View source for History of the alphabet

{{Short description|none}}
{{Alphabet|state=collapsed}}
The '''history of the alphabet''' goes back to the consonantal writing system used to write [[Semitic languages]] in the [[Levant]] during the 2nd millennium BCE. Nearly all [[alphabet]]ic scripts used throughout the world today ultimately go back to this Semitic script.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sampson |first=Geoffrey |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsystems00geof |title=Writing systems: A linguistic introduction |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1985 |isbn=0-8047-1254-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/writingsystems00geof/page/77 77] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Its first origins can be traced back to a [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] developed in [[Ancient Egypt]] to represent the language of Semitic-speaking workers and slaves in Egypt.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Sinaitic inscriptions|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Sinaitic-inscriptions |access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref> Unskilled in the complex hieroglyphic system used to write the [[Egyptian language]], which required a large number of pictograms, they selected a small number of those commonly seen in their surroundings to [[Acrophony|describe the sounds]], as opposed to the semantic values, of their own [[Canaanite language]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldwasser |first=O. |year=2012 |title=The Miners that Invented the Alphabet - a Response to Christopher Rollston |url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/jaei/article/view/16085/16030 |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |volume=4 |issue=3 |doi=10.2458/azu_jaei_v04i3_goldwasser |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldwasser |first=O. |year=2010 |title=How the Alphabet was Born from Hieroglyphs. |url=https://www.academia.edu/6916402 |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=40–53}}</ref> This script was partly influenced by the older Egyptian [[hieratic]], a cursive script related to [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]].<ref name="Himelfarb, Elizabeth J 2000">Himelfarb, Elizabeth J. "[http://archive.archaeology.org/0001/newsbriefs/egypt.html First Alphabet Found in Egypt]", ''Archaeology'' 53, Issue 1 (Jan./Feb. 2000): 21.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Goldwasser |first=Orly |author-link=Orly Goldwasser |year=2010 |title=How the Alphabet Was Born from Hieroglyphs |url=https://members.bib-arch.org/biblical-archaeology-review/36/2/6 |journal=Biblical Archaeology Review |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Biblical Archaeology Society |volume=36 |issue=1 |issn=0098-9444 |access-date=6 Nov 2011}}</ref> The Semitic alphabet became the ancestor of multiple writing systems across the Middle East, Europe, northern Africa, and South Asia, mainly through [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] and the closely related [[Paleo-Hebrew alphabet]], and later [[Aramaic script|Aramaic]] (derived from the Phoenician alphabet) and the [[Nabataean script|Nabatean]]—derived from the Aramaic alphabet and developed into the [[Arabic alphabet]]—five closely related members of the Semitic family of scripts that were in use during the early first millennium BCE. 

Some modern authors distinguish between consonantal alphabets, with the term ''[[abjad]]'' coined for them in 1996, and "true alphabets" with letters for both consonants and vowels. In this narrower sense, the first true alphabet would be the [[Greek alphabet]], which was adapted from the Phoenician alphabet. Many linguists are skeptical of the value of wholly separating the two categories. [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], the most widely used alphabet today,{{sfn|Haarmann|2004|p=96}} in turn derives from the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] and Greek alphabets, themselves derived from Phoenician.

== Predecessors ==
Two scripts are well attested from before the end of the fourth millennium BCE: [[cuneiform script|Mesopotamian cuneiform]] and [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]].
Hieroglyphs were employed in three ways in Ancient Egyptian texts: as logograms (ideograms) that represent a word denoting an object visually depicted by the hieroglyph, as phonographs denoting sounds, or as determinatives which provide clues to meaning without directly writing sounds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=hieroglyphics |url=http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/hieroglyphics.htm}}</ref> Since vowels were mostly unwritten, the [[Egyptian hieroglyph#Uniliteral signs|hieroglyphs which indicated a single consonant]] could have been used as a consonantal alphabet, or ''abjad''. This was not done when writing the Egyptian language, but seems to have been an influence on the creation of the first alphabet (used to write a Semitic language).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Daniels |first=Peter T. |year=2016 |title=Writing in the World and Linguistics |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7vv3w7p8 |journal=Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society |volume=36 |issue=36 |pages=81}}</ref> All subsequent alphabets around the world have either descended from this first Semitic alphabet, or have been inspired by one of its descendants by [[stimulus diffusion]], with the possible exception of the [[Meroitic alphabet]], a 3rd-century BCE adaptation of hieroglyphs in [[Nubia]] to the south of Egypt. The [[Rongorongo]] script of [[Easter Island]] may also be an independently invented alphabet, but too little is known of it to be certain.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Magazine |first=Smithsonian |last2=Anderson |first2=Sonja |title=Did the People of Easter Island Invent a Writing System From Scratch? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/research-reveals-the-natives-of-easter-island-invented-a-written-language-from-scratch-180983793/ |access-date=2024-02-17 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref>

== Consonantal alphabets ==
=== Semitic alphabet ===
The [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] of Egypt has yet to be fully deciphered. However, it may be alphabetic and probably records the [[Canaanite language]]. The oldest examples are found as [[Graffito (archaeology)|graffiti]] in the [[Wadi el-Hol]] and date to {{circa|1850 BCE}}.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Darnell |first=John Coleman |author-link=John Coleman Darnell |last2=Dobbs-Allsopp |first2=F. W. |author-link2=F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp |last3=Lundberg |first3=Marilyn J. |last4=McCarter |first4=P. Kyle |author-link4=P. Kyle McCarter Jr. |last5=Zuckerman |first5=Bruce |year=2005 |title=Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Hôl |journal=The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=59 |pages=63, 65, 67–71, 73–113, 115–124 |jstor=3768583}}</ref> The table below shows hypothetical prototypes of the [[Phoenician alphabet]] in Egyptian hieroglyphs. Several correspondences have been proposed with Proto-Sinaitic letters.

{| class=wikitable
|-
! Egyptian prototype
|<hiero>F1</hiero>
|<hiero>O1</hiero>
|<hiero>T14</hiero>
|<hiero>O31</hiero>
|<hiero>A28</hiero>
|<hiero>T3</hiero>
|<hiero>Z4</hiero>
|<hiero>O6</hiero>
|<hiero>F35</hiero>
|<hiero>D42</hiero>
|<hiero>D46</hiero>
|-
! [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianA-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianB-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianG-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianD-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianE-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianW-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianZ-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianH-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:Phoenician teth.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianI-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianK-01.svg|20px]]
|-
! Acrophony
|[[ʾalp]] 'ox'
|[[beth (letter)|bet]] 'house'
|[[gaml]] '[[Boomerang#Hunting|thrown hunting club]]'
|[[daleth|digg]] 'fish' or 'door'
|[[he (letter)|haw, hillul]] 'jubilation'
|[[waw (letter)|waw]] 'hook'
|[[zayin|zen, ziqq]] 'handcuff'
|[[ḥet]] 'courtyard' or 'fence'
|[[ṭēt]] 'wheel'
|[[yodh|yad]] 'arm'
|[[Kaph|kap]] 'hand'
|}

