Alphabet

An alphabet is a standard set of <a href="/facts/Letter_(alphabet)/uRnrbGIJ">letters</a> written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to <a href="/facts/Phoneme/EXGHlJ7a">phonemes</a> as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from another in a given language. Not all <a href="/facts/Writing_system/ABG251A0">writing systems</a> represent language in this way: a <a href="/facts/Syllabary/GCbFXaJ4">syllabary</a> assigns symbols to spoken <a href="/facts/Syllable/Ylt7pyJe">syllables</a>, while <a href="/facts/Logographies/wWYAITGc">logographies</a> assign symbols to <a href="/facts/Word/UXNbIy5y">words</a>, <a href="/facts/Morpheme/4JNcPMHs">morphemes</a>, or other semantic units.
The first letters were invented in <a href="/facts/Ancient_Egypt/BDsEGK4g">Ancient Egypt</a> to serve as an aid in writing <a href="/facts/Egyptian_hieroglyph/qXRpprLe">Egyptian hieroglyphs</a>; these are referred to as <a href="/facts/Egyptian_uniliteral_sign/31MFqfVx">Egyptian uniliteral signs</a> by <a href="/facts/Lexicographer/3btFWjIx">lexicographers</a>. This system was used until the 5th century AD, and fundamentally differed by adding pronunciation hints to existing hieroglyphs that had previously carried no pronunciation information. Later on, these <a href="/facts/Phonemic/EXGHlJ7a">phonemic</a> symbols also became used to transcribe foreign words. The first fully phonemic script was the <a href="/facts/Proto-Sinaitic_script/aqPygGcT">Proto-Sinaitic script</a>, also descending from Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was later modified to create the <a href="/facts/Phoenician_alphabet/Vr4smuYg">Phoenician alphabet</a>. The Phoenician system is considered the first true alphabet and is the ultimate ancestor of many modern scripts, including <a href="/facts/Arabic_alphabet/hCA1a0xq">Arabic</a>, <a href="/facts/Cyrillic_script/0btN3oWC">Cyrillic</a>, <a href="/facts/Greek_alphabet/1cHwB8Dg">Greek</a>, <a href="/facts/Hebrew_alphabet/qQStmr5u">Hebrew</a>, <a href="/facts/Latin_alphabet/pqWVHpBz">Latin</a>, and possibly <a href="/facts/Brahmic_scripts/mwHJWt6d">Brahmic</a>.

<a href="/facts/Peter_T._Daniels/gymIqfRu">Peter T. Daniels</a> distinguishes true alphabets—which use letters to represent both consonants and vowels—from both <a href="/facts/Abugida/FWhLePru">abugidas</a> and <a href="/facts/Abjad/Hn50ebWn">abjads</a>, which only need letters for consonants. Abjads generally lack vowel indicators altogether, while abugidas represent them with <a href="/facts/Diacritic/Rw6lMzQW">diacritics</a> added to letters. In this narrower sense, the <a href="/facts/Greek_alphabet/1cHwB8Dg">Greek alphabet</a> was the first true alphabet;[11] it was originally derived from the <a href="/facts/Phoenician_alphabet/Vr4smuYg">Phoenician alphabet</a>, which was an abjad.
Alphabets usually have a standard ordering for their letters. This makes alphabets a useful tool in <a href="/facts/Collation/cdLx5Cum">collation</a>, as words can be listed in a well-defined order—commonly known as <a href="/facts/Alphabetical_order/oKu6Ke37">alphabetical order</a>. This also means that letters may be used as a method of "numbering" ordered items. Some systems demonstrate <a href="/facts/Acrophony/B10APUKm">acrophony</a>, a phenomenon where letters have been given names distinct from their pronunciations. Systems with acrophony include Greek, <a href="/facts/Arabic_alphabet/hCA1a0xq">Arabic</a>, <a href="/facts/Hebrew_alphabet/qQStmr5u">Hebrew</a>, and <a href="/facts/Syriac_alphabet/dA2LyFax">Syriac</a>; systems without include the <a href="/facts/Latin_alphabet/pqWVHpBz">Latin alphabet</a>.

Alphabet open-in-new

Alphabet