Evolution of the Alphabet | Earliest Forms to Modern Latin Script

Summary

This video explores the 4000-year evolution of the alphabet from its earliest forms to the modern Latin script. It begins with the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, moves through Phoenician and Greek adaptations, and continues to the Latin alphabet's development. Key changes include the introduction of vowels by the Greeks, the dropping of unnecessary letters by Latin speakers, and the addition of new letters like J and U. The script also discusses the influence of historical writing styles such as Old Italic, Roman, and Carolingian on the modern alphabet. The video concludes with a look at letters that have been dropped over time, such as theta, san, and medieval letters like thorn and wynn.

Takeaways

• 🔠 The video discusses the 4000-year evolution of the alphabet from its earliest forms to the modern Latin script used for languages like English.
• 🌐 The presenter uses an updated 'Evolution of the Alphabet' chart available on UsefulCharts.com to illustrate the development.
• 📜 Not all writing systems are alphabets; the earliest type is the logosyllabary, exemplified by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
• 🏛️ The alphabet originated around 4000 years ago in Egypt, where hieroglyphs were repurposed to represent single phonetic sounds, reducing the number of symbols needed.
• 🔍 The first alphabetic script is called 'Proto-Sinaitic', named after the Sinai peninsula where early inscriptions were found.
• 📝 The concept of the alphabet was further developed in Canaan, leading to the Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew scripts used in the Levant.
• 🔤 The Greeks were the first to introduce vowel symbols into the alphabet, significantly altering the sound value of several letters and creating the basis for the word 'alphabet'.
• 📏 The Latin alphabet reached its modern form during the Roman Empire, initially with only 23 letters, lacking J, U, and W.
• 🖋️ The evolution of the alphabet includes the addition of new letters like J and the dropping of others, such as theta and san, to adapt to the needs of different languages.
• ✍️ The script's development was influenced by various factors, including the direction of writing, the invention of the printing press, and the standardization of letter shapes.

Q & A

What is the modern Latin script used for?

The modern Latin script is used to write English and many other languages.

What is the earliest form of writing mentioned in the script?

The earliest form of writing mentioned is the logosyllabary, exemplified by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

How did the alphabet originate?

The alphabet originated approximately 4000 years ago in Egypt when hieroglyphs were used to represent individual phonetic sounds, reducing the number of symbols needed for writing.

What is the first version of the alphabet called?

The first version of the alphabet is called 'Proto-Sinaitic', named after the Sinai peninsula where the first inscriptions using this script were found.

Why is the Greek alphabet significant in the evolution of the alphabet?

The Greek alphabet is significant because it introduced vowel symbols, transforming the consonantal alphabet into a full alphabet with both consonants and vowels.

What was the contribution of the Greeks to the alphabet in terms of letter shapes?

The Greeks contributed to the alphabet by reusing certain Phoenician letters to represent vowel sounds, thus expanding the alphabet to include vowels.

How did the Latin alphabet evolve from the Greek alphabet?

The Latin alphabet evolved from the Greek by dropping letters that were not needed for Latin sounds, such as Theta, and by adopting and modifying Greek letters to fit Latin phonetics.

What is the origin of the word 'alphabet'?

The word 'alphabet' originates from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.

Why did some letters in the Latin alphabet flip their orientation?

Some letters in the Latin alphabet flipped their orientation due to the standardization of writing direction from right to left and left to right, which affected the way certain letters were written to avoid smudging.

How did the Roman Empire influence the Latin alphabet?

The Roman Empire influenced the Latin alphabet by reaching a form that is recognizable today, although initially with only 23 letters and without the distinction between uppercase and lowercase.

What is the significance of the letter 'G' in the evolution of the Latin alphabet?

The letter 'G' is significant because it was created by the Romans to represent the 'g' sound, leading to a shift in the alphabet's order and the movement of the letter 'Z' to the end.

How did the letter 'F' evolve from its original form?

The letter 'F' evolved from the original letter, which was depicted as a walking stick or staff and was probably pronounced like 'W'. The Greeks split this letter into two, creating 'digamma', which later became the Latin 'F'.

What happened to the letter 'J' in the history of the alphabet?

The letter 'J' was initially a fancy version of 'I' used at the beginning of words but eventually evolved into a unique sound and was added to the alphabet as a separate letter.

Why were the letters 'thorn' and 'wynn' dropped from the English alphabet?

The letters 'thorn' and 'wynn' were dropped from the English alphabet as their shapes and sounds were adopted by other letters, with 'thorn' representing a 'th' sound and 'wynn' a 'w' sound.

