2007-03-25 08:05:41 · 5 answers · asked by tehrantt 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
History of the Alphabet
- Middle Bronze Age 19–15th c. BC
Canaanite-Phoenician 14th c. BC
Paleo-Hebrew 10th c. BC
Aramaic 9th c. BC
Brāhmī & Indic 6th c. BC
Tibetan 7th c.
Khmer/Javanese 9th c.
Hebrew 3rd c. BC
Syriac 2nd c. BC
Nabatean 2nd c. BC
Arabic 4th c.
Pahlavi 2nd c. BC
Avestan 4th c.
Greek 9th c. BC
Etruscan 8th c. BC
Latin 7th c. BC
Runes 2nd c.
Ogham 4th c.
Gothic 4th c.
Armenian 405
Glagolitic 862
Cyrillic 10th c.
Samaritan 6th c. BC
Iberian 6th c. BC
Epigraphic South Arabian 9th c. BC
Ge'ez 5–6th c. BC
- Meroitic 3rd c. BC
- Hangul 1444
- Zhuyin 1913
2007-03-25 08:11:30 · answer #1 · answered by Queen of the Rÿche 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The history of the alphabet starts in ancient Egypt. By 2700 BCE Egyptian writing had a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words and foreign names.
2007-03-25 15:10:40 · answer #2 · answered by dave a 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sumeirian Cuneiform and Egyptian Hieroglpyhs are not alphabets, but pictographic forms of writing (like Chinese characters).
The earliest alphabet is the proto-Canaanite semitic script from Israel (or Palestine if you prefer), which dates from around 1500 BC.
2007-03-25 15:32:11 · answer #3 · answered by Cosimo )O( 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are probably more than just one.
2007-03-26 07:12:31 · answer #4 · answered by Michael V 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Please clarify your question.
2007-03-25 15:09:22 · answer #5 · answered by Doc Occam 7 · 0⤊ 4⤋