The origins of ABC - where does our alphabet come from ?

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ARTICLE - The Origin of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from?

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We see it every day on signs, billboards, packaging, in books and magazines; in fact, you are looking at it now — the Latin or Roman alphabet, the world’s most prolific, most widespread abc.

Typography is a relatively recent invention, but to unearth the origins of alphabets, we will need to travel much farther back in time, to an era contemporaneous with the emergence of (agricultural) civilisation itself.

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ARTICLE - The Origins of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from ?

Robert Bringhurst wrote that writing is the solid form of language, the precipitate.[1] But writing is also much more than that, and its origins, its evolution, and the way it is now woven into the fabric of civilisations makes it a truly wonderful story. That story spans some 5,000 years. We’ll travel vast distances, meet an emperor, a clever Yorkshireman, a Phoenician princess by the name of Jezebel, and the ‘purple people’; we’ll march across deserts and fertile plains, and sail across oceans. We will begin where civilisation began, meander through the Middle Ages, race through the Renaissance, and in doing so discover where our alphabet originated, how and why it evolved, and why, for example, an A looks, well, like an A.

the origins

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SUMER The Sumerians began to experiment Cuneiform with writing at the close of the fourth >>> millennium BC, in Mesopotamia between

1.2 Proto-Cuneiform. Subject: beer rations.

a thing or an idea. We use 26 letters (and the Romans used only 23 to create some of the most outstanding literature the

the rivers Tigris and Euphrates (roughly

world has ever known) while the Chinese,

modern-day Iraq). Like most writing

for example, have to learn thousands of

systems, Cuneiform, initially scratched

characters to express themselves. Even

— later impressed by a stylus — into soft

early cuneiform comprised some 1,500

clay, started out as a series of pictograms

pictograms. A language in which a picture

— pictures representing words. The word

or grapheme represents a thing or an idea

for bird, for example, existed at first as a

has its advantages: people may speak any

simple pictorial representation of a bird.

language while the written form stays the

The figure below demonstrates this process

same. So a Chinese from the Southern

of abstraction or rationalization. In time,

provinces can speak a totally different dialect

the pictures of things came to represent,

than his compatriot in Beijing, who would

not only things but, sounds. It is clear

not understand him when he speaks, but can

that a written language with signs that

read what he writes.

represent sounds requires fewer characters

Figure 1.2 is an example of Proto-

than a language in which a sign stands for

Cuneiform, one of the earliest examples of writing know to us. It’s a form of Cuneiform that exists between the earliest purely pictographic forms and the later

Where does our alphabet come from?

more abstract forms. Moreover, as there was no fixed or standard writing direction, the signs were often rotated to conform to the direction of writing employed — a bird is still a bird through 360 degrees of rotation.

While the Sumerian language ceased to be

s of

spoken after about 2000 BC, the influence of its written form (Cuneiform) is still felt today. The Sumerian language was mostly replaced by the language of their Akkadian conquerors who did, however, adopt the Cuneiform signs of the Sumerians. This form of writing was used until the 5th century AD. Figure 1.3, shows the Cyrus Cylinder, recounts the fall of Babylon in 539 BC (Daniel 5 in the Old Testament) to the Persians led by king Cyrus.

1.1 The pictographic origin of Cuneiform.

1.3 Cyrus Cylinder (Akkadian cuneiform), 6th century BC. On display: Room 55, British Museum. © Trustees of the British Museum ARTICLE - The Origin of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from?

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I Love Typography The Egyptians developed a similar system of pictograms, one many of us are familiar with. Hieroglyphic inscriptions (literally

EGYPT The writing of the gods <<<

sacred carving), like Cuneiform started out

THE FIRST ALPHABETS Wadi el-Hol

as pictograms, but later those same pictures were also used to represent speech sounds. hieroglyphs we can better understand how

> > >

Looking at the different forms of Egyptian

Until the discovery of two inscriptions

those pictures of things representing words (graffiti) in Wadi el-Hol, Egypt, in 1999, it became more and more abstract. While you was generally held that the beginnings of

2.1 Egyptian hieroglyphs.

might be familiar with the form of Egyptian alphabetic scripts could be traced to around 1600 to 1500 BC, to the Phoenicians, a hieroglyphs carved into stone (lapidary inscriptions), they do, however, come in

people of traders who lived on the coast

several forms or styles — all influenced by

of today’s Lebanon and Israel. However,

the medium upon which they are written,

the 1999 discovery reveals that, rather than

the purpose for which they are written, and

the early Semitic alphabet being developed

their intended audience.