Outlines

00:00

🔤 The Birth and Evolution of the Alphabet

This paragraph introduces the topic of the alphabet's evolution, spanning 4000 years from its earliest forms to the modern Latin script. The presenter uses a chart from UsefulCharts.com to illustrate the process. The discussion begins with the distinction between different writing systems, highlighting the logosyllabary exemplified by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. A pivotal moment in the alphabet's history is described, where Egyptians innovated by assigning a single symbol to each phonetic sound, thus creating a more efficient writing system. This innovation led to the 'Proto-Sinaitic' script, named after the region where it was first inscribed. The narrative then shifts to the Canaanites and Phoenicians, who adopted and developed this script, giving rise to the Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew alphabets. The paragraph concludes with the Greeks' significant contribution to the alphabet by introducing vowel symbols, thus transforming the abjad into a true alphabet.

05:06

🌐 Alphabetic Transitions and Adaptations

The second paragraph delves into the alphabet's further evolution through the Old Italic scripts, with a focus on the Etruscan alphabet. It underscores the simplification of the alphabet by the removal of certain letters unnecessary for Latin speakers, such as Theta. The discussion then moves to the Roman Empire's standardization of the Latin alphabet, noting the absence of J, U, and W, and the unique directional flexibility of letters like B and K. The paragraph also addresses the development of cursive script for everyday writing, contrasting it with the formal Roman capitals used for inscriptions. The narrative continues through the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the 'dark ages', highlighting the continuity of writing in monasteries and the emergence of Insular and Carolingian scripts. The rise of Blackletter or Gothic script is also mentioned, leading up to the invention of the printing press and the eventual standardization of letter shapes akin to modern serif fonts.

10:09

🔄 Transformation of Individual Letters

This section provides an in-depth look at the evolution of specific letters within the alphabet. It explains how the letter 'G' was introduced to represent the 'g' sound, leading to a shift in the alphabet's order and the relocation of 'Z' to the end. The paragraph also explores the origins of the letter 'F' and its Greek counterpart 'digamma', which influenced the creation of several other letters including 'U' and 'V'. The complex history of 'V' is detailed, from its dual role as vowel and consonant to its eventual split into 'U' and 'V'. The evolution of 'J' from a variant of 'I' to a distinct letter is also covered. The paragraph concludes with a mention of letters that were once part of the alphabet but have since been dropped, such as 'thorn' and 'wynn', and notes the unique retention of 'thorn' in Iceland.

15:15

📜 Conclusion and Access to the Evolution Chart

The final paragraph summarizes the journey of the alphabet's transformation over the centuries and invites viewers to purchase a poster version of the evolution chart from UsefulCharts.com. It serves as a closing note, encapsulating the historical significance and the practical application of the presented information.

Keywords

💡Alphabet

An alphabet is a standardized set of letters, each representing a sound or a set of sounds, used in writing. In the context of the video, the alphabet's evolution is traced from its earliest forms to the modern Latin script, which is used to write English and many other languages. The video discusses how the alphabet developed from a system with just consonants, known as an abjad, to one that included vowels, a significant innovation attributed to the Greeks.

💡Logosyllabary

A logosyllabary is a type of writing system where each symbol represents a word or syllable, rather than a single sound. The video uses Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs as an example of a logosyllabary, highlighting how this system was the precursor to the alphabet. The script evolved when Egyptians began using hieroglyphs to represent individual phonetic sounds, which led to the creation of the first alphabetic system.

💡Proto-Sinaitic

Proto-Sinaitic is identified in the video as the first known alphabetic script, named after the Sinai peninsula where early inscriptions using this script were found. It is considered the birthplace of the alphabet, as it introduced the concept of representing each phonetic sound with a single symbol, a revolutionary idea at the time.

💡Phoenician

The Phoenician alphabet is mentioned as a significant stage in the alphabet's evolution. It was a stylized version of the earlier scripts and was used by both the Phoenicians and the Ancient Israelites. The video notes that while the script was the same, it was referred to as Paleo-Hebrew when found at Ancient Israelite sites.

💡Archaic Greek

Archaic Greek refers to the early form of the Greek alphabet, which is distinct from the classical Greek letters used today. The video emphasizes that the Greeks were the first to introduce vowel symbols into the alphabet, a major development that expanded the system's expressive capabilities. This innovation is exemplified by the transformation of the Phoenician letters 'alef' and 'he' into the Greek vowels alpha and epsilon.

💡Old Italic

Old Italic is a term used in the video to describe the group of alphabets used in ancient Italy, with the Etruscan alphabet being a notable example. The video points out that several letters were dropped in this stage because Latin speakers did not need certain sounds that Greek speakers did, reflecting the adaptation of the alphabet to fit the needs of different languages.

