We explain what an alphabet is, its history, signs and its variants according to the languages. Also, the braille alphabet and morse.
What is an alphabet?
An alphabet is the total set of graphic or written characters used to conventionally represent the sounds of the tongue. In other words, it is the total of the sounds of the language, expressed graphically in an organized and sequential way.
In this it is distinguished from other methods of graphic representation of ideas, such as ideograms or hieroglyphs, which do not represent the sounds of the language, but directly the referent or the idea what you think about.
The word alphabet comes from the Greek alphábeton, a term in which the first two Greek letters (alpha Y beta). These, in turn, are derived from the first two letters of the Phoenician alphabet: ‘alp (“ ox ”) and bêt (“ house ”), since the phoenician civilization was the first in the history in creating a complete and organized functional alphabet, around the 13th century BC. C.
From that alphabet come both the Greek and Latin alphabet, as well as the Hebrew and Arabic. Similarly, in Spanish and other languages derived from Latin we usually call the alphabet "abecedario" since it begins with the first four letters: a, b, c and d.
Another historically relevant alphabet was the Semitic, belonging to the Hebrew peoples of the Red Sea, of syllabic type, in which it was represented with signs only the consonants. In addition there were the proto-alphabets of the Canaanites from 3500 BC. C., and certain Egyptian approximations to the representation of its consonants by means of specific hieroglyphics in 2700 a. C.
However, the Greek and Latin alphabets were the ones that defined the western way of representing the language to this day, due to the historical and political importance of its nations.
In alphabets, all the sounds of the language are usually represented visually, but diacritical marks are also usually included, and it is one of the main tools of language teaching for children. At present, each idiom It has its own alphabet, with coincidences and differences with respect to other languages with which it is related.
Other alphabets
In modern times, the development of new methods from communication it gave rise to "artificial" alphabets, that is, they arose by convention and not as the result of a spontaneous historical-linguistic process. Obviously, all alphabets are artificial, that is, they are a technology, but in this case we refer to cases such as:
- The braille alphabet, developed from a matrix of tactile dots, to allow the blind people to read and write. It was an invention of Louis Braille (1809-1852) in the mid-19th century.
- The Morse alphabet, also known as the Morse code or Morse code, represents the letters and numbers of the traditional alphabet through signals or impulses emitted intermittently, either by electricity, light or sound. It was invented by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and Alfred Vail (1807-1859) for the use of the telegraph.