in their homeland of Syria-Palestine, it was

The Egyptian pictographs evolved into

instead developed by the Semitic-speaking

a cursive style called hieratic that was

people then living in Egypt. This strengthens

freer, written more rapidly and contained

the hypothesis there must have been ties

numerous ligatures.

between Egyptian scripts and their influence

A yet later form is demotic, which

on those early Semitic or proto-Sinaitic

represents the most abstract form of

alphabets. Moreover, it pushes back the

Egyptian hieroglyphs. Although written

origin of the alphabet to between 1900 and

mostly in ink on papyrus, the most famous

1800 BC.

example is to be found on the granite

2.2 Hieratic script, 12th Dynasty.

2.3 Demotic script, 3rd century BC.

In the photograph of Inscription 1

Rosetta Stone. The Rosetta Stone (196 BC), from Wadi el-Hol, the sign highlighted in red (hover over to see) is of an Ox head found by scholars who had travelled to Egypt with Napoleon in 1799, is important

(ʼaleph) — the origins of the Latin A, and

because it was the key to deciphering ancient a letter with a long history — early Sumerian cuneiform also uses the Ox as a sign.

Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is written in two languages, and three scripts: two forms of

By about 1600 BC in the region between

Egyptian (hieroglyphic & demotic), with a

the two dominant writing systems of the

Greek translation.

time, Cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs,

The story of the alphabet continues in

3.1 Inscription 1 from Wadi el-Hol. Written right to left.

we see the emergence of other more

Egypt during the second millennium BC, but systematised alphabets like ugaritic script (14th century BC) that developed in what is the Egyptians are not its authors. today Syria. The ugaritic script employs 30 simplified cuneiform signs. And thus begins the story of the alphabet.

3.2 Abecedary from Ugarit.

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ARTICLE - The Origins of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from ?

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PROTO At the same time as the short-lived ugaritic SINAITIC script was being developed (an alphabet >>> adapted from Cuneiform), another alphabetic system emerged that was influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs. This proto-Sinaitic alphabet of consonants was

‘Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth beneath…’

pictographic, yet each pictograph represents a sound rather than a thing or idea. It is this

This prohibition on the image forced the

proto-Sinaitic alphabet that really marks

Semites, who still wrote their language in a

the starting point, the root of numerous

pictographic writing, to rid themselves of

modern-day alphabets, from Arabic and

images.

Hebrew to Greek and Latin.

Note the difference between the signs

I’m not convinced. Both Sumerian Cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs

of Inscription 1 from Wadi el-Hol (figure

evolved from pictographs into more

3.1), and those of the proto-Sinaitic script

abstract signs. Both civilisations remained

(figure 4.1). The latter are just a little more

polytheistic throughout those transitions.

abstract. Note especially A (aleph), which

Therefore, Monotheism and the prohibition

has a simplified ductus (fewer strokes). Note

on graven images cannot, I think, be

too the simplified stick figure, representing

responsible for the evolution of the proto-

a person at prayer. Cut off the torso and the

Sinaitic pictographic alphabet into proto-

head, rotate what’s left, and you will see in it

Hebraic and proto-Phoenician (or proto-

the origins of the Latin E:

Canaanite). Perhaps, in fact, the reverse is true: that the use of abstract letters may have induced the idea of an abstract God who forbade graven images — but permitted

4.2 The evolution of E (see also figure 4.1).

their representation as abstract signs.

But how and why did this alphabet of pictographs evolve into a series of abstract symbols? Mark-Alain Ouaknin, in Mysteries of the Alphabet suggests that the answer is to be found in the transition from polytheism to monotheism: The second of the Ten Commandments states:

4.1 Proto Sinaitic script, c. 1500 BC.

ARTICLE - The Origin of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from?

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6.1 Phoenician inscription, late 11th century BC.

THE PHOENICIANS While the invention of writing itself could The Purple People never have progressed without a highly >>> structured and even authoritarian state to back it up, the coming of the modern alpha-

To this day, not all alphabets have letters to represent vowels. Hebrew and Arabic are the best known examples.

