{ INFORMATIVE MATERIAL } 'A' FOR ALPHABETS! (THE STORY OF ALPHABETS)

Alphabets are the noblest and the greatest of

inventions of our civilization,

For transmitting human thoughts and concepts

through visible notations!

In those olden days, those magical symbols and

signs,

Could be written and understood only by a handful

of priests and scribes!

With the invention of printing, literacy gradually

spread, *

When people began to read and write with standard

alphabets!

The 26 English letters with which we read and express

ourselves,

Has a legendary and checkered past, and an unique

story to tell!

FROM PICTOGRAMS TO A WRITING SCRIPT!

The story of writing can be traced back to the 4th

Millenium BC, -

From pictograms to ideograms, and to various cuneiform

scripts! **

From the ancient Sumarians and the Egyptians, to the

Semitic tribes, -

To the Phoenicians, the Geeks, right up to the Roman

times!

Till the Latin script got refined into modern alphabets,

And with 26 letters our literary aspirations were met!

PICTOGRAMS & IDEOGRAMS ***

Ancient pictograms and symbols painted and carved

on rock walls and caves, -

But speech sounds and letters had remained unrelated!

Followed by the ideographic, logographic and the

syllabic stages,

Evolving into written alphabets through these different

phases!

Ideograms expressed an idea through visual or graphic

symbols,

Giving rise to Chinese script without any alphabets, -

but with only ideographic symbols! @

The Sumerian cuneiforms and Egyptian hieroglyphs –

were the oldest of these,

Let me tell you something about the Sumerian script!