why is A the first letter of the alphabet?

Question

My 6 year old asked me this the other day. Some kids ask about the sky, mine asks about the alphabet. "I don't know, it just is," is all I could think of. Please explain in a way she will understand.

come on now, serious answers please. i'm trying to feed a young mind.

Answer 1

coz when you're hurt the first letter that hits your mind is :
Aaaaaaa .....

Answer 2

I think the best answer is probably "because that's the way we have always done it." Historically, I think we can only find the answer back as far as ancient Greek. There are older alphabets (such as Egyptian or where Greek may have come from Linear A) but I believe the older alphabets either didn't have specific letters for vowels (most didn't) or simply were never written down in a teaching order.

After all, the only reason we even put the letters in an order at all is for categorization purposes - to teach the alphabet to students, to put books in order for easier retrieval, etc. The "order" of letters is otherwise completely useless. You don't find endings of verb in Spanish, for example, in alphabetical order.

So, the order therefore doesn't really matter, HOWEVER, everybody has to use the same order, or the order is useless. If I alphabetize using my order, it won't be very useful for you if you don't accept my letter order. Therefore, the conservation of order over time would be very important. You'd have to have a really good reason to change ordering, and as far as I know if you follow a language family, it doesn't occur. The ordering in Greek, Latin, English, and Russian alphabets is basically the same, give or take extra letters added or subtracted over the years.

So, I'd say that we have "A" first because ancient Greek did, and ever since we have followed the Greeks.

Answer 3

well the letters go chronilogically by the old Latin terms.

In Latin, "A" stood for "alpha" which was the first form of light.
"b" for "beta" which was the second form of light.

it went all the way to "z" for zapta.

Answer 4

Inherited; tradition; see older alpha(get it)?bets - alpha, beta...or even farther back, aleph... just a primitive human grunt, ahhhh, happens to be placed first because we like it so much...

Answer 5

The alphabet had to start somewhere!

Answer 6

its from alpha

a Greek letter

thats how the Greeks used em, and maybe somebody before that, Phonecians of SUmerians or whoever

alpha beta gamma epsilon etc.

Answer 7

Because it sounds right.

Answer 8

because that where it is