This simple and ingenious modern

bet is a completely different story. Written in

alphabet of consonants from which the last

Cuneiform we have the wonderful adven-

vestiges of pictograms had been erased,

tures of Gilgamesh and his companion Enk- is indeed a merchant’s instrument: easy to idu, but most of the clay-tablets from the

learn, to write and to adapt. And adapted it

agricultural city-states are more mundane:

was by cultures that we are generally much

lists, taxation, and commercial transactions.

more familiar with: the Greek and Roman

The Phoenician alphabet was probably

societies that form the base of modern

developed for quick and easy to read notes

Western civilisation and the lesser-known

that a merchant would make on his trips

Tuscans.

along the ports of the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians are now best-known for their terrible god Baal, to whom children were sacrificed in an enormous cast iron stove.

But this story is a 19th century invention, as is the sensual image of the Phoenicians in Flaubert’s Salammbô. The Phoenicians were traders who created a loose empire of citystates along the coasts they visited: Africa, Spain and Sicily. Carthage is probably the best known of these Phoenician colonies.

They owed their initial rise to a simple snail that can still be found on the coast of Lebanon and that, left rotting in the sun, could be used to make purple dye — thus the Greekcoined Phoenician or purple people, from phoiniki, meaning purple or crimson.

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ARTICLE - The Origins of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from ?

First, Moloch, horrid King besmeared with blood/Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears;/ Though for the noise of drums and timbrels loud/Their children’s cries unheard that passed through fire/To his grim idol.

— from Milton’s Paradise Lost.

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6.2 Phoenician alphabet

7.1 Greek Papyrus of Artemisia, 3rd century BC.

GREEK Although the earliest extant Greek Enter the vowel inscriptions date back to the 8th century >>> BC â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the first Olympic games were held

In Greek scripts we witness the jettisoning of pictographic forms in favour of abstract, linear forms. Based on

in 776 BC â&#x20AC;&#x201D; many scholars think that the

comparisons of late Phoenician alphabets

Greeks adopted the West Semitic Script

and archaic Greek scripts (and Greek

(the Phoenician consonant alphabet) three

tradition; e.g. Herodotus) it appears that

centuries earlier. (note: Naveh, Millard,

the Greeks simply adopted most of the

McCarter, and Cross concur. See Naveh,

Phoenician signs but added the vowels that

pp. 185-6). For a long time (at least until

the Phoenicians had left out.

the widespread adoption of Ionian script in the fourth century BC), the Greek scripts followed no fixed direction, being written left to right, right to left, and in horizontal boustrophedon. (Braille is set boustrophedonically.)

7.2 Greek inscription from Thera, 8th century BC.

ARTICLE - The Origin of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from?

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I Love Typography The Etruscans came to Italy from western Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). From

ETRUSCAN <<<

about 750 BC, the Greeks, as far north as Naples, were settling in Italy. Finley writes about their passionate addiction to everything Greek — except for the Greek’s gloomy take on the afterlife and its dreadful

LATIN The Latin alphabet that we still use today Musical chairs & was created by the Etruscans and the the tale of Z Romans from the Greek. It had only 23 >>>

letters: the J, U and W were missing. The J

underworld. They were among the first

was represented by the I, the U was written

imitators of Greek vases which they often

as V and there was no need for a W. The

decorated with phoney Greek inscriptions.

story of the Z is particularly interesting.

Not only did the Etruscans adopt much

The new letter G (based on C) was

of the art and religious rites of the Greeks,

added; Z was borrowed from the Greek,

but, most importantly for our story, they

then dropped as Latin had no need for it. G

adopted the Greek alphabet. Rome may not

took its place in the line-up, until a little later

have been an Etruscan town but the Roman

when the Romans decided they needed the

kings were Etruscans. After the disastrous

Z (when Greek literature became the vogue

attack on the oldest Greek colony Cumae

and they started to introduce many Greek

(beautifully situated on a high hill on the

words), they re-introduced it, but since its

coast, ten miles north of Naples) in 524

spot had be taken by G, it was sent to the

BC, and Rome’s subsequent expulsion of

back of the alphabet, where it remains to

the Etruscan king, Tarquinius Superbus

this day.

their civilisation slowly waned. Within a few centuries the Roman Republic became the master of Italy and absorbed the Etruscans completely.

However, their alphabet survived and prospered as it spread over the world with the expansion of the world’s mistress, the mighty Roman Empire.

9.1 Detail from Trajan inscription, ca. 114 AD.

8.1 Abecedary from Marsiliana, Etruria, ca. 700 BC. 8

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10.1 Rustic Capitals, ca. 4th century.

RUSTIC CAPITALS From the square Roman capitals (preserved >>> on the plinth of Trajan’s Column (114 AD), developed the freer-form and slightly more condensed Rustic capitals.

