History Of The Alphabet

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[b]A[/b]

A, first letter and first vowel of the English alphabet and most alphabets of the Indo-European languages. The A shape apparently originated in an Egyptian hieroglyph of an eagle (ahom) in cursive hieratic writing. The Phoenicians renamed the letter aleph (“ox”), from a fancied resemblance to the head and horns of that animal. In the earliest Greek alphabet, aleph became the letter alpha; in turn, this became the Roman A, the form and general value of which were passed on to the peoples who later adopted the Roman alphabet. At present the sound of the a in “late” (long a) is the name of the letter in English. The English a may indicate many other sounds, as in “bat” (short a), “care”, and “sofa”. Modifications of its sound appear also in other modern languages.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]B[/b]

B, second letter and first consonant in the English alphabet; a corresponding symbol has the same place in the Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic alphabets, among others. Today the name of the Greek letter b (beta, like the Phoenician beth) is used in association with alpha, in the word alphabet. The letter was derived by the Phoenicians from the Egyptian hieroglyph for “crane”, but when taken over by them it was called beth, “house”. In English, the sound represented by the letter b is a voiced bilabial stop (see Phonetics).

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]C (alphabet)[/b]

C (alphabet), third letter in the English- and Romance-language alphabets. The symbol is derived from Latin C, a rounding of the Greek Γ, gamma, which was derived from a Phoenician symbol called gimel or camel, which was in turn developed from an Egyptian symbol.

Latin c had both a g and a k sound. In Anglo-Saxon, c had at first only the k sound, the modern word child having been spelled cild. By the 12th century c had the sound of s in a number of words. From this arose the modern rule that c has the s or sh sound before e, i, y ae, and oe, and the k sound in all other cases.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]D[/b]

D, fourth letter in the alphabets derived from Greek and Latin. It originated in an Egyptian hieroglyph that represented a hand. When adopted by the Phoenicians, this sign was called daleth (“door”) from its resemblance to the aperture of a tent. The resemblance may be traced in the Greek letter Δ, the name of which, delta, was derived from daleth. In English, the sound of d is the voiced alveolar stop (see Phonetics).

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]E (alphabet)[/b]

E (alphabet), fifth and most frequently used letter of the English alphabet. Its form was derived without alteration from the fifth letter of the Classical Latin alphabet, which had adapted it from the Greek letter epsilon (Ε, e). The letter evolved from the Semitic hē, , which in turn had developed from the Egyptian hieroglyph 5, the ultimate origin of the letter.

The evolution of the values of e in English is long and complicated. The letter has come to represent a variety of sounds, as in the words eve, here, there, end, and maker, as well as the silent value that lengthens preceding vowels, as in mate and rule.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]F[/b]

F, sixth letter and fourth consonant in the English, Latin, and early Greek alphabets. Its Greek name was digamma, from its resemblance to two superimposed capital gammas, the Greek letter for G. Its forms were , , F, or ⊏, and its pronunciation resembled the sound of the English w. Eventually, in Latin, the sound of w was assigned to the letter v, while the Latin f came to represent the unvoiced labio-dental fricative sound it has in English, as in the word fit. F is pronounced in this manner in all English words except of (where it is a voiced labio-dental fricative) and its compounds and variants (see Phonetics).

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]G[/b]

G, seventh letter in the English and other alphabets derived from the Latin. The uppercase, or capital G is derived from the Latin C, which in turn is from the Greek G, gamma, rounded in the 7th century bc. Latin c represented the sounds of both g and k until the 3rd century bc, when the character was modified to make a distinction of the g sound. Once established, the new letter took the place in the alphabet of the Greek Z, zeta, which was not used in Latin. The modern lowercase g developed from a form that appeared in the 7th century. In English, g can represent a palatal stop before all vowels and can also be an alveolar fricative before the vowels e (as in general) and i (as in giraffe). (See also Phonetics.)

