent of "h". This "South Semitic" order is first found in South Arabian inscriptions inthe mid-1st millennium BC... or so we long thought. It turns out that two texts found at Ugarit --one found back in 1933, but not appreciated; another found much later-- have since the 1990s been recognized as reflecting the South Semitic order. With just two of them, and the peculiarities and uncertainties about these specific texts, it is difficult to know what to make of them. There are some, however, who argue that this order may be just as old as the standard 'aleph-bet' order (and have looked forevidence in the lists of Egyptian symbols ['glyphs'] thought to be behind them).

**5) As for the "L" first suggestion. Many have suggested that the 22-letter Phoenician and Hebrew alphabet was typically broken into TWO pieces of eleven letters each. Looking at the Hebrew alphabet (perhaps at Psalm 119) you see that the first three letters of the second half are 'lamed-mem-nun', that is, "L-M-N". Scholars have argued that we have some alphabetic texts in various languages that are divide into two pieces this way. Some have suggested that the two pieces might originally have been used in either order, or even that an order beginning with L-M-N might have come first. One piece of this is the oft-heard suggestion that the Latin word "elementum" was borrowed, with the alphabet, from the Etruscans, and referred originally to the simple letters of the alphabet.

Actually, the original MEANING of "elementum" is obscure, so thte last suggestion is speculative. And, more important I think, no one holding the view that " L-M-N..." was the original order has explained the order of the 30-letter Ugaritic alphabet, in which these three letters are 'interrupted' (by letters not found in the shorter Hebrew-Phoenician alphabet).

But the idea that the list was broken into two equal pieces and learned that way seems reasonable.

(One author has made an interesting argument from the structure of the Hebrew psalm that has become "Psalms 9 - 10". This is an older acrostic composition whose second piece begins with -- you guessed it-- L (lamed). The writer notes that the USUAL structure one would expect for this psalm if it were read as one whole would be the REVERSE of the order we know find, that is, beginning with the L-verse. Intrguing, and perhaps evidence of some scribal play with the "two pieces" of the alphabet, but not of itself a proof of a different "original order of the alphabet".

Answer 2

The alphabet was invented about 3500 years ago in the region at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea which now comprises the nations of Israel and Lebanon. It was developed for a language we call Proto-Canaanite. This language later broke up into the Hebrew, Phoenician, and Moabite languages. The first letter of this alphabet was the letter alif, which in Proto-Canaanite represented the consonant /'/. That is the sound in the middle of "uh-uh" (as "no") in English. When the alphabet was borrowed into the Greek, that letter came to represent the vowel /a/. It is still in the Roman alphabet (which is the proper name of the "English" alphabet) as the letter "a".

EDIT: The Greek alphabet was BORROWED from the Phoenicians. The Roman alphabet was BORROWED from the Greek alphabet (by way of the Etruscans). The earliest true alphabet was Canaanite (later Phoenician) NOT Greek. We don't know why alif was the first letter, but it was.

Answer 3

My research concludes as follows:

1/ The generally agreed 1st alphabet was the Proto-Canaanite which evolved from Egyptian Glyphs.

2/ The order is unknown.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Canaanite_alphabet

The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is an abjad of twenty-plus acrophonic glyphs, which is found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca. the 15th century), by convention taken to last until a cut-off date of 1050 BC, after which it is called Phoenician.

This was the ancestor of nearly every alphabet in use today, from Greek, Hebrew, Roman and Berber in the West to Thai, Mongol, and perhaps Hangul in the East. The Hebrew alphabet is the one that remains closest to its predecessor, as only the form of the letters has been modified - unsurprisingly, since Hebrew is a Canaanite language and had, in its original pronunciation, roughly the same set of consonants as the dialect that the alphabet was devised for.

The alphabetic order is unknown; the related but cuneiform Ugaritic alphabet had two alphabetic orders, an ABGD order similar to that of the Hebrew, Greek and Latin alphabets, and an HLĦM otherwise attested in the South Arabian and Ge'ez alphabets.


http://www.omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm
Phoenician/Canaanite
Origins
The Phoenician alphabet developed from the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, during the 15th century BC. Before then the Phoenicians wrote with a cuneiform script. The earliest known inscriptions in the Phoenician alphabet come from Byblos and date back to 1000 BC.

