Did you know you can find the letters of the alphabet all around you? Have fun exploring the Alphabet in Nature photo gallery to see letters that appear in nature, architecture and elsewhere!.So grab some colored paper and scissors, and get folding! The Origami Club online offers step-by-step instructions - in both diagram and animated form - for creating all 26 letters of the alphabet. Now that you know where the alphabet comes from, it's time to make one of your own! Using simple origami, the traditional Japanese folk art of paper folding, you can fold your way to your own copy of the alphabet.This is the system on which the English alphabet is based.Īre you ready to learn even more about alphabets? Make sure you ask a friend or family member to help you explore the following activities: The Latin alphabet (also called the "Roman alphabet") is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. Often, new alphabets are created by modifying the alphabet of another language. Many different alphabets have been used around the world throughout history. By combining these letters, it's possible to represent an unlimited number of words. Each letter of the alphabet represents one sound in our language. This is the foundation of our modern alphabet. This set was developed by Semitic-speaking people in the Middle East around 1700 B.C., and was refined and spread to other civilizations by the Phoenicians. Historians point to the Proto-Sinaitic script as the first alphabetic writing system, which consisted of 22 symbols adapted from Egyptian hieroglyphics. Imagine trying to remember a unique symbol for each breed of dog, flower, or tree!Īs 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. Memorizing thousands of unique hieroglyphic symbols was a difficult task, so only the most highly educated priests and scholars were experts. Thousands of characters and symbols were used to represent the words, needs, and lives of early civilizations. Hieroglyphics were single symbols that stood for entire words. One of the earliest forms of the alphabet was hieroglyphics. In fact, some of the oldest alphabetic symbols have been found in Central America (2,500 years ago), China (more than 3,000 years ago), and the Middle East (more than 5,000 years ago). In order to understand modern alphabets, we must take a trip back through time.Īrchaeologists have discovered cave paintings thousands of years old that document the first forms of alphabets. No single person or culture invented the alphabet - it has evolved over centuries.
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