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]H[/b]

H, eighth letter of the English and Latin alphabets. Originally derived from the Semitic 2, cheth, the letter represented the sound of an aspirate (see Phonetics) in the Greek and Latin alphabets, as it does usually in modern English. In vernacular Latin the aspiration was dropped. As a result, h is normally silent in the Romance languages, as it is in many English words, such as honour. It is silent also in several English dialects and is pronounced erroneously or dropped in the cockney dialect of London. The letter h combines into digraphs with other consonants to form various consonant sounds.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]I[/b]

I, ninth letter and third vowel in the English, Greek, and Roman alphabets. It was called iota by the Greeks from its Semitic name, yodh, which means “hand”, and was derived from the form of the character in the Egyptian hieratic alphabet; this bore some resemblance to a hand with the thumb held separate. The dot over the lowercase i came into general use in the 11th century. It was originally an accent, used first to indicate vowel length and later to distinguish ii from u and to mark the i in the combinations iu and ui.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]J[/b]

J, tenth letter and seventh consonant in the English alphabet. It is the latest addition to English script and has been inserted in the alphabet after I, from which it was developed. J appeared first in Roman times, when it was used sometimes to indicate the long i vowel sound, but often was used interchangeably with I. In the Middle Ages the elongated form (J) was used as an ornamental device, most often initially and in numeral series. Not until the middle of the 17th century did the use of j as an initial become universal in English books. Long after the invention of printing, j thus became more than a mere calligraphic variation of i (which in Latin could be either vowel or semivowel), and was restricted to a consonantal function (as a voiced alveo-palatal affricate, see Phonetics) at any position in a word.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]K[/b]

K, 11th letter in the English alphabet. The letter appeared in its modern form in the Roman alphabet, in which it corresponded to the Greek letter kappa, derived ultimately from an Egyptian hieroglyph.

In all the languages in which k occurs, it has indicated substantially the same sound, that of a voiceless velar stop (see Phonetics). This sound is also frequently expressed by c, ck, ch, and q. The letter k is still a silent letter in initial positions before n in such words as knight and know.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]L[/b]

L, 12th letter in the English alphabet. The form of the capital letter first appeared in Latin, adapted from the Greek letter lambda. This in turn was derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph.

The sound of l is technically a voiced lateral consonant or semivowel, sometimes known as a liquid (see Phonetics). It is often given a neutral vowel sound, as in battle and able. An opposite process, in which a formerly sounded l is no longer pronounced but is retained in spelling, is found in such words as walk, folk, palm, and half.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]M (alphabet)[/b]

M (alphabet), 13th letter in the English alphabet. It was taken over from Latin and from the Greek letter mu, which in turn developed from the Egyptian hieroglyph representing an owl.

The sound of m (voiced bilabial nasal stop) is made by closing the oral passage at the lips, relaxing the soft palate, and setting the vocal cords in vibration; a current of air is thus sent through the nose, and the sound is given a nasal resonance (see Phonetics). In some words derived from Greek, such as chasm and prism, a final m is properly given syllabic value; it is silent before n in other words derived from Greek, such as mnemonic.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]N[/b]

N, 14th letter in the English alphabet, derived from the Latin, which in turn was based on a Greek letter. It was called nu by the Greeks, from its Semitic and Phoenician name, nun, signifying “fish”, which was based on an Egyptian hieroglyph representing a waterline.

The sound of the letter n (voiced alveolar nasal) is produced through the nose by vibrating the vocal cords while the oral passage is closed off by the tongue (see Phonetics). Some other languages, for example, French, have a dental n, produced by placing the tongue against the back of the upper teeth. It is silent after m in words such as solemn and hymn.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]

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[b]O[/b]

O, 15th letter and 4th vowel in the English alphabet and other alphabets of Western Europe. It was originally a Phoenician character that stood for a guttural breathing sound. The Greeks adopted this sign to represent omicron, or the short o, and added a separate sign for the long o, omega. A single letter, standing for both sounds, was incorporated into the Latin alphabet. In English the letter o represents a long sound, as in the words old and bone; and a short sound, as in hot and golf. The letter also stands for the sounds heard in shorn, wolf, son, and do. The long o sound is indicated by a variety of spellings, as in the words sew, dough, and foe.

[b]Microsoft ® Encarta ® Encyclopedia 2004. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/b]