UNCIAL & HALF UNCIAL Most writing was of course done on papyrus papyrus, in the fourth century somebody The ‘lowercase’ and on walls, informal and quick. The had the idea to cut parchment into oblong makes its entrance cursive was the letter that Martialis read pieces and sew them together — thus >>> aloud to his friends when he recited his

creating the first random-accessible book.

poems at night. This was a letterform that

Together with the eminently readable script

could be jotted down quickly with a reed pen this must be considered one of the greatest dipped in ink. The ‘old’ cursive is difficult to

inventions of all time.

read but the ‘new’, that evolved from the 4th

In France, Merovingian; Visigothic in

century onwards resembles our own writing.

the Iberian peninsula (figure 11.2); the

It spawned the much later Carolingian

Beneventan (figure 11.3) in Southern Italy

minuscule letter — the Adam & Eve of all

(which shows features of the Half-Uncial,

printing types used today. The second great

and late Roman Cursive; and in England and

invention, the codex, came at the same time.

Ireland, the Insular forms (figure 11.2).

While the Romans used scrolls made of

11.1 Uncial, France, 7th century.

11.2 Left: Insular, England, 8th century. Right: Visigothic, Spain, France, 9th century.

11.3 Beneventan script, ca. 1100.

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CAROLINGIAN TO GOTHIC An Emperor and a Yorkshireman >>>

The anonymous author of Carmen de

of the Insular script; in Spain it replaced

carolo Magno refers to Charlemagne as ‘the

Visigothic.

venerable head of Europe’ and ‘the father

That the open forms of the Carolingian

of Europe.’ Though that’s something of

script were replaced, from the 12th century,

an exaggeration, Charlemagne’s influence

by the darker, more condensed, angular,

was substantial and long-lasting, and he

ligature-ridden, closed forms of the Gothic

succeeded in uniting most of Western

scripts is, as Delorez writes, one of the

Europe for the first time since the Roman

mysteries of history.

Empire. A man obsessed with bringing order to his expanding kingdom, he sought reform in just about every sphere. For our story his most important reform concerns his efforts to reform writing. Though efforts were already under way, he gave the job to a Yorkshireman, Alcuin of York. Alcuin strove for clarity and uniformity. These efforts, with the backing of Charlemagne and the Church, brought about the Carolingian

The causes of the transformation of Carolingian script into Pregothic, or the ‘Gothicizing’ of Carolingian script, have been debated for a long time and the discussion has virtually come to an end without any one explanation gaining general acceptance. — Derolez, p.68

minuscule (or Carolingian script).

A beautiful, legible book hand; long

Perhaps a partial explanation is to be

ascenders and descenders, letting in light

found in the new Gothic aesthetic that was

between the lines, open and round letters

sweeping Europe.

with few ligatures and variant letterforms.

Of course it was the Gothic script in the

The early Carolingian scripts share some

form of the formal book hand, Textualis

features with the Roman Half-Uncial (the

(more precisely, Textualis Formata) that

club shape ‘head serifs’ on the ascenders of

would later become the model for the

b, d, h, and l, by the 11th century these were

typeface used to set Gutenberg’s 42-line

replaced by triangular serifs, similar to those

Bible (ca. 1455).

we see in numerous roman typefaces of the

From the beginning of the 12th century

incunabula (latter half of the 15th century).

the tironian ‘et’ (still used in Irish to this

The early, rounder a was dropped in favour

day) began to replace the et ligature, or

of one similar to that found in early Roman

ampersand. It wouldn’t make a come back

Uncials. In manuscripts penned in this

until the later Humanist scripts, models for

hand, it is not uncommon to see the r with a

the first roman typefaces.

descender.

With Charlemagne and the Church behind it, the Carolingian script quickly spread across Europe, deposing a multitude of regional scripts on its way. By the second half of the tenth century, Carolingian script had reached England, replacing late forms 12.1 Left: Late Carolingian script, between 1033 & 1053. Centre: Pregothic script, midtwelfth century. Right: Gothic script (Textualis Formata), between 1304 & 1321.

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12.2 Left: Tironian et in this detail from a 14th century manuscript, written in Textualis Formata. The first example in the first line: Arbres et fleurs et ce que orne. Right: Detail from Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible, ca. 1455. Note the tironian et on the last line.