💡Roman Empire

The Roman Empire is highlighted as the period when the Latin alphabet began to take the form we recognize today. The video explains that at this time, there were only 23 letters, with J, U, and W not yet being part of the standard alphabet. This period also saw the standardization of letter shapes, although the concepts of uppercase and lowercase did not yet exist.

💡Cursive

Cursive, derived from the Latin word for 'running', refers to a style of writing where letters are connected in a flowing manner. In the video, it is mentioned that Roman Cursive was an everyday writing style that evolved into New Cursive, which influenced the shapes of modern lowercase letters.

💡Blackletter

Blackletter, also known as Gothic script, was a style of writing that became dominant before the invention of the printing press. The video describes it as a quick script developed by scribes to meet the growing demand for books. It was characterized by its dense, heavy lines and was eventually replaced by the serif fonts that are common today.

💡Insular

Insular script, also referred to as Old English, is mentioned as a style of writing that developed in Christian monasteries in Ireland and was later adopted by the Anglo-Saxons. The video positions it as a significant style during the so-called 'dark ages' when much of Europe experienced a decline in literacy.

💡Carolingian

Carolingian script was a style of writing that emerged during the reign of Charlemagne and became the standard alphabet in Europe by the year 1000. The video notes its importance in the evolution of the alphabet, as it was the prevalent form of writing before the invention of the printing press.

Highlights

The alphabet has evolved over 4000 years from its earliest forms to the modern Latin script.

Not all writing systems are alphabets; the earliest type is the logosyllabary, exemplified by Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The alphabet was born approximately 4000 years ago in Egypt with the Proto-Sinaitic script.

The first version of the alphabet, Proto-Sinaitic, was found in inscriptions in the Levant.

The Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew scripts are early versions of the alphabet used in the Levant.

The Greeks were the first to use an alphabet that included vowel symbols, significantly changing the sound value of several letters.

The word 'alphabet' comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.

Old Italic scripts, including the Etruscan alphabet, were used before the Latin alphabet took its familiar form.

The Roman Empire period saw the Latin alphabet reach a form with only 23 letters, missing J, U, and W.

The direction of writing influenced the flipping of certain letters like B or K in the alphabet.

Roman Cursive evolved into New Cursive, which influenced the lowercase letters we use today.

Insular script developed in Ireland and was adopted by the Anglo-Saxons, influencing Old English.

Carolingian script became the standard alphabet in Europe by the year 1000.

Blackletter or Gothic script was the dominant style before the invention of the printing press.

The printing press led to the development of serif fonts and the modernization of letter shapes.

The letter G was added to the Latin alphabet, causing a shift in the order of other letters.

The letter F originated from the Phoenician letter 'digamma', which was split into two in Greek.

The letter J evolved from a fancy version of I and was eventually added to the alphabet as a distinct sound.

Several Greek letters, including theta, sai, and san, were dropped as they were not needed in Latin.

Medieval letters like thorn and wynn, once used in English, are no longer part of the modern alphabet.

Transcripts

Today I’m going to show you how the alphabet has evolved over the last 4000 years, from

its earliest forms to the modern Latin script - which is the alphabet that is used today

to write English and many other languages. I’ll be using my recently updated “Evolution

of the Alphabet” chart, which is available as a poster from my website UsefulCharts.com.

I’ll be starting by giving you a general overview of the various stages that the alphabet

has gone through and then I’ll be taking a look at several of the individual letters,

one by one.

Intro

So, the first thing you need to know is that not all writing systems are alphabets. In

a previous video, which I’ll link to in the description, I talked about five main

types of writing systems. Of these five types, the earliest one to develop was the logosyllabary.

A good example of a logosyllabary is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. In most cases, a hieroglyphic

symbol did not represent a single sound, like in an alphabet. Instead, it represented an

entire word or syllable.

But at some point, approximately 4000 years ago, someone in Egypt had the idea to use

hieroglyphs in a new way. They devised a system by which there was just one symbol for every

one phonetic sound. By doing so, they were able to reduce the total number of symbols

needed for writing from several hundred to just 20 or 30.

So, for example, this crude drawing of a house shown from above, like a floor plan, came

to represent something like the sound “b” and this fish came to represent something

like the sound “d”. So it was in this way that the alphabet was born. The name given

to this first version is “Proto-Sai-nee-it-ic”. It gets its name from the Sai-nai peninsula,

which connects Egypt to what was once the Land of Canaan. It was here that the first

inscriptions made using this script were found, although examples have since been found in

both Egypt and the Southern Levant as well. Because of this, there’s some debate over

whether the invention of the alphabet took place in Egypt or Canaan.

