who decided how each letter of the alphabet should sound like ?

Answer 1

Simple answer: it all began with "pictures" about 4000 years ago. We have a good idea of the GROUP that invented these picture-signs -- a Semitic group on the edge of Egypt-- though we don't know any INDIVIDUALS


There is merit to both sides of the quibble about the order of letter-form vs. sound, but I doubt that helps you with your basic question!

I gather you simply want to know how it is that the letter written "A" (and "a") came to represent the specific SOUND it does. Hope the following helps.

First, it IS true that our English alphabet (which is essentially the LATIN alphabet) goes back through the Etruscans to the Greeks, who borrowed it from Phoenician traders ca. 1000 B.C. So PART of your answer will be found in knowing how the Phoenician values came about. I'll go into that below.

Before I do, though, note that MOST of the letters borrowed from one language to another were used to represent the same or similar sounds. That is, when possible, the . So, for example

When there was NOT a good match (e.g., when the borrowing language did not even HAVE the sound the letter represented to those they borrowed it from)

a) the borrowers might use the letter to represent a DIFFERENT sound in their own language... perhaps one that somehow resembled the original, perhaps not.

One wonderful thing about this is, for us, is that it resulted in the GREEKS deciding to use certain Phoenician letters to indicate VOWEL sounds, which the Phoenician alphabet had NO specific signs for. (The way words are formed in the Semitic languages actually made it fairly easy to understand the word indicated even without the vowels... not quite so simple with Greek, Latin or English!)

b) the borrowers might have ADDITIONAL sounds 'left over' and so have to invent a completely new way to indicate these sounds, either by inventing a brand new letter (sometimes a modified form of another letter) OR by combining TWO letters together to stand for the sound. (Actually, this strategy of using two-letters for one sound, called "digraphs", was what the Greeks did FIRST. This is where the combinations "ph", "sh", "th" and "ch" came from... Latin borrowed these combos, and we still see some in English, but the Greeks later invented some brand new letters, such as the "theta" for the "th" sound.)

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So, what about the ORIGINAL signs and their sounds ("values") for all those letters the Greeks borrowed? For these we have to go back to Phoenician and related "Semitic" languages (such as Hebrew and Aramaic). Actually, we have a CLUE about what happened in the Greek... and even in our word "ALPHABET"

"alphabet" comes from the first two letters in the Greek list of letters -- "alpha" and "beta". Problem is, these words are absolutely MEANINGLESS in Greek! (That's part of the reason Latin and other later languages developed the habit, for most letters, of naming them for the SOUND they usually make.)

That's because the Greeks began by borrowing the Phoenician letter NAMES along with the letters themselves. And the Phoenician letter names were (at least originally) words with real meanings in Phoenician, etc. So, for example. "aleph" means "ox"; "beth" means "house".

Now, unfortunately, the ancient "inventors" of the alphabet (probably Semitic workmen on the borders of Egypt, who got the idea from a part of the Egyptian writing system) did not leave notes for us to understand all the details. But since we know the meaning of many of the letter-name words AND in a number of cases have samples of very old versions of them, we can often figure out basically what happened.

It worked like this -- they would take a word that STARTED with a particular sound and create a simplified picture of the object that word referred to, and that picture would stand for the initial sound in that word. Thus, a simple picture of an ox head, would stand not simply for the word "aleph" (meaning "ox") but for the first sound in "aleph". (This method is called the "acrophonic principle" if you need to look up anything more about it.)

In other words, the Semitic originators of the alphabet began with the SOUNDS of their language, and used the method just described to create signs for each sound. Of course, once a simple letter form was created and became more a symbol for the SOUND than for the original word, people began to simplify the signs... until in many cases it was no longer possible to recognize the original sign/picture. But once the signs were invented, that hardly mattered. Learning a small number of signs (20-30 in most alphabets) is simple enough, so the original forms are hardly necessary.

(Incidentally, it was the fact that Greeks used most of the letters for the same or similar sounds as the Phoenician signs that they COULD often use borrowed forms of the letter names.)
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Now here's something that should help -- a table laying out OLD versions of the pictures/letters, along with an explanation of their meaning and use:
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/alphabet.html

Answer 2

Some alphabets were deliberately invented,e.g., the Armenian, the Georgian, the Cyrillic, probably the Old Persian (though there we have no records, only conjecture). So some specific person made the decisions on how to represent this or that sound, e.g., Cyril and Methodius did for Cyrillic, though they based themselves on Greek. Others evolved over time, with in some cases perhaps no one making the decision. For example, English originally borrowed Roman letters with sounds similar to those used in Latin, but as English itself evolved the sounds changed. Same way the reason "w" represents a "v" sound in many European languages (German, Polish, etc.) is that at some point the "w" sound changed to a "v" one. Yes, the sounds always come first.

Answer 3

Since it's a Montessori course, you want to be careful that you don't use some of the ones you listed. The reasons are many are either: 1) Fantasy based: Which would go against the Montessori ideals. 2) Not phonetic for the early learner. Since this is something that would likely be most useful later when they are doing the movable alphabet to match the letters to the sounds they selected, you want to make sure it's as phonetic as can be. For "b," ball or boat is good, but don't use Barney. Actually, don't ever use Barney in anything and the world will be a happier place. :) With "c," I would use cat or corn. Clock is harder to hear the "c" sound individually. E - Don't use ears. It's not the phonetic /e/ sound you first introduce. It's a long "e" sound. Elephant's your best bet of what you listed. I always liked to use "escalator" since it starts with an "e" sound that doesn't have a strange blend after it. G - Goat or gorilla is good. Believe it or not, you might run into religious problems of some parents if you use "ghost." I - igloo is the best one I've used. M - mouse is probably easiest. If you use money, they might wonder if you mean "coins" or even "bills." Mouse is very clear. O - octopus. Many of my students didn't know oval yet and sometimes might even get oval and ellipse mixed up. P could also be "paint." It is easier to draw than porcupine. Q - queen is good. Quilt and question mark have been things I have used. v: van, veil x - The "x" usually doesn't make the "zzzz" sound for students this early. It usually makes more of a "ks" sound at the end of the word. So : Box, fox, fax are good choices. y: yarn, yard, yo yo, yin yang z: Zero, zoo Hope that helps!

Answer 4

Nope, he asked it the correct way, actually.

Alphabets have been borrowed since the Phoenicians: In the European languages, Greek borrowed it from Phoenician, Etruscan from Greek, Latin from Etruscan. All have been borrowed by (I guess) learned people, to transcribe their tongues into known letters, and have thus acquired different values according to the individual needs of the language.

Cyrillic and the like alphabets are (only slightly) different, as they are made using other alphabets as examples (in this case the Greek one), not exactly borrowing it directly and then modifying it with time.

You can read more in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet

Answer 5

You are putting the cart in front of the horse. The sound came first and then they invented a symbol to represent it.