History of the alphabet facts for kids
The history of the alphabet begins in Ancient Egypt, more than a millennium into the history of writing. The first pure alphabet emerged around 2000 BCE to represent the language of Semitic workers in Egypt, and was derived from the alphabetic principles of the Egyptian hieroglyphs. Most alphabets in the world today either descend directly from this development, for example the Greek and Latin alphabets, or were inspired by its design.
Early history
Beginnings in Egypt
By 2700 BCE the ancient Egyptians had developed a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent the consonants of their language, plus a 23rd that seems to have represented word-initial or word-final vowels. The first purely alphabetic script is thought to have been developed around 2000 BCE for Semitic workers in central Egypt. Over the next 500 years it spread north, and all subsequent alphabets around the world have either descended from it, or been inspired by one of its descendants, with the possible exception of the Meroitic alphabet, a 3rd century BCE adaptation of hieroglyphs in Nubia to the south of Egypt.
Semitic alphabet
The oldest examples are in Egypt and date to around 1800 BCE. These inscriptions may show that the alphabet was invented in Egypt.
Images for kids
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World distribution of the Arabic alphabet. The dark green areas shows the countries where this alphabet is the sole main script. The light green shows the countries where the alphabet co-exists with other scripts.
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Greek alphabet on an ancient black figure vessel. There is a digamma but no ksi or omega. The letter phi is missing a stroke and looks like the omicron Ο, but on the underside of the bowl it is a full Φ.
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Etruscan writing, the beginning of the writing with the Latin alphabet.
See also
In Spanish: Historia del alfabeto para niños