Notable features
The Phoenician alphabet consists of 22 letters, many of which have a number of different forms, and does not indicate vowel sounds
The names of the letter are the same as those used in Hebrew

Answer 4

The first writing systems known are from about 2700 B.C.
and were systems of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The were really
just pronunciation "guides" and were not technically an alphabet. In the Bronze Age, about 1700 B.C. semetic tribes used a form of alphabet which was consonants only. The reader had to supply the vowel sounds as he saw fit.
Some of these scripts were called Proto-Sinaic scripts and originated in the Palestine area.
The alphabet from which most of our modern alphabets stem
is the Phonecian alphabet from about 1050 BC. This alphabet
is closely related to the Greek and Latin alphabets which followed.
The first letter in the Phonecian alphabet was aleph and it looks like a capital A turned 90 degrees counter-clockwise.
How they knew to start with A, I'll never know.
(Ok, Ok, nerds. It's a joke!)

Answer 5

A- Abdullah the Butcher B- Bruiser Brody C- Chavo Guererro D- Dean Malenko E- Edge F- Fritz Von Erich G- Gorgeous George H- Harley Race I- Ivan Putski J- Jimmy Snuka K- Kerry Von Erich L- Luna Vachon M- Medusa N- Nick Bockwinkel O- Owen Hart P- Perry Saturn Q- Queen Sharmell R- Ricky Steamboat S- Shawn Michaels T- Tony Atlas U- Ultimate Warrior V- Virgil W- Warlord X- X-Pac Y- Yokozuna Z- Zack Gowen

Answer 6

it began in the caves. men started to paint their hunting journies on walls.
then people started to setlle down (stopped being nomades) and agriculture was discovered.
it was back in the sumerian akadian times about 6000 years ago.
people from european ancestors (mostly from east germanic ancestors) setteld down in mesopetamian(that time the land was borded with what was going to be later the east roman empire- and greek and old egypt)... it was no real alphabet, but actually subjects from the real world written down through using drawings... then as time went on it was developed to real alphabet, akadian then was the oldest semitic language, which followed the sumerian (i believe modern scients have found out some relationship to hungarian language) and then the old assyrian followed the akkadian and then it was attacked by persians (including curds and turks and moguls and different people from central asia, mainly todays afganistan and pakistan)
and have ruined everything up... the youngst semetic language was the arabic, the alphabet was developed in the 5 centry anno d. and through isalmisation wars semitic languages deminished, such as jewish--

and the term alphabet comes from the roman alpha beta as the first two letters, which are identical with those of jewish people- aleb, beth

Answer 7

the first official alphabet began with the phonecians and that is what the modern romance families are derived from. sumerian and akkadian script did not have an alphabet, at least not in the sense as we know of one.

Answer 8

the alphabet that english people use, was not originally english. it was made by the romans.

Answer 9

From the Alpha, to the Omega. Its originated with the Latin/Greeks.. Some Hebrew, too. I'm studying it, in my Mon & Wed nite, classes. Its so fascinating to me!! I even went out and bought the Mythical book. D'AULAIRES' Book of GREEK MYTHS.. Its an old antique book, but I have thee "Replica" of course..I think my teacher has thee Original version, because when I asked her the name of the book, she hands me only the hard-back cover, without the book... Her version of it; is in parts, she tries to keep together.. HaHa!! But, she's a very "Fascinating" intelligent woman, who I just love learning everything from her!! I'd say Latin/Greek mainly Greek & Hebrew.. Many of our words originated from the Greeks.. Like the word panic, and One=uni, two=bi,three=tri,four=quad, five=quin,six=sex,hex,seven=sept,eight=oct, nine=nov,ten=Dec, many=poly, half=semi, and so on, all Greek.. mind, is psyche... and it all makes sense, really where half of our words originate from the Greeks.. Such as, Mother is;mater... and Father is;pater.. alot of their words , sound alot like ours, with a slight difference. But, they gave them to us.. The Greeks did.. We just slightly changed them..is all.. I wish I could help you out with the alphabet, but maybe, later you get the numbers, and I'd copy what I've given you, for later on; just in case. You just never know. Good-Luck, to you.. Smile!!!

Answer 10

It originated in ancient Egypt. These sites will give you lots of information about it. I hope this helps.