{| class=wikitable
|-
! Egyptian prototype
|<hiero>S39</hiero>
|<hiero>N35</hiero>
|<hiero>I10</hiero>
|<hiero>R11</hiero>
|<hiero>D4</hiero>
|<hiero>D21</hiero>
|<hiero>M22</hiero>
|<hiero>V24</hiero>
|<hiero>D1</hiero>
|<hiero>T9A</hiero>
|<hiero>Z9</hiero>
|-
! [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianL-01.svg|20px]]
|[[File:PhoenicianM-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianN-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianX-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianO-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianP-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianTsade-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianQ-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianR-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:PhoenicianS-01.svg|20px]]
|[[Image:Proto-semiticT-01.svg|20px]]
|-
! Acrophony
|[[Lamedh|lamd]] 'goad'
|[[mem]] 'water'
|[[Nun (letter)|nun]] 'large fish' or 'snake'
|[[samek]] 'support' or 'pillar'
|[[ʿen]] 'eye'
|[[piʾt]] 'bend'
|[[ṣad]] 'plant'
|[[qoph|qup]] 'monkey' or 'cord of wool'
|[[raʾs]] 'head'
|[[šimš|šananuma]] 'bow'
|[[taw (letter)|taw]] 'signature'
|}

This Semitic script adapted Egyptian hieroglyphs to write consonantal values based on the first sound of the Semitic name for the object depicted by the hieroglyph, the "acrophonic principle".{{sfn|Hooker|1998|pp=211–213}} For example, the hieroglyph ''[[Per (hieroglyph)|per]]'' 'house' was used to write the sound {{IPA blink|b}} in Semitic, because {{IPA blink|b}} was the first sound in the Semitic word ''bayt'' 'house'.{{sfn|McCarter|1974|pp=54–68}} Little of this proto-Canaanite script has survived, but existing evidence suggests it retained its pictographic nature for half a millennium until it was adopted for governmental use in Canaan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Azevedo |first=Joaquim |date=1994 |title=The Origin and Transmission of the Alphabet |url=https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1027&context=theses |access-date=February 14, 2024 |website=Digital Commons @ Andrews University}}</ref> The first Canaanite states to make extensive use of the alphabet were the [[Phoenicia]]n [[city-state]]s and so later stages of the Canaanite script are called [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]. The Phoenician cities were maritime states at the center of a vast trade network and soon the Phoenician alphabet spread throughout the Mediterranean. Two variants of the Phoenician alphabet had major impacts on the history of writing: the [[Aramaic alphabet]] and the [[Greek alphabet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Van De Mieroop |first=Marc |chapter=Vernaculars That Changed the World |year=2022 |title=Before and after Babel |pages=149–C7.P48 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-197-63466-0}}</ref>

=== Descendants of the Aramaic abjad ===

[[File:Arabic alphabet world distribution.png|thumb|400px|Global distribution of the Arabic alphabet. 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.]]

The Phoenician and Aramaic alphabets, like their Egyptian prototype, represented only consonants, a system called an ''[[abjad]]''. The Aramaic alphabet, which evolved from the Phoenician in the 7th century BCE, to become the official script of the [[Greater Iran|Persian Empire]], appears to be the ancestor of nearly all the modern alphabets of Asia:
* The [[Arabic alphabet]] descended from Aramaic via the [[Nabataean alphabet]] of what is now southern [[Jordan]]. It is the second-most widely used [[Alphabet|alphabetic]] writing system in the world (after the [[Latin script]]) and the most used abjad system.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arabic Alphabet |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31666/Arabic-alphabet |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150426185709/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/31666/Arabic-alphabet |archive-date=26 April 2015 |access-date=2015-05-16 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica}}</ref>
* The modern [[Hebrew alphabet]] started out as a local variant of [[Imperial Aramaic]]. The original Hebrew alphabet has been retained by the [[Samaritan alphabet|Samaritans]].{{sfnm|Hooker|1998|1p=222|Robinson|2007|2p=172}}
* The [[Syriac alphabet]] used after the third century CE evolved, through the [[Pahlavi scripts]] and [[Sogdian alphabet]], into the alphabets of [[North Asia]] such as the [[Old Turkic alphabet]] (probably), the [[Old Uyghur alphabet]], the [[Mongolian writing systems]], and the [[Manchu alphabet]].
* The [[Georgian scripts]] are of uncertain provenance, but appear to be part of either the Persian-Aramaic or Greek family.

== Alphabets with vowels ==
=== Greek alphabet ===
==== Adoption ====
{{Main|History of the Greek alphabet}}
[[Image:NAMA Alphabet grec.jpg|thumb|250px|Greek alphabet on an ancient <!--early 6th c. BCE?-->[[black figure]] vessel. There is a ''[[digamma]]'' but no ''ksi'' or ''omega''. The letter ''phi'' upright in the photograph is missing a stroke and looks like the ''omicron'' Ο, but on the other side of the bottom it is a full Φ.]]
[[File:Cippo perugino, con iscrizione in lingua etrusca su un atto giuridico tra le famiglie dei velthina e degli afuna, 02.jpg|thumbnail|[[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] writing, the beginning of the writing with the [[Latin alphabet]].]]

By at least the 8th century BCE the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet and adapted it to their own language,{{sfn|McCarter|1974|p=62}} creating in the process the first "true" alphabet, in which vowels were accorded equal status with consonants. According to Greek legends transmitted by [[Herodotus]], the alphabet was brought from Phoenicia to Greece by [[Cadmus]]. The letters of the Greek alphabet are the same as those of the Phoenician alphabet, and both alphabets are arranged in the same order.{{sfn|McCarter|1974|p=62}} However, whereas separate letters for vowels would have actually hindered the legibility of Egyptian, Phoenician, or Hebrew, their absence was problematic for Greek, where [[vowel]]s played a much more important role.{{sfn|Daniels|Bright|1996|p=27|loc="there are languages for which an alphabet is {{em|not}} an ideal writing system. The Semitic abjads really do fit the structure of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic very well, [more] than an alphabet would [...], since the spelling ensures that each root looks the same through its plethora of inflections and derivations."}} The Greeks used for vowels some of the Phoenician letters representing consonants which weren't used in Greek speech. All of the names of the letters of the Phoenician alphabet started with consonants, and these consonants were what the letters represented; this is called the [[acrophonic]] principle.

