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Taking inspiration from the Language|Language Metanode, by dmd, I decided to compose a metanode of the alphabet|alphabets of different languages that no...
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Alphabetic writing was invented in the Levant in about 1600 BC. In the alphabetic system, a single sign represents a sound and so, unlike early pictograms, which were used to represent objects, the number of characters needed for written communication is considerably reduced. At the town of Ugarit, in modern Syria, a cuneiform alphabet with 32 symbols was in use by about 1400 BC, and there were attempts at this time to simplify the Egyptian hieroglyphic system. By the early tenth century, the earliest known fully alphabetic Canaanite system had evolved, as evidenced by an inscription on the sarcophagus of Ahiram, ruler of Tyre. Phoenician and early Hebrew alphabets are related to this lesser known Canaanite system. When the Greeks adopted the alphabetic system, they introduced and adapted signs for representing vowels, since the Canaanite system was only used for consonants.

Al"pha*bet (#), n. [L. alphabetum, fr. Gr. αλφα + βητα, the first two Greek letters; Heb. aleph and beth: cf. F. alphabet.]

1.

The letters of a language arranged in the customary order; the series of letters or signs which form the elements of written language.

2.

The simplest rudiments; elements.

The very alphabet of our law. Macaulay.

Deaf and dumb alphabet. See Dactylology.

© Webster 1913.

Al"pha*bet, v. t.

To designate by the letters of the alphabet; to arrange alphabetically.

[R.]

© Webster 1913.