Printing and 15th century humanism We stand in the 17th century, some 5,000 ROMAN Enter typography are closely related, and since the humanist years after the Sumerians set stylus to clay. >>> philosophers and philologists (literally ‘lovers We now have a dual alphabet of 26 letters, of words’, meaning they loved classical

uppercase and lowercase forms. There is

Latin) reintroduced classical Latin as the

hardly a straight line to be seen in the history

lingua franca of their class, it is no wonder

of the alphabet. No Darwinian progress

that the first roman alphabets of the earliest

there, no survival of the fittest. Many of

printers only used the 23 letters of the

the aforementioned scripts developed side-

classical era. The J was added later. The first

by-side, some disappeared and reappeared,

J in print was probably made in Italy, early in

some can be shown to be the product of the

the 16th century; the written form was first

mind of one man like Alcuin of York. And

used in the Middle Ages, in France and the

we do not know what would have happened

Netherlands. The W is a letter not known to

if Hannibal had marched straight to Rome

the Latins but used often in the vernacular

after winning the battle of Cannae instead

languages of the west. Well into the 17th

of loitering.

century it was set in type as VV, but you will also find two Vs that have been cut down and joined to form a W.

13.1 Left: Early roman of Sweynheim & Pannartz, Rome, 1469. Right: Jenson, Venice, 1472.

ARTICLE - The Origin of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from?

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PUTTING THE Writing and alphabets evolve for a number PIECES TOGETHER of reasons. We can explain the transition >>> from pictograms to the linear, more abstract forms in terms of rationalization.

quill, broad nib pen â&#x20AC;&#x201D; they all affect the form the alphabet takes. The speed of the hand is another factor. As an interesting exercise, write the capital alphabet,

Moreover, regional and national variations develop, their success, in part at least,

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

owed to political and geo-political factors:

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ARTICLE - The Origins of ABC - Where does our alphabet come from ?

A victorious invader brings its culture,

slowly and deliberately â&#x20AC;&#x201D; in your best

including its language, both spoken and

hand. Now write it again at twice the speed.

written. Context is also an important factor:

Finally, write it as quickly as you possibly

text cut in stone contemplating the deeds

can. The rapid hand introduces a reduced

of emperors is something different than an

ductus (fewer strokes), and fewer pen-

advertisement for a brothel scratched on a

lifts, with those neat capital letters of the

wall in Pompeii. The substrate, or writing

first round turning into something freer,

material (whether clay, stone, wax tablets,

more cursive. You can then further evolve

wood, metal, papyrus, parchment, or vellum;

your letterforms by using the most rapidly

and the writing implement, a reed, chisel,

written alphabet, and begin to rationalise

I Love Typography it, adjusting the proportions, altering the

and by innumerable other factors. So, the

REFERENCES

shading (contrast), and the result is an

next time you set pen to paper, or tap keys

Early History of the Alphabet. An introduction to West Semitic Epigraphy and Palaeography — Joseph Naveh

entirely a new hand.

on your keyboard, take a moment to reflect

I have focused on writing systems that

on the origins of these simple signs, signs

contributed to the later development of

that furnish us with incredible power — the

the Latin alphabet, but of course the story

power to describe all things.

of the written word is broader and more profound. I have not mentioned writing systems that developed independently (e.g.

Chinese and Japanese), and other scripts that do owe a debt to the proto-Sinaitic and Phoenician alphabets, like Hebrew and Arabic. The evolution of writing cannot be fully appreciated (comprehended, even) in isolation. Its stories are woven deep into the fabric of histories and civilisations, its paths steered by politics, religion, economics,

Handbook of Greek and Latin Paleography — Edward Maunde Thompson The Solid Form of Language — Robert Bringhurst The Book through 5000 years — H.D.L. Vervliet A View of Early Typography up to About 1600 — Harry Carter The History & Power of Writing — Henri-Jean Martin The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books — Albert Derolez The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe — Elizabeth L. Eisenstein A Short History of the Printed Word — Chappell & Bringhurst Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing — Marc-Alain Ouaknin The Illuminated Manuscript — Janet Backhouse Medieval Calligraphy: Its History and Technique — Marc Drogin From Gutenberg to OpenType — Robin Dodd Aspects of Antiquity — M.I. Finley The Romans — R.H. Barrow The Birth of Europe — Jacques Le Goff Shapes for Sounds — Timothy Donaldson

CREDITS: Collage illustration by Able Parris; Desktop wallpaper versions of Able’s Ox illustration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Dr. Paul Dijstelberge for his innumerable corrections, suggestions, enthusiasm, good humour, and learning.

14.1. A brief history of A.

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