However, several Phoenician consonants were absent in Greek, and thus several letter names came to be pronounced with initial vowels. Since the start of the name of a letter was expected to be the sound of the letter (the acrophonic principle), in Greek these letters came to be used for vowels. For example, the Greeks had no glottal stop or voiced pharyngeal sounds, so the Phoenician letters ''’alep'' and ''`ayin'' became Greek ''[[alpha (letter)|alpha]]'' and ''o'' (later renamed ''[[omicron (letter)|omicron]]''), and stood for the vowels {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} rather than the consonants {{IPA|/ʔ/}} and {{IPA|/ʕ/}}. As this fortunate development only provided for five or six (depending on dialect) of the twelve Greek vowels, the Greeks eventually created [[digraph (orthography)|digraphs]] and other modifications, such as ''ei'', ''ou'', and <u>''o''</u>—which became [[omega (letter)|omega]]—or in some cases simply ignored the deficiency, as in long ''a'', ''i'', ''u''.{{sfn|Robinson|2007|p=170}}

Several varieties of the Greek alphabet developed. One, known as the [[Cumae alphabet]], was used west of [[Athens]] and in [[southern Italy]]. The other variation, known as [[History of the Greek alphabet|Eastern Greek]], was used in Asia Minor. The Athenians ({{circa|400 BCE}}) adopted that latter variation and eventually the rest of the Greek-speaking world followed. After first writing right to left, the Greeks eventually chose to write from left to right, unlike the Phoenicians who wrote from right to left. Many Greek letters are similar to Phoenician, except the letter direction is reversed or changed, which can be the result of historical changes from right-to-left writing to [[boustrophedon]], then to left-to-right writing.

==== Descendants ====
[[Image:Cyrillic alphabet world distribution.svg|thumb|right|350px|Global distribution of the Cyrillic alphabet. 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.]]
Greek is in turn the source of all the modern scripts of Europe. The alphabet of the early western Greek dialects, where the letter [[eta (letter)|eta]] remained an {{IPA|/h/}}, gave rise to the [[Old Italic alphabet]] which in turn developed into the Old [[Roman alphabet]]. In the eastern Greek dialects, which did not have an /h/, eta stood for a vowel, and remains a vowel in modern Greek and all other alphabets derived from the eastern variants: [[Glagolitic alphabet|Glagolitic]], [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], [[Armenian alphabet|Armenian]], [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]]—which used both Greek and Roman letters—and perhaps [[Georgian alphabet|Georgian]].{{sfn|Robinson|2007}}

Although this description presents the evolution of scripts in a linear fashion, this is a simplification. For example, Georgian scripts derive from the Semitic family, but were also strongly influenced in their conception by Greek. A modified version of the Greek alphabet, using an additional half dozen [[Demotic (Egyptian)|demotic]] hieroglyphs, was used to write [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]] Egyptian. Then there is [[Canadian Aboriginal syllabics|Cree syllabics]] (an [[abugida]]), which is a fusion of [[Devanagari]] and [[Pitman shorthand]] developed by the missionary [[James Evans (linguist)|James Evans]].<ref>Andrew Dalby (2004:139) ''Dictionary of Languages''</ref>

=== Latin alphabet ===
{{Main|History of the Latin alphabet}}
[[Image:Latin alphabet world distribution.svg|thumb|right|350px|Global distribution of the Latin alphabet. The dark green areas show the countries where this alphabet is the sole main script. The light green shows the countries where the alphabet co-exists with other scripts.]]

A tribe known as the [[Latins (Italic tribe)|Latins]], who became the Romans, also lived in the Italian peninsula like the Western Greeks. From the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], a tribe living in the first millennium BCE in central [[Italy]], and the Western Greeks, the Latins adopted writing in about the seventh century. In adopting writing from these two groups, the Latins dropped four characters from the Western Greek alphabet. They also adapted the [[Etruscan language|Etruscan letter]] [[F]], pronounced 'w,' giving it the 'f' sound, and the Etruscan S, which had three zigzag lines, was curved to make the modern [[S]]. To represent the [[G]] sound in Greek and the [[K]] sound in Etruscan, the [[gamma]] was used. These changes produced the modern alphabet without the letters [[G]], [[J]], [[U]], [[W]], [[Y]], and [[Z]], as well as some other differences.

[[C]], [[K]], and [[Q]] in the Roman alphabet could all be used to write both the {{IPA|/k/}} and {{IPA|/ɡ/}} sounds; the Romans soon modified the letter C to make G, inserted it in seventh place, where [[Z]] had been, to maintain the [[gematria]] (the numerical sequence of the alphabet). Over the few centuries after [[Alexander the Great]] conquered the Eastern Mediterranean and other areas in the third century BCE, the Romans began to borrow Greek words, so they had to adapt their alphabet again in order to write these words. From the Eastern Greek alphabet, they borrowed [[Y]] and [[Z]], which were added to the end of the alphabet because the only time they were used was to write Greek words.

The [[Anglo-Saxons]] began using Roman letters to write [[Old English language|Old English]] as they converted to Christianity, following [[Augustine of Canterbury]]'s mission to Britain in the sixth century. Because the [[Runic alphabet|Runic]] ''wen'', which was first used to represent the sound 'w' and looked like a p that is narrow and triangular, was easy to confuse with an actual p, the 'w' sound began to be written using a double u. Because the u at the time looked like a v, the double u looked like two v's, [[W]] was placed in the alphabet after [[V]]. [[U]] developed when people began to use the rounded [[U]] when they meant the vowel u and the pointed [[V]] when the meant the consonant [[V]]. [[J]] began as a variation of [[I]], in which a long tail was added to the final [[I]] when there were several in a row. People began to use the [[J]] for the consonant and the [[I]] for the vowel by the fifteenth century, and it was fully accepted in the mid-seventeenth century.

[[File:Evolution of minuscule.svg|thumb|none|600px|Simplified relationship between various scripts leading to the development of modern lower case of standard Latin alphabet and that of the modern variants.]]

== Letter names and order ==
The order of the letters of the alphabet is attested from the 14th century BCE in the town of [[Ugarit]] on [[Syria]]'s northern coast.{{sfn|Robinson|2007|p=162}} Tablets found there bear over one thousand cuneiform signs, but these signs are not Babylonian and there are only thirty distinct characters. About twelve of the tablets have the signs set out in alphabetic order. There are two orders found, one of which is nearly identical to the order used for [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], [[Greek alphabet|Greek]] and [[Latin alphabet|Latin]], and a second order very similar to that used for [[Ge'ez alphabet|Ethiopian]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Millard |first=A. R. |year=1986 |title=The infancy of the alphabet |journal=World Archaeology |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=390–398 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979978 |jstor=124703}}</ref>

It is not known how many letters the [[Proto-Sinaitic alphabet]] had nor what their alphabetic order was. Among its descendants, the [[Ugaritic alphabet]] had 27 consonants, the [[South Arabian alphabet]]s had 29, and the [[Phoenician alphabet]] 22. These scripts were arranged in two orders, an ''ABGDE'' order in Phoenician and an ''HMĦLQ'' order in the south; Ugaritic preserved both orders. Both sequences proved remarkably stable among the descendants of these scripts.

The letter names proved stable among the many descendants of Phoenician, including [[Samaritan alphabet|Samaritan]], [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]], [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]], [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]], [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], and [[Greek alphabet]]. However, they were largely abandoned in [[Tifinagh]], [[Latin alphabet|Latin]] and [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]. The letter sequence continued more or less intact into Latin, [[Armenian alphabet|Armenian]], [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]], and [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]], but was abandoned in [[Brāhmī script|Brahmi]], [[Runic alphabet|Runic]], and Arabic, although a traditional ''[[abjadi order]]'' remains or was re-introduced as an alternative in the latter.

