ABC: The alphabet

Q. Where did our alphabet come from

A. Our alphabet is called the Latin or Roman alphabet, and it is most widely used alphabetic system in the world, with languages as diverse as Vietnamese in the Far East, Gaelic in northern Europe and Hausa in West Africa all using the same basic set of symbols, though with regional modifications.

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Developed at some time before 600 BC, the roots of the Latin alphabet can be traced through Etruscan, Greek and Phoenician scripts to the North Semitic alphabet used in Syria and Palestine about 1100 BC.

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Q. What's the earliest known example of Latin script

A. The earliest inscription appears on the 'Praeneste Fibula', a cloak pin dating from about the 7th century BC. It reads: MANIOS MED FHEFHAKED NUMASIOI ('Manius made me for Numerius').

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Q. Is the modern English version much the same as that used in Rome 2,000 years ago

A. The classical Latin alphabet consisted of 23 letters, 21 of which were derived from the Etruscan alphabet. In medieval times various letters were added to the versions used for different languages in order to adapt the original system to the specific requirements of different tongues.

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In English, for example, the letter 'i' was differentiated into 'i' and 'j', and 'v' into 'u', 'v' and 'w', producing the 26-letter alphabet we use today. Some European languages which use the Latin alphabet don't use the letters 'k' and 'w', and, of course, many use accented letters and pairs of letters which are read as one sound.

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Q. Why do we use the Roman alphabet rather than any other

A. Britain and Western Europe was all, directly or indirectly, under the control of Rome. As the Roman Church, even after the fall of the Western Empire, continued to extend its influence, the Latin script as well as the Latin language remained the medium of education. And it stuck. Had the northward push of the Moors in Spain not been reversed, it may be that we would now all be using a version of the Arabic script.

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Q. What was the earliest alphabet

A. The North Semitic alphabet is probably the earliest known. It was read from right to left - as are the modern Middle-Eastern alphabets of Arabic and Hebrew - and Greek, the first widely used alphabet in Europe, and developed indirectly from North Semitic, was originally read this way too. Eventually this gave way to the 'boustrophedon' style, where lines are read from right to left and left to right alternately. Eventually left to right was standardised and this carried on into the Etruscan alphabet and thence to the Latin and down to the present day.

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Q. What other modern alphabets are there

A. There are numerous alphabets in India, all of which can eventually be traced back to the Middle East, as can the Tibetan alphabet, via Sanskrit script, the classical alphabet of northern India.

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Cyrillic - as used in Russia, the Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia and Belarus - developed from Greek. This follows the same pattern of the Latin script in the West, as these areas are all within the sphere of influence of the Orthodox Church, which was based in the Eastern, Greek-speaking, Roman and Byzantine Empires.

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A number of alphabets are used in the Caucasus, and one of the oldest, and completely unique, scripts is that used for the Amharic language in Ethiopia. The Tuaregs of the Sahara have their own alphabetic script, possibly based on one used in North Africa many centuries ago.

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By Simon Smith