Who named the letters?

Answer 1

Imaka has sketched the origins of our alphabet. But that doesn't quite explain the letter NAMES we now use.

There are actually TWO basic sources of alphabet letter names -- both of them have something to do with OURS, though the second is a much bigger piece.

1) The first source for letter names in European alphabets was the names used by the Semitic peoples from whom our alphabet ultimately derives.

In these languages (including Phoenician and Hebrew) the letter names were originally ordinary words that began with the sound the letter made. (In fact, the original signs, or many of them at least, apparently were simplified pictures of those objects.) So, for example, the "b" sound was indicated by a letter called "beth" -- which is the Semitic word for "house".

In other words, the earliest letter names were directly connected to the invention of the letters themselves -- and though we have some idea of where and how it happened (Semitic people near Egypt, getting the idea from part of the Egyptian writing system), we cannot identify a precise group and certainly no individuals.

Now when the GREEKS borrowed letters from Phoenician traders, they began by also borrowing the letter NAMES, which they adapted a bit to Greek. Semitic "aleph" (meaning "ox") and "beth" became "alpha" and "beta", though these names have NO meaning in Greek.

The Greeks later changed and adapted some of the letters, and in the process gave some Greek names, such as "omicron" (Greek for "little o"), "omega" ("big o") and "epsilon" ("simple e"). Other new or changed letters might be given names that rhymed with letter names they already used. (Thus, rhyming with "beta" and "eta" --based on Semitic names -- they added "theta" [ the "th" sound] and "zeta"; based on "pi" they added "xi", "phi", "chi" and "psi".)


2) But when Romans borrowed the alphabet (from the Greeks through the Etruscans), they did NOT borrow the letter names. Instead, they decided to use names that made the SOUND the letters stood for, with a vowel added to be able to pronounce it.

This is the system most of Europe --including English-- ended up with for most of its letter names. English (and esp American English) does this even more consistently than most languages -- ay, bee, cee, dee, eff....


Now through the centuries there were some CHANGES in these alphabets, which explains (among other things) some letter names that do NOT follow the Latin pattern just described.

For instance, a letter might change its use slightly (as the sounds of the language changed) "divide" letter used more than one way to form additional letters. (This explains i/j, originally forms of the same letter, and u/v/w, all based on one original letter. The new letters, in these cases, were placed next to the originals.) These mostly followed the pattern of a earlier letters (the letter SOUND + a vowel, if needed), though "double u" does not do so.

In a couple of cases they went "back" to the GREEK alphabet to borrow a letter, which they would simply add to the END of the alphabet. When they did this they might also base the name on the Greek.

Key examples of this -- Y and Z.

"Y" in many European languages either adapted the letter's Greek name (upsilon, German üppsilon), or took a ame meaning "Greek [u/i]" (such as "i griega" and "grec"). For more on how the ENGLISH name ended up sounding like "why" see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y#History

"Z" was from Greek "zeta", so that name would be used, or it might be adapted to "zed", as some dialects of English did. (Other dialects invented other names, including "zee", following the basic Latin letter-naming pattern.)

Note also that when i/j split into two letters several languages went back to the Greek "iota" for their name (Spanish = iota, German=yot).

Answer 2

I don't think anyone knows the actual person. The invention of letters was preceded by the West Semitic script, which appeared in Canaan around 1000 BC. Antecedents are suspected in the Proto-Canaanite writing, dated to around 1800 BC, Virtually all alphabets have their ultimate origins from this system. The Greek alphabet was invented around 800 BC.

About 1000 BC Phoenicians used a system of 22 symbols. Their system structure was related to those of the Semites and Egyptians, with signs for consonant sounds, not vowel sounds. Their writing consisted partly of pictographic forms borrowed from older pictographic systems together with some modifications of their own.

The Cypriots, the Greeks and the Romans continued to develop a system of writing. And of course there are Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese, etc. systems of writing.

This site is helpful.

Answer 3

I have wondered this too but could never find an actual answer.