The table is a schematic of the Proto-Sinaitic script and its descendants.

{| class="wikitable" style="border-collapse:collapse; text-align:center;"
|-
! {{numero}}
! Reconstruction
! [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
! value
![[Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Sinaitic]]
![[Khirbet Qeiyafa ostracon|Proto-Canaanite]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Proto-Canaanite - List of symbols |url=https://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Simboli&id=53&lang=en |access-date=2024-02-05 |website=mnamon.sns.it |language=en}}</ref>
! [[Ugaritic alphabet|Ugaritic]]
![[Ancient South Arabian script|Old  Arabian]]
! [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
! [[Aramaic alphabet|Imperial Aramaic]]
! [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]]
! [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]]
! [[Greek alphabet|Greek]]
! [[Latin alphabet|Latin]]
! [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]
! [[Runic alphabet|Runic]]
|-
| 1
| {{transl|sem|[[ʼalp|ʾalp]]}} 'ox' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}{{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}}
| {{IPA|/ʔ/}}
| 1
|[[File:Proto-semiticA-01.svg|20x20px|Aleph]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteA01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎀
|𐪑/𐩱 {{transl|sem|ʾālep}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤀}} {{transl|sem|ʾālep}}
|[[File:Aleph.svg|10x10px]]𐡀 'ālap̱
| {{script|Hebr|א}} {{transl|sem|ʾālef}}
| {{script|Arab|[[aleph|ﺍ]]}} {{transl|sem|ʾalif}}
| [[Α]] alpha
| [[A]]
| [[А]] azŭ
| [[Ansuz rune|ᚨ]] *ansuz
|-
| 2
| {{transl|sem|[[beth (letter)|bayt]]}} 'house' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/b/}}
| 2
|[[File:Proto-semiticB-01.svg|20x20px|Bet]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteB011.svg|18x18px]]
| 𐎁
|𐪈/𐩨 {{transl|sem|bēt}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤁}} {{transl|sem|bēt}}
|[[File:Beth.svg|12x12px]]𐡁 bēṯ
| {{script|Hebr|ב}} {{transl|sem|bēṯ}}
| {{script|Arab|ﺏ}} {{transl|sem|bāʾ}}
| [[Beta (letter)|Β]] bēta
| [[B]]
| [[В]] vĕdĕ, [[Б]] buky
| [[ᛒ]] *berkanan
|-
|3
| {{transl|sem|[[gaml]]}} 'throwstick' 
| {{IPA|/ɡ/}}
| 3
|[[File:Proto-semiticG-01.svg|20x20px|Gimel]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteG01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎂
|𐪔/𐩴 {{transl|sem|gīmel}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤂}} {{transl|sem|gīmel}}
|[[File:Gimel.svg|15x15px]]𐡂
gāmal
| {{script|Hebr|ג}} {{transl|sem|gīmel}}
| {{script|Arab|ﺝ}} {{transl|sem|jīm}}
| [[Γ]] gamma
| [[C]], [[G]]
| [[Г]] glagoli
| [[ᚲ]] *kaunan, {{highlight|(Maybe: [[ᛃ]] *jēra-)}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | 4
| {{transl|sem|[[dalet|dalt]]}} 'door'
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/d/}}
| 4
|[[File:Proto-semiticD-02.svg|20x20px|Dalet]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteD01.svg|15x15px]]
| rowspan="2" | 𐎄
|𐪕/𐩵 {{transl|sem|dālet}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Script|Phnx|𐤃}} {{transl|sem|dālet}}
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Daleth.svg|15x15px]]𐡃 dālaṯ
| rowspan="2" | {{script|Hebr|ד}} {{transl|sem|dāleṯ}}
| rowspan="2" | {{script|Arab|ﺩ}} {{transl|sem|dāl}}, {{script|Arab|ذ}} {{transl|sem|ḏāl}}
| rowspan="2" | [[Δ]] delta
| rowspan="2" | [[D]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Д]] dobro
| {{maybe|([[ᛞ]] *dagaz, [[ᚦ]] *Þurisaz)}}
|-
|{{transl|sem|dag}} 'fish'
| {{n/a}}
|[[File:Proto-semiticD-01.svg|20x20px|Dalet]]
|([[File:Proto-canaaniteD01.svg|15x15px]])
|‎𐪏/𐩯 {{transl|sem|samēk}}
|
|-
| 5
| {{transl|sem|[[he (letter)|haw]]}} "window" / {{transl|sem|hillul}} "[[hallel|jubilation]]" {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/h/}}
| 5
|[[File:Proto-semiticE-01.svg|20x20px|Heh]]
|[[File:Proto-CanaaniteH01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎅
|𐪀/𐩠 {{transl|sem|hē}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤄}} {{transl|sem|hē}}
|[[File:He0.svg|15x15px]]𐡄 hē
| {{script|Hebr|ה}} {{transl|sem|hē}}
| {{script|Arab|ه}} {{transl|sem|hāʾ}}
| [[Ε]] epsilon
| [[E]]
| [[Е]] ye, [[Є]] estĭ
| {{n/a}}
|-
| 6
| {{transl|sem|[[wāw]]}} 'hook' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/w/}}
| 6
|[[File:Proto-semiticW-01.svg|20x20px|Waw]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteW01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎆
|𐪅/𐩥 {{transl|sem|wāw}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤅}} {{transl|sem|wāw}}
|[[File:Waw.svg|15x15px]]𐡅 waw
| {{script|Hebr|ו}} {{transl|sem|vāv}}
| {{script|Arab|و}} {{transl|sem|wāw}}
| {{lang|grc|[[Ϝ]]}} digamma, [[Υ]] upsilon
| [[F]], [[U]], [[V]], [[W]], [[Y]]
| [[Оу]] / [[Ꙋ]] ukŭ → [[У]]
| [[ᚠ]] *fehu, [[ᚢ]] *ûruz / *ûran, {{highlight|(Maybe: [[ᛉ]] *algiz?)}}
|-
|7
|{{transl|sem|[[zayin|ziq]]}} 'manacle' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
|{{IPA|/z/}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|[[File:Proto-semiticZ-02.svg|20x20px|Ziqq]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mykytiuk |first=Lawrence J. |date=1998 |title=IS HOPHNI IN THE 'IZBET SARTAH OSTRACON? |url=https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/AUSS/1998-1/1998-1-05.pdf}}</ref>
|{{n/a}}
|𐪘/𐩸 {{transl|sem|zayn}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|{{n/a}}
|-
| rowspan="2" | 8
| rowspan="2" | {{transl|sem|[[zayin|zayn]]}} "weapon"{{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}} / {{transl|sem|[[zayin|dayp]]}} "eyebrow" {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/z/}} or {{IPA|/ð/}}
| rowspan="2" | 7
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Proto-semiticZ-01.svg|20x20px|Zayin]]
| rowspan="2" {{n/a}}
| rowspan="2" | 𐎇
| rowspan="2" |𐪙/𐩹 {{transl|sem|ḏālet}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Script|Phnx|𐤆}} {{transl|sem|zayin}}
|[[File:Zayin.svg|15x15px]]𐡆 zayn
| rowspan="2" | {{script|Hebr|ז}} {{transl|sem|zayin}}
| {{script|Arab|ز}} {{transl|sem|zayn or zāy}}
| rowspan="2" | [[Ζ]] zēta
| rowspan="2" | [[Z]]
| rowspan="2" | [[Ꙁ]] / [[З]] zemlya
| rowspan="2" {{maybe|([[ᛇ]] *īhaz / *īwaz, [[ᛉ]] *algiz?)}}
|-
|([[File:Daleth.svg|15x15px]]𐡃 dalaṯ)
<ref name=":132">{{Cite web |title=Aramaic and Hebrew: A linguistic comparison |url=https://vocab.chat/blog/aramaic-and-hebrew.html#:~:text=One%20pattern%20in%20the%20differences,Aramaic%20and%20%C2%AB%20%D7%96%D6%B8%D7%94%D6%B8%D7%91%20%C2%BB%20in%20Hebrew |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=vocab.chat}}</ref>
