1. Origins of the Alphabet

H>

1. The pictograph is a symbol representing an object. On the left is an early symbol that represents and ox; on the right is the symbol for house.

Pictographs

  • used in development of cuneiform, a written language of the ancient Sumerians, and hieroglyphics, a pictographic written language of the ancient Egyptians.

2. The ideograph is a symbol that represents an idea. The skull and crossbones can represent death, pirates, or poison.

Ideographs

  • used to communicate multiple meanings.
  • Chinese written language is an evolved form of ideographs

3. The first two letters of the Phoenician alphabet. On the left side is the symbol aleph, which was their word for ox; on the right is the symbol beth, which meant house.

Phoenician Alphabet

  • The Phoenicia was a country of seafaring traders located in modern-day Lebanon.
  • needed a form of writing that would facilitate writing ledgers and communicate business transactions
  • used symbols to represent the sounds of speech rather than ideas or objects
  • required fewer symbols, was easy to learn, and could be written rapidly

4. Borrowed from the Phoenicians, the first two letters of the alphabet were modified by the Greeks, who called them alpha and beta.

Greek Alphabet

  • adopted Phoenician alphabet around 800 B.C.
  • also a seafaring trading nation
  • contained no vowels at first, then added five vowels
  • oficially adopted alphabet of all capitals in 403 B.C.

5. The first two letters of the Roman alphabet show further refinement. The Romans dropped the Greek names for the simpler A, B, C's.

Roman Alphabet

  • adopted revised Greek alphabet
    • 13 letters were unchanged: A,B,E,H,I,K,M,N,O,T,X,Y,Z
    • 8 revised: C,D,G,L,P,R,S,V
    • 2 were added: F,Q
  • 23 letter alphabet
  • U and W were added around 1000 A.D.
  • J added around 1500

6. Prior to printing in Europe, letterforms were written in a dense, compressed manner, referred to as Black Letter.

Small Letters: Handwritten

  • designed as a way to compress letters so that more would fit on a line
  • written by hand with pen

7. The Black Letter alphabet formed the basis for Gutenberg's typeset letterforms.

Small Letters: Printed in Northern Europe

  • Gutenberg used Black Letter or Gothic style for his typeface in 1455

8. During the development of printing, a writing style called Humanistic was used in Italy.

Small Letters: Printed in Italy

  • Revival of Carolingian miniscule (lower case letters).
  • basis for modern italic form