Which civilization developed the alphabet

The invention of numerals, which separated the notion of numerosity from that of the item counted, was a crucial fourth step in abstraction. The signs expressing the concept of oneness, twoness, etc. In turn, the phonetic units marked a fifth step of abstraction, since the signs no longer referred to the objects pictured, but rather the sound of the word they evoked.

Phonetics allowed writing to shift from a representational to a conceptual linguistic system. That is to say it enabled writing to leave the realm of real goods in order to enter the world of words and the ideas they stand for.

Finally, the process that started with ideograms expressing concepts and phonetic signs referring to the sound of monosyllabic words reached the ultimate segmentation of meaning with letters. As Marshall McLuhan defined it, the alphabet consists of semantically meaningless letters corresponding to semantically meaningless sounds. The alphabet brought data handling to a final double-stepped abstraction. The origin of the Chinese script and the development of Mesoamerican writing are still obscure.

The Mesopotamian script, however, offers a well-documented evolution over a continuous period of 10, years. The system underwent drastic changes in form, gradually transcribed spoken language more accurately, and handled data in more abstract terms.

The most striking universal feature of all writing systems, however, is their uncanny endurance, unmatched among human creations. The Chinese script never needed to be deciphered because the signs have changed little during the years of its recorded existence Xigui It also always remained ideographic, merely inserting rebus-like phonetic complements in some characters.

The Mesoamerican Maya phonetic glyphs preserved the symbolism initiated by the Olmecs in the previous millennium Coe and Van Stone Finally, when the last clay tablet was written in the Near East, c. It replaced an age-old token system that had preceded it for over years; it was replaced by the alphabet, which we have now used for years. Bagley, R. Anyang writing and the Origin of the Chinese writing system.

Houston Ed. The First Writing pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Baines, J. Visual and Written culture in Ancient Egypt. Black, J. Bennet, S. Houston eds. The Disappearance of Writing Systems pp.

London: Equinox. Bonfante, G. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Malafouris L, Grasping the concept of number: How did the sapient mind move beyond approximation, in: I. Renfrew eds. Moos, M. Amsterdam:Overseas Publishers Association. Nissen, H. From Mesopotamia to Iraq. Powell, B. Writing: Theory and History of the Technology of Civilization. London: Wiley Blackwell. Salomon, R. Some Principles and Patterns of Script Change. Houston ed. The Shape of Script.

Imagine trying to remember a unique symbol for each breed of dog , flower, or tree! As civilizations and communication advanced, people began discovering that it was possible to use combinations of a much smaller set of symbols to represent all the words in a spoken language.

Historians point to the Proto-Sinaitic script as the first alphabetic writing system, which consisted of 22 symbols adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphics. This set was developed by Semitic-speaking people in the Middle East around B.

This is the foundation of our modern alphabet. We call each of symbol a letter. Each letter of the alphabet represents one sound in our language. By combining these letters, it's possible to represent an unlimited number of words. Many different alphabets have been used around the world throughout history. Often, new alphabets are created by modifying the alphabet of another language. The Latin alphabet also called the "Roman alphabet" is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today.

This is the system on which the English alphabet is based. Are you ready to learn even more about alphabets? Make sure you ask a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities:. What does this Wonder talk about?

Does every paragraph in the Wonder talk about that topic? Hi, aretre! Sometimes, our Wonders do not have straightforward answers. This Wonder is an example of this. Thousands of years ago, cave paintings documented the first forms of alphabets. Hieroglyphics can also be considered one of the earliest forms of the alphabet. The Phoenicians helped create the foundation of our modern alphabet, and we base the English alphabet on the Latin or Roman alphabet.

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Black licorice has a very distinct taste that some people don't like. Do you like the other flavors of licorice, like strawberry? Hi, Yash! We hope this Wonder was helpful and informational! You can also keep researching about the alphabet at the library and online!

Hello, Krishna! We hope you learned more about the alphabet! You can also keep researching at your library and online! Hi, Subiksha! We encourage you to keep researching at your library and online! Hi, Wonder Friend! It's definitely been around a long time! The Wonder tells us around B. Welcome, Darreus!

The alphabet is very convenient and important! We're glad you liked this Wonder! Hi, Abby! Thanks for reading the Wonder so closely. Bonjour, BellaMonica Loci! That was neat, SurA! This Wonder is full of interesting information! Thank you for commenting, awais! We hope you enjoyed this Wonder!

You're very welcome, melina! We're you liked this Wonder! Welcome back, melina! Hi, Varsha! Thanks for joining the discussion! We encourage you to keep researching about the history of the alphabet at your library and online! Hello, Conner! It's always great when we're having fun and learning new things! This Day In History. History Vault. Recommended for you. How the Troubles Began in Northern Ireland. Who invented the elevator? These early tablets would show a stylized picture of some trade good—an ox, a sheep, a loaf of bread—followed by a series of incised marks that appear to be numbers.

Sumeria was the first urban civilization, and it seems that the need for writing developed alongside the emergence of the first cities, markets, and organized states. Gradually the system developed in sophistication and complexity, until by around BC it was capable of conveying abstract ideas and grammatical sentences. A key breakthrough is believed to have occurred over the next years or so, when the writing system became phonetic—that is, the characters were used to represent sounds rather than words.

That allowed the entire Sumerian language to be represented using only a small set of standardized symbols. Cuneiform was a syllabary, where each character stood for the sound of a compete syllable—similar to modern Japanese hiragana and katakana.

After the Sumerian civilization was conquered by the Empire of Akkad, the Akkadians adopted their writing system for their own. It continued to be used throughout the Middle East, including by the Babylonians and Assyrians, for a couple of thousand years, until being replaced by the Aramaic alphabet during the time of the Achaemenid Persian Empire.

The earliest known full sentence written in hieroglyphs is from the tomb of the Pharaoh Seth-Peribsen who died circa BC, though isolated examples have been discovered from earlier. Like cuneiform, hieroglyphs remained in use for thousands of years until the arrival of foreign conquerors with their own writing systems—and even under the Persians, Greeks, and Romans, hieroglyphs continued to be used for certain ritual purposes such as inscriptions on temples and statues.

The last known authentic hieroglyphic inscription is from as late as AD. Since Egypt and Sumeria were close enough to have trade links with each other, and writing appeared in Egypt shortly after it did in Sumeria, many scholars believe that the Egyptians took the concept of writing from their neighbors.

However the actual form of their writing system is dissimilar, so other academics dispute the connection and believe that hieroglyphs were invented independently.