|({{script|Arab|ذ}} {{transl|sem|ḏāl}})
|-
| 9
| {{transl|sem|[[heth|ḥaṣir]]}} 'mansion'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/ħ/}}
| 8
|[[File:Proto-semiticH-01.svg|20x20px|Ḥet]]
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Proto-canaaniteḤ01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎈
|𐪂/𐩢 {{transl|sem|ḥēt}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Script|Phnx|𐤇}} {{transl|sem|ḥēt}}
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Heth.svg|15x15px]]𐡇 ḥēṯ
| rowspan="2" | {{script|Hebr|ח}} {{transl|sem|ḥēṯ}}
| {{script|Arab|ح}} {{transl|sem|ḥāʾ}}, {{script|Arab|خ}} {{transl|sem|ḫāʾ}}
| rowspan="2" | [[Η]] ēta
| rowspan="2" | [[H]]
| rowspan="2" | [[И]] iže
| rowspan="2" | [[ᚺ]] *haglaz
|-
|10
|{{transl|sem|[[heth|ḫayt]]}} 'thread'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
|{{IPA|/x/}}
| {{n/a}}
|[[File:Inscription_349_Proto-Sinaitic_Heth.svg|20x20px|𓎛]]
|𐎃
|𐪍/𐩭 {{transl|sem|ḫēt}}
|({{script|Arab|خ}} {{transl|sem|ḫāʾ}})
|-
| 11
| {{transl|sem|[[teth|ṭab]]}} 'good'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/tˤ/}}
| 9
|[[File:Proto-semiticṬ-01.svg|20x20px]] {{efn|The Canaanites seem to have replaced the 𓄤 glyph with one resembling a spinning wheel (ṭayt) 𓊖.|name=changePho}}
|([[File:Proto-semiticTet-01.svg|15x15px]])
| 𐎉
|(𐪗/𐩷 {{transl|sem|ṭēt}})
| ({{Script|Phnx|𐤈}} {{transl|sem|ṭēt}})
|([[File:Teth.svg|15x15px]]𐡈 ṭeṯ)
| ({{script|Hebr|ט}} {{transl|sem|ṭēṯ}})
| ({{script|Arab|ط}} {{transl|sem|ṭāʾ}}, {{script|Arab|ظ}} {{transl|sem|ẓāʾ}})
| ([[Θ]] thēta)
| {{n/a}}
| ([[Ѳ]] fita)
| {{maybe|([[ᚦ]] *Þurisaz)}}
|-
| 12
| {{transl|sem|[[Yodh|yad]]}} 'hand'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/j/}}
| 10
|[[File:Proto-semiticI-02.svg|20x20px|Yad]] [[File:Proto-semiticI-01.svg|20x20px|Yad]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteJ01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎊
|𐪚/𐩺 {{transl|sem|yōd}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤉}} {{transl|sem|yōd}}
|[[File:Yod.svg|15x15px]]𐡉 yoḏ
| {{script|Hebr|י}} {{transl|sem|yōḏ}}
| {{script|Arab|ي}} {{transl|sem|yāʾ}}
| [[Ι]] iota
| [[I]], [[J]]
| [[І]] ižei
| [[ᛁ]] *isaz
|-
| 13
| {{transl|sem|[[kaph|kap]]}} 'palm'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/k/}}
| 20
|[[File:Proto-semiticK-01.svg|20x20px|Khof]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteK01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎋
|𐪋/𐩫 {{transl|sem|kaf}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤊}} {{transl|sem|kap}}
|[[File:Kaph.svg|15x15px]]𐡊 kāp̱
| {{script|Hebr|כ ך}} {{transl|sem|kāf}}
| {{script|Arab|ك}} {{transl|sem|kāf}}
| [[Κ]] kappa
| [[K]]
| [[К]] kako
| {{n/a}}
|-
| 14
| {{transl|sem|[[Lamedh|lamd]]}} 'goad'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/l/}}
| 30
|[[File:Proto-semiticL-01.svg|20x20px|Lamed]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteL01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎍
|𐪁/𐩡 {{transl|sem|lāmed}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤋}} {{transl|sem|lāmed}}
|[[File:Lamed.svg|15x15px]]𐡋 lāmaḏ
| {{script|Hebr|ל}} {{transl|sem|lāmeḏ}}
| {{script|Arab|ل}} {{transl|sem|lām}}
| [[Λ]] lambda
| [[L]]
| [[Л]] lyudiye
| [[ᛚ]] *laguz / *laukaz
|-
| 15
| [[Mem|Maym]] 'waters'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/m/}}
| 40
|[[File:Proto-semiticM-01.svg|20x20px|Mem]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteM01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎎
|𐪃/𐩣 {{transl|sem|mēm}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤌}} {{transl|sem|mēm}}
|[[File:Mem.svg|15x15px]]𐡌 mim
| {{script|Hebr|מ ם}} {{transl|sem|mēm}}
| {{script|Arab|م}} {{transl|sem|mīm}}
| [[Μ]] mu
| [[M]]
| [[М]] myslite
| [[ᛗ]] *mannaz
|-
| 16
| {{transl|sem|[[naḥš]]}} 'snake'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/n/}}
| 50
|[[File:Proto-semiticN-01.svg|20x20px|Nun]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteN01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎐
|𐪌/𐩬 {{transl|sem|nun}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤍}} {{transl|sem|nun}}
|[[File:Nun.svg|15x15px]]𐡍 nun
| {{script|Hebr|נ ן}} {{transl|sem|nun}}
| {{script|Arab|ن}} {{transl|sem|nūn}}
| [[Ν]] nu
| [[N]]
| [[Н]] našĭ
| {{maybe|([[ᚾ]] *naudiz)}}
|-
| 17
| {{transl|sem|[[samek|samk]]}} 'support'
| {{IPA|/s/}}
| 60
| {{n/a}}
|[[File:Proto-semiticX-01.svg|15x15px]]
|𐎒
| {{n/a}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤎}} {{transl|sem|sāmek}}
|[[File:Samekh.svg|15x15px]]𐡎 semkaṯ
| {{script|Hebr|ס}} {{transl|sem|sāmeḵ}}
| {{n/a}}
| [[Ξ]] ksi, ([[Χ]] chi)
| ([[X]])
| [[Ѯ]] ksi, ([[Х]] xĕrŭ)
| ([[ᚷ]] *gebô)
|-
| 18
| {{transl|sem|[[ʻen|ʿayn]]}} 'eye'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/ʕ/}}
| 70
|[[File:Proto-semiticO-01.svg|20x20px|Ayin]]
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Phoenician_ayin.svg|15x15px|𐤏]]
|𐎓
|𐪒/𐩲 {{transl|sem|ʿayn}}
| rowspan="2" | {{Script|Phnx|𐤏}} {{transl|sem|ʿayin}}
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Ayin.svg|15x15px]]𐡏 ʿayn 
| rowspan="2" | {{script|Hebr|ע}} {{transl|sem|ʿayin}}
| {{script|Arab|ع}} {{transl|sem|ʿayn}}
| rowspan="2" | [[Ο]] o mikron, [[Ω]] ō mega
| rowspan="2" | [[O]]
| rowspan="2" | [[О]] onŭ
| rowspan="2" | [[ᛟ]] *ōþalą
|-
|19
|[[Ghayn|ġayn]]  ?{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}{{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}}
|{{IPA|/ɣ/}}
| {{n/a}}
| {{n/a}}
|𐎙
|𐪖/𐩶 {{transl|sem|ġayn}}
|({{script|Arab|غ}} {{transl|sem|ġayn}})
|-
| 20
| {{transl|sem|[[Pe (Semitic letter)|pay]]}} 'mouth'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}} / {{transl|sem|piʾt}} 'corner'
| {{IPA|/p/}}
| 80
|[[File:Wadi el-hol-P02.svg|20x20px]]
[[File:Proto-semiticP-01.svg|19x19px]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteP01.svg|15x15px]]
| 𐎔
|𐪐/𐩰 {{transl|sem|fē}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤐}} {{transl|sem|pē}}
|[[File:Pe0.svg|15x15px]]𐡐 pē
| {{script|Hebr|פ ף}} {{transl|sem|pē}}
| {{script|Arab|ف}} {{transl|sem|fāʾ}}
| [[Pi (letter)|Π]] pi
| [[P]]
| [[П]] pokoi
| {{maybe|([[ᚹ]] *wunjō, [[ᛈ]] *perþō?)}}
|-
| 21
| {{transl|sem|([[ṣad]])}}/[[Tsade|ṣimaḥ]] 'plant'{{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}} or {{transl|sem|[[tsade|ṣirar]]}} 'bag'{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/sˤ/}}, {{IPA|/ɬˤ/}}?,
{{IPA|/θˤ/}}
| 90
|[[File:Serabit-El-Khadim-Ṣ356.svg|16x16px]]
| rowspan="3" |[[File:Proto-canaaniteṢ01.png|15x15px]]
| rowspan="3" |𐎕