However, what we do know is that it was in Canaan that the idea of using an alphabetic

form of writing really took hold, because by the year 1000 BCE and in the centuries

that followed it, we have lots of examples of a stylized version of the script being

used throughout the Levant, both by the Phoenicians and by the Ancient Israelites.

Generally, this version of the alphabet is called Phoenician, although when found at

Ancient Israelite sites, it is called Paleo-Hebrew. But basically, they’re the same. Note that

I’ve shown the more familiar square Hebrew letters below, for reference and so that we

have names that we can use for these early symbols, like alef, bet, and gimel. It’s

interesting to note that the earliest portions of the Hebrew Bible would have been written

in this ancient script, not the square letters used by Jews today. Those developed several

hundred years later.

But on this chart, we are concerned with the evolution of the Latin script, so instead

of tracing the development of these early letters into later Middle Eastern scripts

like Hebrew and Arabic, we are now going to turn our attention to the Greeks.

I’ve labeled this third line Archaic Greek in order to distinguish it from the more familiar

classical Greek letters which are still used today. However, I’ve shown the modern ones

below for reference so that, once again, we have names that we can use for each letter.

I also want to point out that there was never a single Archaic Greek alphabet. There were

actually many different versions with slight variations that were used throughout the Greek-speaking

world. So what you see here is a bit of a combined representation.

The important thing I want to point out at this stage is that the sound value of several

letters changed significantly. Prior to the Greeks, the alphabet was strictly a consonant

alphabet, also known as an abjad. This means that there were no symbols that stood for

vowels. But the Greeks changed this. There were several Phoenician letters that they

did not have a use for, such as the alef and he. So they instead repurposed those symbols

to stand in for vowel sounds. So “alef” became alpha, which is an A sound, and “he”

became epsilon, which is an E sound. But the shapes of these letters basically stayed the

same. So keep in mind, that this entire chart is focused on the evolution on the letter

shapes, even though those letters were often pronounced differently at different times

and places.

I’ll also point out that it is from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha

and beta, that we get the word alphabet.

Okay, so the next stage is Old Italic. Again, there was no single Old Italic alphabet, Instead,

there were many different versions, of which the most important was perhaps the Etruscan

alphabet. But what I’ve shown here is kind of an amalgam of the different Old Italic

scripts. The most important thing to point out at the

Old Italic stage is that several letters were dropped. This is because there were some sounds

that Greek speakers made that Latin speakers did not. So, for example, the Greek letter

Theta was not needed for ancient Latin so the ancient Latins simply dropped it from

the alphabet. I’ll talk about some of the other changes in a bit but for now, take note

that the actual letter shapes didn’t really change much between these two stages. And

many of the shapes are actually quite recognizable, even in these archaic forms.

It was during the period of the Roman Empire that the Latin alphabet reached the form that

we know today, although at this point, only the capital letters existed. It’s important

to note that the ancient Romans did not distinguish between an uppercase and a lowercase. It’s

also important to note that they did not have 26 letters, like we do today. They had only

23. Missing were J, U and W. So, during the lifetime of Julius Caesar, his name would

have been written like this: IVLIVS

I’ll say more about J and U in a moment. But the biggest question that most people

have at this point on the chart is: Why did some of the letters flip? Well, originally,

many of the letters, like B or K, could be written either way. This was because, originally,

the Greeks and Romans wrote both left to right as well as right to left and the direction

of certain letters depended on the direction of the writing. But eventually, writing left

to right became standard, perhaps because most people are right-handed and therefore

less smudging takes place when you write from left to right. Of course, when it comes to

alphabets like Hebrew and Arabic, they are written in the opposite direction: right to

left.

Now, at the same time that the familiar Roman square capitals were being carved into stone,

everyday writing, among those who were literate, was actually taking place in a slightly different

script, known as cursive. The word cursive coming from the Latin root for “running”

or doing something quickly. So, originally, Roman Cursive looked something like this – sort

of a sloppy version of the capitals. But eventually it evolved into what became known as New Cursive.

So by the time that the Western Roman Empire fell, the emperors would have been writing

out their various decrees using letters like these ones. You can see that many of them

look quite similar to the lower case letters that we use today.

Of course, when the Western Empire fell in 476, much of Europe experienced a so-called

“dark age” during which time there was far less writing going on. However, one of

the places where a lot of writing did continue was in the Christian monasteries over in Ireland.

There, a script developed known as Insular, which also ended up being adopted by the Anglo-Saxons

over on the island of Great Britain. Therefore, this style of writing is also sometimes called

Old English.

