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This combination of direct representation, sound-substitution, and the occasional extra sign for clarification enabled hieroglyphs to represent the entire Egyptian language. Because each symbol could have several different meanings, though, hieroglyphs were a very challenging writing system to read, and it took years of dedicated study to master the system. Enter the Canaanites This development paved the way for the Latin alphabet used today, which was created by the Romans based on the example of Greek.

The first half of the book gives a general overview of the development of alphabetic languages and lettering in general, focusing in on Europe, while the second half examines the (speculative, in some cases) history of the shape of each letter in the modern English alphabet. There are many illustrations and examples. With a small number of symbols that can represent an unlimited number of words, alphabetic writing caught on around the world, and nearly all modern alphabets, from Arabic to Devanagari, Thai to Cyrillic, are descended from proto-Sinaitic.Canaanite miners used their new alphabet to write on mine walls and to inscribe gifts to Hathor. The text on this statuette, running from upper left to lower right, seems to read 'mt l bʿlt,' meaning 'gift for the lady.' From Althebräische Inschriften vom Sinai by Hubert Grimme, 1923. (Public domain) Over time, what had started out as drawings of animals, objects, and tiny people was simplified into abstract lines that could be jotted down easily. The waves of the ocean became the crests of the letter M, the slithering body of a snake resolved into the twisting letter N, and the bend of an elbow was preserved only as the curve of the letter J. Other hieroglyphs represented strings of sounds. A goose could stand for the word "goose" gb, the sound gb, or — followed by a glyph of a seated god — the name of the earth-god Geb. Over 3,500 years ago, a few of them seem to have had the idea to adapt the writing system to their own language, and the way they repurposed hieroglyphs was inspired. Incredibly, the people who invented the world's first alphabet may very well have been illiterate. Their inscriptions didn't follow the format of Egyptian writing, nor did they import any sounds or meanings from the earlier writing system as they likely would have done if they had learned hieroglyphs first.

Some letters were rotated, so that today the ox horns of the letter A point downward instead of upward and the hands of a man held up in praise reach sideways as the arms of the letter E. Hathor was one of the most important goddesses of the Egyptian pantheon. Among her many jurisdictions, she presided over the gemstone turquoise, which is why she was worshipped at this temple in the mining settlement of Serabit el-Khadim. David Roberts, 1839.(Public domain) Next, they took the hieroglyph that looked like a house, which in Canaanite was called bayit, and designated it as the sound b. They continued until they had 27 letters — enough to represent all the consonants in their language. Lccn 94009779 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.20 Ocr_module_version 0.0.17 Openlibrary OL1085880M Openlibrary_edition

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This new type of writing that matched symbols to single sounds, instead of whole words or groups of sounds, was eventually named after the first two letters in the system: ʾalef-bayit, or alphabet. Admission is free A Stephen T. Johnson Alphabet City (1995) Leonard Baskin, A Gehenna Alphabet. The Gehenna Press was founded in 1942 and was one of the first fine-art presses in the USA. Alphabetics/an aesthetically awesome alliterated alphabet anthology. Fanfare is a 19th century term used to describe the ornate gold-toothed bindings of the period from 1570-1640 The Illuminated Alphabet G is part of An Illuminated Alphabet and is from a 15th century Italian prayer book

These early scripts weren't alphabets, but they weren't simple picture-writing, either. All Egyptian hieroglyphs, for instance, were images of objects and animals in the real world, but they didn't always represent those objects directly. Taking the ox-head glyph, for instance, they decided it would represent the first letter of the word for ox in their language, ʾalef. So, the ox head became ʾ, a sound made in the throat that we don't have in English. A drawing of a reed could mean "reed," but, since the Egyptian word for reed was ỉ, it could also stand for the sound ỉ in other words. The writing system operated on the same principle as a rebus puzzle, in which you might use a picture of a bumblebee as a substitute for the verb "be" because they sound the same. People from Canaan — modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan — often travelled to wealthy, neighbouring Egypt to seek their fortunes. Canaanites worked across Egypt in a variety of occupations and even made their way to a remote, windswept plateau in the Sinai desert called Serabit el-Khadim.

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So here in memory of the all those games I played with my dad is my own curated ABC – some images from the exhibition, and other favourites from my own collection. I hope you enjoy it. Fenike'lilerde alef kelimesi ingilizcede ox kelimesi öküz anlamına gelmektedir. Ox kelimesi telaffuz olarak yazıya dökülmüş olsaydı ax şeklinde yazılacaktı. Yazarda buradan yola çıkarak sözün önemini vurgulamak için kitabına bu ismi vermiş. Kitap boyunca da çeşitli konularla birlikte sözelliğin önemi vurgulanmaya çalışılmış. Günümüz düşünüldüğünde verilen örnekler güncelliğini yitirmiş gibi görünebilir fakat form değiştirdiği aşikar. Yazarın yer yer düşüncelerinin çok uç noktalara vardığını düşünüyorum. Yazarın günümüz dünyasıyla ilgili düşüncelerini de okuma fırsatım olsaydı karşılaştırma adına çok güzel olabilirdi. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-07-19 06:02:35 Associated-names Brown, Iain Gordon, former owner Boxid IA40174703 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Five of our letters (F, U, V, W, and Y) all came from the same ancient semitic letter "waw", which meant "peg". Hence, "F is for peg". "A", on the other hand, came from an ancient Egyptian hieroglyph which resembled the head of an ox. Hence, "A is for ox", which gives the book its name. Each letter's mini-chapter takes us through its development into Greek, Etruscan, Roman, medieval Carolingian, 15th century humanist, and eventually modern forms. I was also surprised to learn that several of our letters were not quite into their modern shape when the 1700's began, although the "f"-like form of the letter "s" reminded me that I already knew about at least one case like that.