|𐪎/𐩮 {{transl|sem|ṣāḏē}}
| rowspan="3" | {{Script|Phnx|𐤑}} ṣādē
|[[File:Sade_1.svg|15x15px]][[File:Sade_2.svg|15x15px]]𐡑 ṣāḏē
| rowspan="3" | {{script|Hebr|צ ץ}} {{transl|sem|ṣāḏi}}
| {{script|Arab|ص}} {{transl|sem|ṣād}}, 
| rowspan="3" | {{lang|grc|[[Ϻ]] san, ([[Ϡ]] sampi)}}
| rowspan="3" {{n/a}}
| rowspan="3" | [[Ц]] tsi, [[Ч]] črvĭ
| rowspan="3" {{maybe|([[ᛞ]] *dagaz)}}
|-
|22
|([[Tsade|ẓeth]]) ?
|{{IPA|/θˤ/}}
| rowspan="2" {{n/a}}
| rowspan="2" {{n/a}}
|𐪜/𐩼 {{transl|sem|ẓet}}
|([[File:Teth.svg|15x15px]]𐡈 ṭeṯ)
<ref name=":134">{{Cite web |title=Aramaic and Hebrew: A linguistic comparison |url=https://vocab.chat/blog/aramaic-and-hebrew.html#:~:text=One%20pattern%20in%20the%20differences,Aramaic%20and%20%C2%AB%20%D7%96%D6%B8%D7%94%D6%B8%D7%91%20%C2%BB%20in%20Hebrew |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=vocab.chat}}</ref>
|({{script|Arab|ظ}} {{transl|sem|ẓāʾ}})
|-
|23
|([[wiktionary:𐩳|ḍaḏe]]) "basket"?
|{{IPA|/ɬˤ/}}
|𐪓/𐩳 {{transl|sem|ḍāḏē}}
|([[File:Ayin.svg|15x15px]]𐡏 ʿayn)
<ref name=":133">{{Cite web |title=Aramaic and Hebrew: A linguistic comparison |url=https://vocab.chat/blog/aramaic-and-hebrew.html#:~:text=One%20pattern%20in%20the%20differences,Aramaic%20and%20%C2%AB%20%D7%96%D6%B8%D7%94%D6%B8%D7%91%20%C2%BB%20in%20Hebrew |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=vocab.chat}}</ref>
|({{script|Arab|ض}} {{transl|sem|ḍād}})
|-
| 24
| {{transl|sem|[[qoph|qup]]}} 'monkey'<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pandey |first=Anshuman |date=30 July 2019 |title=Revisiting the Encoding of Proto Sinaitic in Unicode |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2019/19299-revisiting-proto-sinaitic.pdf |website=Unicode.org}}</ref>/ {{transl|sem|[[qoph|qaw]]}} 'cord', 'line' {{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}}
| {{IPA|/kˤ/}} or {{IPA|/q/}}
| 100
|[[File:Proto-semiticQ-01.svg|20x20px|Qoph]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteQ01.svg|15x15px]]
|𐎖
|𐪄/𐩤 {{transl|sem|qōf}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤒}} {{transl|sem|qōp}}
|[[File:Qoph.svg|15x15px]]𐡒 qop̱
| {{script|Hebr|ק}} {{transl|sem|qōf}}
| {{script|Arab|ق}} {{transl|sem|qāf}}
| {{lang|grc|[[Ϙ]]}} koppa
| [[Q]]
| [[Ҁ]] koppa
| {{maybe|([[ᛜ]] *ingwaz)}}
|-
| 25
| {{transl|sem|[[raʼs|raʾš]]}} 'head' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| {{IPA|/r/}} or {{IPA|/ɾ/}}
| 200
|[[File:Proto-semiticR-01.svg|20x20px|Resh]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteR01.svg|15x15px]]
|𐎗
|𐪇/𐩧 {{transl|sem|rēš}}
| {{Script|Phnx|𐤓}} {{transl|sem|rēš}}
|[[File:Resh.svg|15x15px]]𐡓 rēš
| {{script|Hebr|ר}} {{transl|sem|rēš}}
| {{script|Arab|ر}} {{transl|sem|rāʾ}}
| [[Ρ]] rho
| [[R]]
| [[Р]] rĭtsi
| [[ᚱ]] *raidô
|-
|26
|{{transl|sem|[[Shin (letter)|śamš]]}} '[[shamash|sun]]' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}{{sfn|Albright|1966|loc=fig. 1}}<ref name=":22">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson-Wright |first=Aren Max |date=2016 |title=Sinai 357: A Northwest Semitic Votive Inscription to Teššob |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.2.247 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=136 |issue=2 |pages=247–263 |doi=10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.2.247 |issn=0003-0279}}</ref>
|{{IPA|/ʃ/}}
| {{n/a}}
|[[File:Proto-semiticŠ-02.svg|16x16px]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Wilson-Wright |first=Aren Max |date=2016 |title=Sinai 357: A Northwest Semitic Votive Inscription to Teššob |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.2.247 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=136 |issue=2 |pages=247–263 |doi=10.7817/jameroriesoci.136.2.247 |issn=0003-0279}}</ref>/[[File:Proto-semiticŠ01.svg|20x20px]]{{sfn|Colless|2010|p=94|loc=fig. 2}}
|([[File:Proto-canaaniteŠ01.svg|15x15px]])
| rowspan="4" |𐎌
|(𐪊/𐩪 {{transl|sem|sat}})
| rowspan="4" |{{Script|Phnx|𐤔}} {{transl|sem|šin}}
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Shin.svg|15x15px]]𐡔 šin
|({{script|Hebr|ש}} {{transl|sem|šin}})
|({{script|Arab|س}} {{transl|sem|sīn}})
| rowspan="4" |[[Sigma|Σ]] sigma, [[ϛ]] stigma
| rowspan="4" |[[S]]
| rowspan="4" |[[С]] slovo, [[Ш]] ša, [[Щ]] šta, [[Ꙃ]] / [[Ѕ]] dzĕlo
| rowspan="4" |[[ᛊ]] *sowilô
|-
| rowspan="3" |27
| ?
| {{IPA|/ɬ/}}
| {{n/a}}
| {{n/a}}
|[[File:Proto-canaanite-sl.svg|24x24px]]?{{Efn|A [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proto-canaanite-sl.svg &#124; glyph for ś] has been found in the Canaanite Lachish Comb inscription, though no such glyph has been found in Proto-Sinaitic, and its origin hasn't been discovered.|name=GlyphSl}}<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Vainstub |first=Daniel |last2=Mumcuoglu |first2=Madeleine |last3=Hasel |first3=Michael G. |last4=Hesler |first4=Katherine M. |last5=Lavi |first5=Miriam |last6=Rabinovich |first6=Rivka |last7=Goren |first7=Yuval |last8=Garfinkel |first8=Yosef |title=A Canaanite's Wish to Eradicate Lice on an Inscribed Ivory Comb from Lachish |url=https://jjar.huji.ac.il/sites/default/files/jjar/files/jjar2_art4_lachish_p76-119_2022-10-12_01.pdf |access-date=2023-12-13 |website=Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology}}</ref>
|(𐪆/𐩦 {{transl|sem|šin}})
|({{script|Hebr|שׂ}} śin)
| ({{script|Arab|ش}} {{transl|sem|šīn}})
|-
| rowspan="2" |{{transl|sem|[[Shin (letter)|ṯad]]}} 'breast' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/θ/}}, {{IPA|/ɬ/}}
| rowspan="2" |300
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Serabit-El-Khadim-Ṯ348.svg|15x15px]]
| rowspan="2" |[[File:Proto-canaaniteŠ01.svg|15x15px]]
|(𐪆/𐩦 {{transl|sem|šin}})
| rowspan="3" |[[File:Taw.svg|15x15px]]𐡕 taw
<ref name=":135">{{Cite web |title=Aramaic and Hebrew: A linguistic comparison |url=https://vocab.chat/blog/aramaic-and-hebrew.html#:~:text=One%20pattern%20in%20the%20differences,Aramaic%20and%20%C2%AB%20%D7%96%D6%B8%D7%94%D6%B8%D7%91%20%C2%BB%20in%20Hebrew |access-date=2024-01-21 |website=vocab.chat}}</ref>
| rowspan="2" |{{script|Hebr|ש}} {{transl|sem|šin}}
|{{script|Arab|س}} {{transl|sem|sīn}}, 
|-
|𐪛/𐩻 {{transl|sem|ṯāw}}
|({{script|Arab|ث}} {{transl|sem|ṯāʾ}})
|-
|28
|{{transl|sem|[[taw (letter)|taw]]}} 'mark' {{sfn|Colless|2010|p=96|loc=fig. 5}}
|{{IPA|/t/}}
|400
|[[File:Proto-semiticT-01.svg|20x20px|Tof]]
|[[File:Proto-canaaniteT01.svg|15x15px]]
|𐎚
|𐪉/𐩩 {{transl|sem|tāw}}
|{{Script|Phnx|𐤕}} {{transl|sem|tāw}}
|{{script|Hebr|ת}} {{transl|sem|tāv}}
|{{script|Arab|ت}} {{transl|sem|tāʾ}}, {{script|Arab|ث}} {{transl|sem|ṯāʾ}}
|[[Τ]] tau
|[[T]]
|[[Т]] tvrdo
|[[ᛏ]] *tîwaz
|-
|}

