Have you ever wondered who came up with the alphabet? It’s a really cool question! A long time ago, people didn’t have writing at all. They only spoke to each other. Imagine how different life would be without writing! No text messages, no letters, no books. You could only learn from someone standing right next to you.
When writing was invented, it must have seemed like magic. People could finally send messages to faraway places and even to the future by writing down important stories and information. But who invented this amazing thing called the alphabet?
Did you know there are many different alphabets? Each language might have its own way of writing. For example, the Korean alphabet has symbols that look very different from the English alphabet. In Arabic, writing goes from right to left, which is the opposite of English. Some languages, like Chinese, use symbols that stand for whole words, like “home” or “cat.” Learning to read and write in Chinese takes a lot of practice!
The alphabet we use in English is called the Roman Alphabet. But it all started with a group of people called the Phoenicians thousands of years ago. They came up with the idea of using symbols to represent sounds. Later, the ancient Greeks borrowed this idea and made their own alphabet. The first two letters of the Greek alphabet are called Alpha and Beta, which is where we get the word “alphabet” from!
Then, the ancient Romans took the Greek alphabet and changed the symbols to look more like the ones we use today. That’s why we call it the Roman Alphabet. Many other languages, like Spanish, German, and French, also use this alphabet.
So, the next time you write a letter or read a book, remember the journey of the alphabet from the Phoenicians to the Romans. And don’t forget, there are many other alphabets and ways of writing out there. Keep exploring and stay curious!
Thanks for reading! If you have more questions, keep asking and discovering the mysteries around us. See you next time!
Alphabet Detective: Go on an alphabet hunt around your home or classroom. Look for different alphabets in books, on food packages, or even in games. Can you find examples of the Roman alphabet, or maybe some symbols from other alphabets like Arabic or Chinese? Draw or take pictures of what you find and share them with your friends or family.
Create Your Own Alphabet: Imagine you are an ancient Phoenician. Try creating your own alphabet using symbols or pictures to represent sounds. Think about how you would write your name or a simple word like “cat.” Share your new alphabet with a friend and see if they can read what you wrote!
Sound and Symbol Match: With a parent or teacher, explore how different sounds are represented in various alphabets. Choose a few sounds and see how they are written in the Roman alphabet, Greek alphabet, and another alphabet of your choice. Discuss why you think different cultures might have developed different symbols for the same sounds.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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(phone rings) – Hi Doug. – Hi Jahid. – I have a question for you. Who invented the alphabet? – Ooh, that’s a great question. One interesting aspect of this question is that there wasn’t always an alphabet. Today, we have both speaking and writing, which makes it tempting to think we’ve always had both. But we haven’t always had writing; we had speaking first. Isn’t that interesting? Someone had to invent the alphabet and come up with the idea of writing.
Stop and think about that for a second. How would your life be different if there were no such thing as writing? Now would be a good time to pause the video and discuss.
Okay, you ready? Just imagine what life would have been like before we had any way to write. There would have been no text messages, no writing letters or notes to your friends, and no books. Think about that—there would be no way to learn or share from anyone who wasn’t talking right next to you.
Once writing was invented, it must have been mind-blowing for someone to see writing for the first time. They might have thought, “Wait, we can all speak, but these are symbols for what we speak? Something written down? Something you can hold and take with you?” It might have seemed almost like magic.
Now, people could send messages from far away places and even send messages to the future by writing down important stories, memories, or things they learned to help ensure they wouldn’t be forgotten.
So, who came up with all of this? Who invented the alphabet? Well, for starters, you might be interested to know that there’s not just one way of writing. There are actually many different alphabets used by different languages. These ways of writing use different symbols than the ones we use in our alphabet.
For example, in the Korean alphabet, the symbol for the letter S looks like this. The symbol for the H sound looks like this. These are just two examples, and you can see how different they are from the symbols used in the English alphabet, or in the way of writing used in many parts of India, called Devanāgarī.
In fact, many of these alphabets use not just different symbols, but totally different ways of writing. For example, in Arabic writing, it’s always written from right to left, the opposite direction of English. In some languages like Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, it’s possible to write not just side to side, but also up and down.
Some languages, like Chinese, even use a completely different way of writing, where many of the symbols stand for entire words. For example, this symbol represents the word “home,” and this one represents the word “cat.” Because of this, becoming a master of reading and writing in Chinese takes many years and is considered a great accomplishment.
But what about the alphabet that we use in English? How did it get invented, and by whom? Most historians believe that the credit for inventing the alphabet belongs to an ancient group of people called the Phoenicians. It’s thought that thousands of years ago, the Phoenicians came up with the idea of using symbols to stand for sounds.
Then, another group of people, the ancient Greeks, heard of this idea and borrowed it, creating their own symbols that were similar but not exactly like the Phoenicians’. The names of the first two letters of the Greek alphabet reveal something interesting. The letter for the “ah” sound is named Alpha, and the letter for the “ba” sound is named Beta.
But these letters of the Greek alphabet still look a little unfamiliar. There’s one last piece to this story: the ancient Romans. They took the Greek alphabet and made their own symbols that looked more like this. This is the same alphabet that we use in English. Because these exact shapes of the letters were created by the ancient Romans, we sometimes call our alphabet the Roman Alphabet.
And English isn’t the only language to use the Roman alphabet; many other languages use this same alphabet to represent the sounds of their languages, including Spanish, German, French, and many more.
So, in summary, the alphabet we use in English, the Roman Alphabet, was inspired by the ancient Phoenicians, who invented the first alphabet thousands of years ago. But the letters of our alphabet are not the only way of writing. You can look out for some of the world’s other alphabets and ways of writing.
That’s all for this week’s question. Thanks, Jahid, for asking it. Now for the next episode, I reached into my question jar and picked out three questions sent in to us that I’m thinking about answering next. When this video’s done playing, you’ll get to vote on one. You can choose from: Why are some rocks round and others sharp? What makes glue sticky? Or how is syrup made? So submit your vote when the video’s over. I want to hear from all of you watching. There are mysteries all around us. Stay curious, and see you next week.
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