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Theme week! Diving into writing systems, starting with the one I'm using right now, an
alphabet (AL-fuh-bet) - n., a writing system in which both consonant and vowel phonemes are represented by graphemes (called letters).
(Yes, there's a bunch of metaphoric extensions, but I'm focusing on this aspect ATM.) The first script considered fully phonemic was the Proto-Sinaitic script (which only covered the consonants, stick a pin in that), adapting one of the Egyptian writing systems -- this was later modified to create the Phoenician script (also consonantal) that was the ancestor of the Greek writing system that was the first true alphabet. This was modified by the Etruscans for use with their language, which was further modified by the Romans for Latin -- and the latter was, with a few more modifications such as creating lowercase forms, adapted for English and most other European languages (the rest adapted Greek into Cyrillic scripts). The name comes (via Latin) from the Ancient Greek name for their writing system, alphábētos, after álpha + bêta, the first two letters in the standard ordering. (That form of naming will come up again.)
---L.
alphabet (AL-fuh-bet) - n., a writing system in which both consonant and vowel phonemes are represented by graphemes (called letters).
(Yes, there's a bunch of metaphoric extensions, but I'm focusing on this aspect ATM.) The first script considered fully phonemic was the Proto-Sinaitic script (which only covered the consonants, stick a pin in that), adapting one of the Egyptian writing systems -- this was later modified to create the Phoenician script (also consonantal) that was the ancestor of the Greek writing system that was the first true alphabet. This was modified by the Etruscans for use with their language, which was further modified by the Romans for Latin -- and the latter was, with a few more modifications such as creating lowercase forms, adapted for English and most other European languages (the rest adapted Greek into Cyrillic scripts). The name comes (via Latin) from the Ancient Greek name for their writing system, alphábētos, after álpha + bêta, the first two letters in the standard ordering. (That form of naming will come up again.)
---L.