These 26 consonants account for the phonology of [[Northwest Semitic]]. Of the 29 consonant phonemes commonly reconstructed for [[Proto-Semitic]], the voiceless fricatives ś, ṣ́, and ṯ̣ are missing. The phonemes {{transl|sem|ḏ, ṯ, ḫ, ġ}} disappeared in Canaanite, merging with {{transl|sem|z, š, ḥ, ʿ}} in Canaanite scripts, respectively. The six variant letters added in the [[Arabic alphabet]] include these (except for {{transl|sem|ś}}, which survives as a separate phoneme in [[Ge'ez alphabet|Ge'ez]] [[Śawt|ሠ]]):
* {{transl|sem|ḏ}} → [[ḏāl]]
* {{transl|sem|ṯ}} → [[ṯāʾ]]
* {{transl|sem|ṱ}} → [[ẓāʾ]]
* {{transl|sem|ġ}} → [[ġayn]]
* {{transl|sem|ṣ́}} → [[ẓāʾ|ḍād]]
* {{transl|sem|ḫ}} → [[ḫāʾ]]

== Graphically independent alphabets ==
One modern national alphabet that has not been graphically traced back to the Canaanite alphabet is the [[Thaana|Maldivian]] script, which is unique in that, although it is clearly modeled after [[Arabic]] and perhaps other existing alphabets, it derives its letter forms from numerals. Another is the Korean [[Hangul]], which was created independently in 1443. The [[Osmanya alphabet]] was devised for [[Somali language|Somali]] in the 1920s by [[Osman Yusuf Kenadid]], and the forms of its consonants appear to be complete innovations.

