The History of 26 Letters
MD ERSHAD ALAM
BA (Hon’s), MA in English, BEd
Asst. Teacher, English
Lecturer in English (Part time)
Letter A
The
original shape of the letter A was upside down. It was introduced in the 1800s.
Being inverted, it looked like the head of an animal with horns or antlers. It
was fitting because, in ancient Semitic, the letter translates to ‘ox.’
Letter
B
In
its original form, the letter B was borrowed from the Egyptian hieroglyphics
and with the letter resting on its belly. In its original shape, it looked like
a house with a door, a roof and a room. The symbol represented ‘shelter’ about
4,000 years ago.
Letter
C
The
letter came from the Phoenicians. It was shaped like a boomerang or hunter’s
stick. The Greeks called it ‘gamma’, and from being written facing the other
direction, it was flipped to the direction it is written today, with the
Italians giving it a better crescent shape.
Letter
D
‘Dalet’
was the name given to the letter D by the Phoenicians in 800 BC. It originally
looked like a rough triangle that faced left. The original meaning of the
letter is ‘door.’ When the Greeks adopted the alphabet, they gave it the name
‘delta.’ It was later flipped, and the Romans gave the right side of the letter
a semicircle shape.
Letter E
About
3,800 years ago, the letter ‘E’ was pronounced as an ‘H’ in the Semitic
language. It looked like a stick figure of a human with two arms and one leg.
In 700 BC, the Geeks flipped it, and they changed the pronunciation into an
‘ee’ sound.
Letter F
The
letter ‘F’ was from the Phoenicians and it looked more like a ‘Y.’ When it was
pronounced at that time, the sound made was close to ‘waw.’ The ancient Greeks
renamed it ‘digamma’ and tipped it to resemble the present-day F. The Romans
made it look better by giving it a more geometric shape and changed the sound
to ‘fff.’
Letter
G
The
letter ‘G’ came from ‘zeta’ of the Greeks. At first, it looked like an ‘I’, but
the pronunciation made a ‘zzz’ sound. The Romans changed its shape around 250
BC, giving it top and lower arms and a ‘g’ sound. Latin did not have a ‘z’
sound. In the course of its development, the straight lines became curved,
ending with its present crescent shape.
https://grammartherapy.blogspot.com/
Letter
H
The
letter ‘H’ came from the Egyptians and used as a symbol for fence. It made a
breathy sound when pronounced so early academicians thought that it was not
necessary and the British and Latin scholars eventually dropped the letter H
from the English alphabet by around 500 AD.
Letter
I
The
letter ‘I’ was called ‘yod’ in 1000 BC. It meant hand and arm. The Greeks
called it ‘iota’ and made it vertical. In its evolution, it turned into a
straight line around 700 BC.
Letter
J
The
letter ‘I’ also used to stand for the ‘J’ sound in ancient times. It got its
shape letter in the 15th century as a contribution of the Spanish language. It
was only about 1640 when the letter regularly appeared in print.
Letter
K
The
letter ‘K’ is an old letter, as it came from the Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the
Semitic language, it was given the name ‘kaph’ which translated into ‘palm of
the hand.’ In those times, the letter faced the other way. When the Greeks
adopted it in 800 BC, it became ‘kappa’ and flipped to the right.
https://grammartherapy.blogspot.com/
Letter
L
In
ancient Semitic, the present-day letter ‘L’ was upside down. Thus it looked
like a hooked letter. It was already called ‘El,’ which meant ‘God.’ The
Phoenicians were responsible for giving it a reversed look, with the hook
facing left. They straightened the hook a bit, and they changed the name to
‘lamed’ (pronounced lah-med), a cattle prod. The Greeks called it ‘lambda’ and
turned it around to face right. The final look of the letter ‘L’ with the
straight foot at a right angle was courtesy of the Romans.
Letter
M
The
origin of the letter ‘M’ was the wavy vertical lines with five peaks to
symbolize water according to the Egyptians. In 1800 BC the Semites reduced the
lines to three waves, and the Phoenicians removed one more wave. In 800 BC, the
peaks were turned into zigzags and flipped horizontally to form the letter M we
know today.
Letter
N
Another
Egyptian symbol was the letter ‘N’ that originally looked like a small ripple
atop a larger ripple that stood for cobra or snake. It was given the ‘n’ sound
by the ancient Semites, which symbolized ‘fish.’ Around 1000 BC, only one
ripple appeared, and the Greeks named it ‘nu.’
Letter
O
The
letter ‘O’ came from the Egyptians as well. It was called ‘eye’ in Egyptian and
‘ayin’ in Semites. The Phoenicians further reduced the hieroglyphics, leaving
only the pupil’s outline.
https://grammartherapy.blogspot.com/
Letter
P
In
the ancient Semitic language, today’s letter ‘P’ looked like an inverted ‘V.’
It was pronounced ‘pe’ that meant ‘mouth.’ The Phoenicians turned its top into
a diagonal hook shape. In 200 BC, the Romans flipped it to the right and closed
the loop to form the ‘P.’
Letter
Q
The
original sound of the letter ‘Q’ was like ‘qoph’ that translated into a ball of
wool or monkey. It was written initially as a circle traversed by a vertical
line. In the Roman inscriptions around 520 BC, the letter appeared as we know
it today.
Letter
R
The
profile of a human facing left was the original shape of the letter ‘R’ as written
by the Semites. It was pronounced ‘resh’ that meant ‘head.’ The Romans turned
it to the right and added an inclined foot.
Letter
S
The
letter ‘S’ used to appear like a horizontal wavy W that was used to represent
the bow of an archer. The angularity of the shape was from the Phoenicians, who
gave it the name ‘shin’ that translated into ‘tooth. The Romans flipped it to a
vertical position and named it ‘sigma’ while the Romans flipped it to the
position the letter has today.
https://grammartherapy.blogspot.com/
Letter
T
The
ancient Semites used the lower case form of the letter ‘T’ we see today. The
Phoenicians called the letter ‘taw’ (mark) that sounded like ‘tee’ when
pronounced. It was called ‘tau’ by the Greeks. They also added the cross at the
top of the letter to distinguish it from the letter ‘X.’
Letter
U
The
letter ‘U’ initially looked like ‘Y’ in 1000 BC. At that time it was called
‘waw’ that meant ‘peg.’ Under the Greeks, it was called ‘upsilon.’
Letter
V
The
Romans used V and U interchangeably. The distinction started to appear around
the 1400s.
Letter
W
The
letter ‘W’ started during the Middle Ages, with the scribes of Charlemagne
writing two ‘u’s’ side by side, separated by a space. At that time the sound
made was similar to ‘v.’ The letter appeared in print as a unique letter ‘W’ in
1700.
Letter
X
The
letter ‘ksi’ of ancient Greeks sounded like ‘X.’ The lowercase form of the
letter ‘X’ were seen at the handwritten manuscripts available during the
medieval times. Late 15th century Italian printers also used lower case ‘X’s.’
Letter
Y
From
starting out as ‘upsilon’ the letter Y was added by the Romans in 100 AD.
Letter
Z
The Phoenicians used to have a letter called ‘zayin.’ It meant an ‘ax.’ Initially, it looked like the letter ‘I’ with serifs at the top and bottom. Around 800 BC, it was adopted as ‘zeta’ by the Greeks and given the sound ‘dz.’ It was not used for several centuries until the arrival of the Norman French and their words that needed the sound of the letter ‘Z.’
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