Transcript Harappan Civilization in India 2000BC Cave painting at Lascaux

Origins of the Alphabet
Pictograph
Picture-writing of the American Indian
Ideograph
Cave painting at Lascaux
Harappan Civilization in India
2000BC
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 BC to represent the language of Semitic workers in Egypt
(see Middle Bronze Age alphabets), 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.
Karnak Temple where some of the best preserved writing still exists.
Most hieroglyphic signs are phonetic in nature,
meaning the sign is read independent of its
visual characteristics (according to the rebus
principle where, for example, the picture of an
eye could stand for the English words eye
One reconstruction of 23
letters, equivalent to the
Phoenician alphabet
which evolved from it,
follows. The Latin
descendants are given in
parentheses.
1.
alp "ox" (A)
2.
b bet "house" (B)
3.
g gaml "throwstick" (C, G)
4.
d digg "fish" (D)
5.
h haw / hll "jubilation" (E)
6.
w waw "hook" (F, U, V, W, Y)
7.
z zen /ziqq "manacle" (Z)
8.
ḥ ḥet "courtyard" (H)
9.
ṭ ṭēt ([[]]) "wheel"
10.
y yad "arm" (I, J)
11.
k kap "hand" (K)
12.
l lamd "goad" (L)
13.
m mem "water" (M)
14.
n naḥš "snake" (N)
15.
s samek "fish" (X)
16.
ʻ ʿen "eye" (O)
17.
p piʾt "corner" (P)
18.
ṣ ṣad "plant"
19.
q qup "monkey" (Q)
20.
r raʾs "head" (R)
21.
š/ś šimš "sun, the Uraeus" (S)
22.
t taw "signature" (T)
23.
ġ ġʿen "thread" (Gh)
When the Egyptians began to write, about 3000 BC,
they wrote from the beginning in ink, on papyrus (pahPIE-russ). Papyrus is a plant that grows wild all over
the Nile river valley, which is to say it is very common
in Egypt. You can cut the long stalks and soak them in
water until they rot a little, and then you lay a lot of
these stalks next to each other, and a lot of other stalks
on top, crossways to the first ones, and then you pound
them flat, until all the stalks get mashed into all the
other ones, and you have something a lot like paper.
The Greeks and the Romans also used a
lot of papyrus, all bought in Egypt because
that is where papyrus grows. But it wasn't
cheap! One sheet probably cost about
what $20 is worth today. So when the
Islamic empire learned how to make paper
from rags from the Chinese about 700 AD,
people quickly stopped using papyrus,
even in Egypt.
Early Greek alphabet on pottery in the National Archaeological
Museum of Athens
The most notable change in the Greek alphabet, as
an adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet,
The lapidary (stone-engraved) capital letters of
Roman Empirean period (from the 1th century BC
to the 5th century AD). Although the Roman
alphabet took many forms, Capitalis Monumentalis
(Roman capitals) have exerted the most influence
on lettering and typographic developrment. Many
versions of these exist, principally on inscriptions.
The most famous example is on the column of
Imperor Trajan in Roman Forum from 114 AD.
There was no word spaces and words were
divided by centerpoints.
Greek letters used in mathematics, science, and engineering
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_letters_used_in_mathematics
Phoenician alphabet
It became one of the most
widely used writing
systems, and was spread
by traders of Phoenicia
across Europe and the
Middle East, where it
became used for a variety
of languages and spawned
many subsequent scripts.
Many modern writing
systems thought to have
descended from
Phoenician cover much of
the world
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely
used alphabetic writing system in the world today.
Latin alphabet world distribution. 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.
Parent systems Proto-Canaanite alphabet
→ Phoenician alphabet
→ Greek alphabet
→ Old Italic alphabet
→ Latin alphabet
http://www.mediumbold.com/04_thinking/type/origins/index.html
Arabic
The oldest Chinese inscriptions that are
indisputably writing are the Oracle bone
script
Neolithic signs
The legend of the creation of chinese characters
According to legend, though, Chinese characters were
invented earlier by Cangjie (c. 2650 BC),
Ancient Khmer script engraved on stone.
Replica of the Ramkhamhaeng
inscription, the oldest inscription
using Thai script
Sanskrit (संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for
short संस्कृतम ् saṃskṛtam) is a classical
language of India
Pali (IAST: Pāḷi) is a Middle Indo-Aryan dialect
or prakrit. It is best known as the language of
the earliest extant Buddhist canon