Among alphabets that are not used as national scripts today, a few are clearly independent in their letter forms. The [[bopomofo]] phonetic alphabet is graphically derived from [[Chinese character]]s. The [[Santali alphabet]] of eastern India appears to be based on traditional symbols such as "danger" and "meeting place", as well as pictographs invented by its creator. (The names of the Santali letters are related to the sound they represent through the acrophonic principle, as in the original alphabet, but it is the ''final'' consonant or vowel of the name that the letter represents: ''le'' "swelling" represents ''e'', while ''en'' 'thresh grain' represents ''n''.)

In early medieval Ireland, [[Ogham]] consisted of tally marks, and the monumental inscriptions of the [[Old Persian]] Empire were written in an essentially alphabetic cuneiform script whose letter forms seem to have been created for the occasion.

== Alphabets in other media ==
Changes to a new writing medium sometimes caused a break in graphical form, or make the relationship difficult to trace. It is not immediately obvious that the cuneiform [[Ugaritic alphabet]] derives from a prototypical Semitic abjad, for example, although this appears to be the case. And while [[manual alphabet]]s are a direct continuation of the local written alphabet (both the [[Two-handed manual alphabet|British two-handed]] and the [[French Sign Language|French]]/[[American Sign Language alphabet|American one-handed]] alphabets retain the forms of the Latin alphabet, as the [[Indian Sign Language|Indian manual alphabet]] does [[Devanagari]], and the [[Korean manual alphabet|Korean]] does Hangul), [[Braille]], [[Flag semaphore|semaphore]], [[International maritime signal flags|maritime signal flags]], and the [[Morse code]]s are essentially arbitrary geometric forms. The shapes of the English Braille and semaphore letters are not derived from the graphic forms of the letters themselves. Most modern forms of [[shorthand]] are also unrelated to the alphabet, generally transcribing sounds instead of letters.

== See also ==
* [[History of writing]]
* [[History of the Arabic alphabet]]
* [[History of the Latin script]]
* [[History of the Hebrew alphabet]]
* [[History of the Greek alphabet]]
* [[History of the Armenian alphabet]]
* [[Runes]]
* [[List of creators of writing systems]]
* [[List of languages by first written accounts]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist|2}}

=== Works cited ===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=yes}}
* {{Cite book |last=Albright |first=W. F. |url=https://archive.org/details/AlbrightTheProtoSinaiticInscriptionsAndTheirDecipherment1969 |title=The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and Their Decipherment |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1966 |isbn=978-0-89130-221-6 |authorlink=William F. Albright}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Colless |first=Brian Edric |year=2010 |title=Proto-alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi Arabah |journal=Antiguo Oriente |volume=8 |pages=75–96 |s2cid=59462334}}
* {{Cite book |last=Coulmas |first=Florian |title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Writing Systems |publisher=Blackwell |year=1996 |isbn=0-631-21481-X |location=Oxford}}
* {{Cite book |title=The world's writing systems |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-19-507993-7 |editor-last=Daniels |editor-first=Peter T. |editor-link=Peter T. Daniels |location=New York |editor-last2=Bright |editor-first2=William}}
* {{Cite book |last=Haarmann |first=Harald |title=Geschichte der Schrift |publisher=C. H. Beck |year=2004 |isbn=3-406-47998-7 |edition=2nd |location=Munich |language=de |trans-title=History of Writing}}
* {{Cite book |orig-date=1990|title=Reading the past: ancient writing from cuneiform to the alphabet |year=1998 |publisher=British Museum Press |isbn=978-0-7141-8077-9 |editor-last=Hooker |editor-first=J. T. |location=London}}
* {{Cite journal |last=McCarter |first=P. Kyle |year=1974 |title=The Early Diffusion of the Alphabet |journal=The Biblical Archaeologist |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=54–68 [62] |doi=10.2307/3210965 |jstor=3210965 |s2cid=126182369}}
* {{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Andrew |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/145735363 |title=The story of writing |year=2007 |orig-date=1995|publisher=Thames & Hudson |isbn=978-0-500-28660-9 |edition=2nd |location=London |oclc=145735363}}

{{Refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{Refbegin}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Colless |first=Brian E. |year=2014 |title=The Origin of the Alphabet |journal=Antiguo Oriente |volume=12 |pages=71–104}}
* {{Cite book |title=A history of the alphabet |publisher=Unwin |year=1977 |isbn=978-0-905418-12-4 |editor-last=Diringer |editor-first=David |editor-link=David Diringer |location=London}}
* {{Cite book |last=Fischer |first=Steven Roger |title=A history of writing |publisher=Reaktion Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-78914-349-2 |edition=New |location=London |orig-date=2005}}
* {{Cite book |last=Hoffman |first=Joel M. |title=In the beginning: a short history of the Hebrew language |publisher=New York University Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-814-73654-8}}
* {{Cite book |last=Logan |first=Robert K. |title=The alphabet effect: a media ecology understanding of the making of Western civilization |publisher=Hampton Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-1-57273-522-4 |location=Cresskill, NJ |orig-date=1986}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Millard |first=A. R. |year=1986 |title=The Infancy of the Alphabet |journal=World Archaeology |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=390–398 |doi=10.1080/00438243.1986.9979978 |jstor=124703}}
* {{Cite book |last=Naveh |first=Joseph |title=Early history of the alphabet: an introduction to west Semitic epigraphy and palaeography |publisher=Magnes Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-965-223-436-0 |edition=Reprint |location=Jerusalem |orig-date=1982}}
* {{Cite book |last=Powell |first=Barry B. |title=Homer and the origin of the Greek alphabet |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-521-37157-5}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Ullman |first=B. L. |year=1927 |title=The Origin and Development of the Alphabet |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=31 |issue=0 of 3 |pages=311–328 |issn=0002-9114 |jstor=497822}}
{{Refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A216073 The Greek alphabet] on [[h2g2]]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2451890 The Development of the Western Alphabet] on [[h2g2]]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/inourtime/inourtime_20031218.shtml "The Alphabet&nbsp;– its creation and development"] on [[BBC Radio 4]]'s [[In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)|''In Our Time'']] featuring Eleanor Robson, Alan Millard, Rosalind Thomas
* [https://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Home&lang=en Mnamon]
* [https://armstronginstitute.org/396-the-origins-of-the-alphabet The Origins of the Alphabet] on [https://armstronginstitute.org/ Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology]

{{Writing systems}}
{{Northwest Semitic abjad}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Alphabet}}
[[Category:Alphabets|*]]
[[Category:History of writing|Alphabetic]]
[[Category:History by topic]]