Gideon Hallett
Information Is BeautifulEvolution of the Alphabet via https://usefulcharts.com/
Alan is @cogdog 🇨🇦@infobeautiful Interesting, the Proto-Sinatic and Phonecian alphabets had no need for the current 25th letter. Telling.
Mike Torr@infobeautiful It's amazing to me how many of our letters used to be backwards...
Oriel Jutty 
Ray McCarthy@macronencer @infobeautiful
Prior to Greeks writing was right to left, like Hebrew /Aramaic (close to Phoenician) and Arabic. Greek was RtoL till about 750 BC.
I don't know if that accounts for reversal.
Etruscan is between Greek & Roman. Swiss Celtic (500 BC Helvetii) is Etruscan & Greek letters.
Only one Cuneiform was alphabets (Aramaic Lebanon / Syria area).
Lower case is developed from script used by Irish Monks via France. Old Irish had no JKQVWXYZ.
Greek H -> E sound and H replaced by '.
Prior to Greeks writing was right to left, like Hebrew /Aramaic (close to Phoenician) and Arabic. Greek was RtoL till about 750 BC.
I don't know if that accounts for reversal.
Etruscan is between Greek & Roman. Swiss Celtic (500 BC Helvetii) is Etruscan & Greek letters.
Only one Cuneiform was alphabets (Aramaic Lebanon / Syria area).
Lower case is developed from script used by Irish Monks via France. Old Irish had no JKQVWXYZ.
Greek H -> E sound and H replaced by '.
Khleedril@macronencer @infobeautiful They were originally all forwards, the Romans put us backwards (also mathematics).
@khleedril @infobeautiful I know what you mean but the perspective is of course arbitrary :)
@macronencer @infobeautiful It is not perspective, the Romans literally put us all back.
@khleedril @infobeautiful We'll agree to differ. MY perspective is that CURRENT letters are FORWARDS. Surely I'm entitled to that?
@macronencer @infobeautiful I'm not talking about the order of the letters. I mean that they set humanity's intellectual development back. Re-read the post: double entendre!
@khleedril @infobeautiful My apologies. I didn't notice what you were trying to say!
Marianne@infobeautiful *Roman alphabet
Other alphabets are available
Other alphabets are available
i think they asume it is the English alphabet*, cause there are no ç nor ñ's
@Simx72 @infobeautiful yes, English uses the Latin alphabet.
There are lots of letters/diacritics that modify it (besides the ones you note, things like ø, ó, ö, ß, ê, ł etc.), and my point is other alphabets exist - Cyrillic, Greek, so many more.
So it's not The Alphabet, was my point!
There are lots of letters/diacritics that modify it (besides the ones you note, things like ø, ó, ö, ß, ê, ł etc.), and my point is other alphabets exist - Cyrillic, Greek, so many more.
So it's not The Alphabet, was my point!
railmeat@noodlemaz @Simx72 @infobeautiful
The end result of this chart is English. There are, as you say, many other languages and alphabets. Where did they come from?
@railmeat @Simx72 @infobeautiful... Do you think all modern alphabets came from English???
Vivien (dentelle & numérique)@infobeautiful No Ω though?
@gugurumbe @infobeautiful
Greek developed multiple form inc Capitals & lower case. Modern Green alphabet differs from ancient
Ω ω
Σ σ
Α α
Δ δ
Η η
etc.
It's not entirely true that the oldest alphabets had no vowels, but most were not written, bcs thy r nt lwys ndd,
Greek developed multiple form inc Capitals & lower case. Modern Green alphabet differs from ancient
Ω ω
Σ σ
Α α
Δ δ
Η η
etc.
It's not entirely true that the oldest alphabets had no vowels, but most were not written, bcs thy r nt lwys ndd,
arrakeen_urbanite@infobeautiful Good Nova episode about this https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/a-to-z-the-first-alphabet/
DrPeterPractice 🇨🇭 🇨🇦 🇩🇪@infobeautiful Where will it develop from here?
Florian Schmidt@infobeautiful I've seen this picture a thousand times
it still surprises me, its so "wooow"
moooping@infobeautiful Nice! That Z flex by our Roman friends is quite something.
Orb 2069@infobeautiful need to do a line with Palm Graffiti under it.
a stinky ox 🐂@infobeautiful it all started with an ox. 🐂
Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂@infobeautiful obviously this can't show everything. i don't see Þ or ſ
Kevin Russell
Crescendo HimmelweissGreat stuff! Could someone find out how many letters are left in total? I mean, for each of us, since we're so wasteful with them? 🤔
We don't want to hear one day: "Oh, sorry, we've run out of A's and E's, but we still have plenty of X's, Y's, and Z's!" 😆
What then? We'd have to invent a whole new alphabet, wouldn't we? 😜 🤪
Miro Collas@infobeautiful Very nice, but it lacks the derivations from Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Martin Seeger@infobeautiful I have seen that before and the most fascinating thing is that letters/sounds disappeared and have split over time.
That lead to reading about The Great Vowel Shift (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift).
In the end you learn that every language is a living beast that is always changing.
anorax
@infobeautiful
So:
🔸 A strange Y became a F and also became a V who became U, V and W. But Y remained as it is.
🔸 A weird Z became an I and also a J.
🔸 An other weird Z became an I who returned to the state of Z.
Everything is crystal clear.
Stanley Q Woodvine@infobeautiful Five whole English letters from the "Y" letterform - why?!
Derick Rethans@infobeautiful It's been my Mastodon "header" for a long time! Love this chart.