Thought for today - 29 December

[AlanHo]

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

[Irene]

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

... No.

The English alphabet originated from the Late Latin alphabetum, which originated from the Ancient Greek alphabetos. All the letters of the alphabet were made by the ancient Greeks....

"The roots of ABC order are found in the cuneiform script of Ugaritic, the Semitic language of an ancient city in Syria. The letter shapes of this script aren't obviously related to our alphabet's direct ancestors, but the alphabetic order from a 14th-century BC inscription is virtually identical to later Hebrew and Phoenician letter lists, and the letter names are related."

"A Greek borrowed the 22 Phoenician letters around 800 BC — I say "a Greek" because idiosyncratic errors suggest one absentminded genius botched the job. Among other mistakes, he got several sibilant letters mixed up, and by the time things calmed down S and Z were the wrong shape and S was out of order. The same joker, or one who followed closely, gave exclusively vowel sounds to four letters theretofore primarily consonantal: ancestors of A, E, I, and O. Later Greeks added letters to the end, two of which interest us: chi, ancestral X, which over time acquired our modern "ks" sound; and upsilon, ancestral U, which was probably a vowel variant of the semivowel wau, since dropped from the Greek alphabet but ancestral to F."

"The Etruscans borrowed the Greek alphabet about 700 BC. They retained the letter order but dispensed with the Semitic-derived letter names, which is why we say "ay, bee," not "alpha, beta." (British zed, from zeta, is a holdout.)"

"Latin borrowed the Etruscan alphabet about 600 BC. The Etruscans had no G sound and thus no corresponding letter, so eventually Latin G evolved from C — fittingly, because Etruscan C (pronounced "k") had come from the Greek gamma (pronounced "g" as in, well, gamma). Rather than sitting next to its sib, G took slot seven, replacing underutilized Z. Centuries later Z came back to transliterate Greek zeta and Y was introduced to represent upsilon. As newbies, Y and Z had to sit in the back."

"The modern English alphabet is the 23-letter Latin assortment with three additions hastened by the invention of movable type. W starts showing up in English letter lists in the 16th century, replacing the previous literal double U (or V) that denoted our current W sound. Naturally it was placed next to the then-undifferentiated U/V. The I/J and U/V cleavages came later — though the different shapes had existed for centuries, they weren't considered distinct letters in English until around 1700." :D

[doug]

[AlanHo]

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

... No.

The English alphabet originated from the Late Latin alphabetum, which originated from the Ancient Greek alphabetos. All the letters of the alphabet were made by the ancient Greeks....

"The roots of ABC order are found in the cuneiform script of Ugaritic, the Semitic language of an ancient city in Syria. The letter shapes of this script aren't obviously related to our alphabet's direct ancestors, but the alphabetic order from a 14th-century BC inscription is virtually identical to later Hebrew and Phoenician letter lists, and the letter names are related."

"A Greek borrowed the 22 Phoenician letters around 800 BC — I say "a Greek" because idiosyncratic errors suggest one absentminded genius botched the job. Among other mistakes, he got several sibilant letters mixed up, and by the time things calmed down S and Z were the wrong shape and S was out of order. The same joker, or one who followed closely, gave exclusively vowel sounds to four letters theretofore primarily consonantal: ancestors of A, E, I, and O. Later Greeks added letters to the end, two of which interest us: chi, ancestral X, which over time acquired our modern "ks" sound; and upsilon, ancestral U, which was probably a vowel variant of the semivowel wau, since dropped from the Greek alphabet but ancestral to F."

"The Etruscans borrowed the Greek alphabet about 700 BC. They retained the letter order but dispensed with the Semitic-derived letter names, which is why we say "ay, bee," not "alpha, beta." (British zed, from zeta, is a holdout.)"

"Latin borrowed the Etruscan alphabet about 600 BC. The Etruscans had no G sound and thus no corresponding letter, so eventually Latin G evolved from C — fittingly, because Etruscan C (pronounced "k") had come from the Greek gamma (pronounced "g" as in, well, gamma). Rather than sitting next to its sib, G took slot seven, replacing underutilized Z. Centuries later Z came back to transliterate Greek zeta and Y was introduced to represent upsilon. As newbies, Y and Z had to sit in the back."

"The modern English alphabet is the 23-letter Latin assortment with three additions hastened by the invention of movable type. W starts showing up in English letter lists in the 16th century, replacing the previous literal double U (or V) that denoted our current W sound. Naturally it was placed next to the then-undifferentiated U/V. The I/J and U/V cleavages came later — though the different shapes had existed for centuries, they weren't considered distinct letters in English until around 1700." :D

WOW....that's impressive....................... :lol: :lol: :lol:

[catgate]

.......The I/J and U/V cleavages came later — though the different shapes had existed for centuries, they weren't considered distinct....... :D

That too is impressive.

[andsome]

Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?

... No.

The English alphabet originated from the Late Latin alphabetum, which originated from the Ancient Greek alphabetos. All the letters of the alphabet were made by the ancient Greeks....

"The roots of ABC order are found in the cuneiform script of Ugaritic, the Semitic language of an ancient city in Syria. The letter shapes of this script aren't obviously related to our alphabet's direct ancestors, but the alphabetic order from a 14th-century BC inscription is virtually identical to later Hebrew and Phoenician letter lists, and the letter names are related."

"A Greek borrowed the 22 Phoenician letters around 800 BC — I say "a Greek" because idiosyncratic errors suggest one absentminded genius botched the job. Among other mistakes, he got several sibilant letters mixed up, and by the time things calmed down S and Z were the wrong shape and S was out of order. The same joker, or one who followed closely, gave exclusively vowel sounds to four letters theretofore primarily consonantal: ancestors of A, E, I, and O. Later Greeks added letters to the end, two of which interest us: chi, ancestral X, which over time acquired our modern "ks" sound; and upsilon, ancestral U, which was probably a vowel variant of the semivowel wau, since dropped from the Greek alphabet but ancestral to F."

"The Etruscans borrowed the Greek alphabet about 700 BC. They retained the letter order but dispensed with the Semitic-derived letter names, which is why we say "ay, bee," not "alpha, beta." (British zed, from zeta, is a holdout.)"

"Latin borrowed the Etruscan alphabet about 600 BC. The Etruscans had no G sound and thus no corresponding letter, so eventually Latin G evolved from C — fittingly, because Etruscan C (pronounced "k") had come from the Greek gamma (pronounced "g" as in, well, gamma). Rather than sitting next to its sib, G took slot seven, replacing underutilized Z. Centuries later Z came back to transliterate Greek zeta and Y was introduced to represent upsilon. As newbies, Y and Z had to sit in the back."

"The modern English alphabet is the 23-letter Latin assortment with three additions hastened by the invention of movable type. W starts showing up in English letter lists in the 16th century, replacing the previous literal double U (or V) that denoted our current W sound. Naturally it was placed next to the then-undifferentiated U/V. The I/J and U/V cleavages came later — though the different shapes had existed for centuries, they weren't considered distinct letters in English until around 1700." :D

That's shut him up. :lol: :lol:

[Irene]

That's shut him up. :lol: :lol:

:lol: :lol:

Google is a marvelous resource. ;)

[andsome]

How about showing a lot more of the leg? :lol: :lol:

[Irene]

How about showing a lot more of the leg? :lol: :lol:

My Christmas one did the top bit.