A little while later, over on the continent, a slightly different style of lettering developed

called Carolingian. This version of the alphabet emerged during the reign of Charlemagne and

by the year 1000, it had become standard throughout most of Europe. But, remember, the printing

press hadn’t yet been invented so all books were written by hand, which obviously took

a long time.

So, as literacy grew and the demand for books increased, scribes eventually developed a

script which they could write more quickly. This style was known as Blackletter, or Gothic

and it was the dominant style up until the time that Gutenberg developed his famous printing

press in the 1400s. At that point, the letter shapes quickly started to look like the lowercase

letters we see in serif fonts today and were combined with the old Roman capitals, which

were used at the start of sentences, in order to increase readability.

So, now that we’ve done that overview, let’s go back and talk about some of the individual

letters. In English, the first three letters of the alphabet are ABC. But in the Hebrew

& Greek alphabets, which are older, the first three letters are the equivalent of ABG, the

third letter in both cases being a “G” sound. What happened is this. Sometime during

the period of the Roman Republic, the third letter of the alphabet started playing double

duty and was used for both a “g” sound and a “k” sound. This led the Romans to

make a major change to the alphabet. They kept the third letter where it was but dedicated

it to the “k” sound and they created a new letter, which looked very similar, and

placed it as the seventh letter. This new letter, which was basically just a “C”

with an extra line, became “G” and was dedicated to the “g” sound.

But there was a problem. By this point, the order of the alphabet had become standard

and each letter was associated with a number. So, when the Romans placed the letter “G”

in the number 7 spot, they had to move the letter that had previously been at the number

7 spot. That letter was the letter Z (also known as Zed). The Romans didn’t use that

letter very much so they simply moved it all the way to the end. Which is why the alphabet

today ends with the letter Z.

One of the most important letters in the alphabet, in terms of its evolution, is the sixth letter,

which today is our letter F. That’s because there are 5 letters in our alphabet today

that all trace their origin to this one letter.

Originally, it was depicted as a walking stick or staff and was probably pronounced something

like “W”. In Hebrew, it is known as “vav”. But when the Greeks adopted the alphabet from

the Phoenicians, they split this one letter into two. They called the original letter

“digamma” because, for them, it looked similar to gamma but had an extra line. Hence,

it was a double gamma or “digamma”. It was eventually dropped from the Greek alphabet

but it stayed on in the Latin alphabet and became our letter F.

But the Greeks also added a slightly different version of the digamma to the end of their

alphabet and called in “upsilon”. Remember that the Greeks added vowels to the alphabet

and this letter was one of their vowels, something close to what we call the vowel U.

However, in the Latin version of the alphabet, this letter was split into V and Y and the

letter V ended up playing several roles at once. Sometimes it was a vowel, like in Julius

(IVLIVS) but sometimes it was a consonant like in the word VALENS, which means strong.

Eventually, the letter came to look like our U but it continued to do the work of both

U and V, as well as sometimes W, all the way up until the invention of the printing press.

At that point, it was split into U and V and then eventually a “double U” was added

as well, which strangely actually often looks more like a “double V”.

The other letter that we have today that wasn’t in the original Latin alphabet is the letter

J. Throughout most of history, the letter J was just a fancy version of the letter I,

used whenever it came at the beginning of a word. But eventually, in many languages,

it evolved as a unique sound and therefore the “fancy I” was eventually added to

the alphabet as the letter “J”.

Let’s now take a look at some of the letters that used to be in the alphabet but are no

longer around. As I mentioned earlier, the Romans dropped a lot of Greek letters because

they simply didn’t need them. These included theta and sai but also a letter called san

that the Greeks ended up dropping as well.

I should also point out that the Greeks added several new letters that never made their

way into the Latin alphabet. These include phi, psi, and omega (which was based on the

letter O) and also sampi, which the Greeks dropped as well.

The only Greek-created letter that did make it into the Latin alphabet is the letter kai,

which we call X.

Finally, I want to point out two medieval letters that, once upon a time, were used

to write English, but are no longer a part of our modern alphabet. Anyone who has studied

a bit of Old English is likely familiar with these. They are thorn and wynn, and in both

cases, their letter shape was adopted from runic letters as opposed to directly from

Latin. Thorn was a “th” sound and the wynn was a “w” sound. But, like I say,

these two letters were eventually dropped, although thorn still in Iceland today.

So that was a look at how the alphabet has changed over the centuries. Like I say, if

you would like to buy a copy of the chart as a poster, you can head over to my website

UsefulCharts.com or simply follow the link on the screen now, or in the description.

Thanks for watching.