Editing Alphabet (section)

==== Ancient Near Eastern alphabets ====
The [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Ancient Egyptian writing system]] had a set of some [[Egyptian uniliteral signs|24 hieroglyphs]] that are called uniliterals,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gnomon |date=2004-04-08 |editor-last=Lynn |editor-first=Bernadette |title=The Development of the Western Alphabet |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2451890 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209231814/https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2451890 |archive-date=Dec 9, 2008 |access-date=2008-08-04 |work=BBC}}</ref> which are glyphs that provide one sound.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Uniliteral Signs |url=https://www.bibalex.org/learnhieroglyphs/lesson/LessonDetails_En.aspx?l=54#:~:text=Uniliteral%20signs%20are%20the%20most,They%20represent%20a%20single%20sound |access-date=2023-01-24 |website=Learn Hieroglyphs |publisher=Bibliotheca Alexandrina}}</ref> These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for [[logogram]]s, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words and foreign names.<ref name="Daniels">{{Harvnb|Daniels|Bright|1996|pp=74–75}}</ref> The script was used a fair amount in the 4th century&nbsp;AD.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allen |first=James P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF78Max-h8MC&pg=PA8 |title=Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-1-139-48635-4 |edition=2nd}}</ref> However, after pagan temples were closed down, it was forgotten in the 5th century until the discovery of the [[Rosetta Stone]].<ref name="Houston-2003">{{cite journal |last1=Houston |first1=Stephen |last2=Baines |first2=John |last3=Cooper |first3=Jerrold |title=Last Writing: Script Obsolescence in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica |journal=Comparative Studies in Society and History |date=2003 |volume=45 |issue=3 |pages=430–479 |doi=10.1017/S0010417503000227 |doi-broken-date=13 November 2024 |id={{ProQuest|212670035}} |jstor=3879458 }}</ref> There was also [[cuneiform]], primarily used to write several ancient languages, including [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bram |first=Jagersma |title=A Descriptive Grammar of Sumerian |publisher=Universiteit Leiden |year=2010 |page=15}}{{ISBN?}}</ref> The last known use of cuneiform was in 75&nbsp;AD, after which the script fell out of use.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Westenholz |first1=Aage |title=The Graeco-Babyloniaca Once Again |journal=Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische Archäologie |date=19 January 2007 |volume=97 |issue=2 |doi=10.1515/ZA.2007.014 }}</ref>
In the [[Middle Bronze Age]], an apparently alphabetic system known as the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] appeared in Egyptian turquoise mines in the [[Sinai Peninsula]] {{circa|1840&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}, apparently left by Canaanite workers. [[Orly Goldwasser]] has connected the illiterate turquoise miner graffiti theory to the origin of the alphabet.<ref name="Goldwasser-2012">{{cite journal |last1=Goldwasser |first1=Orly |title=The Miners Who Invented the Alphabet – A Response to Christopher Rollston |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |date=12 September 2012 |volume=4 |issue=3 |doi=10.2458/azu_jaei_v04i3_goldwasser |doi-access=free }}</ref> In 1999, American Egyptologists [[John Coleman Darnell|John]] and [[Deborah Darnell]] discovered an earlier version of this first alphabet at the [[Wadi el-Hol]] valley. The script dated to {{circa|1800&nbsp;BC|lk=no}} and shows evidence of having been adapted from specific forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs that could be dated to {{circa|2000&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}, strongly suggesting that the first alphabet had developed about that time.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Darnell |first1=John Coleman |author-link=John Coleman Darnell |last2=Dobbs-Allsopp |first2=F. W. |author-link2=F. W. Dobbs-Allsopp |last3=Lundberg |first3=Marilyn J. |last4=McCarter |first4=P. Kyle |author-link4=P. Kyle McCarter |last5=Zuckerman |first5=Bruce |last6=Manassa |first6=Colleen |author-link6=Colleen Darnell |year=2005 |title=Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi el-Ḥôl: New Evidence for the Origin of the Alphabet from the Western Desert of Egypt |journal=The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research |volume=59 |pages=63, 65, 67–71, 73–113, 115–124 |jstor=3768583}}</ref> The script was based on letter appearances and names, believed to be based on Egyptian hieroglyphs.<ref name="Coulmas 140">{{Harvnb|Coulmas|1989|pp=140–141}}</ref> This script had no characters representing vowels. Originally, it probably was a syllabary—a script where syllables are represented with characters—with symbols that were not needed being removed. The best-attested Bronze Age alphabet is [[Ugaritic alphabet|Ugaritic]], invented in [[Ugarit]] before the 15th century&nbsp;BC. This was an alphabetic [[cuneiform]] script with 30 signs, including three that indicate the following vowel. This script was not used after the destruction of Ugarit in 1178&nbsp;BC.<ref>''Ugaritic Writing'' [http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterThree/UgariticWriting.htm online]</ref>
[[File:Ba`alat.png|thumb|left|A specimen of the [[Proto-Sinaitic script]], one of the earliest phonemic scripts]]
The Proto-Sinaitic script eventually developed into the Phoenician alphabet, conventionally called [[Proto-Canaanite alphabet|Proto-Canaanite]], before {{circa|1050&nbsp;BC|lk=no}}.<ref name="Daniels 9296" /> The oldest text in Phoenician script is an inscription on the sarcophagus of King [[Ahiram]] {{circa|1000&nbsp;BC}}. This script is the parent script of all western alphabets. By the 10th century&nbsp;BC, two other forms distinguish themselves, [[Canaanite alphabet|Canaanite]] and [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]]. The Aramaic gave rise to the [[Hebrew alphabet]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Coulmas|1989|p=142}}</ref>

The [[South Arabian alphabet]], a sister script to the Phoenician alphabet, is the script from which the [[Geʽez script]] was descended. Abugidas are writing systems with characters comprising consonant–vowel sequences. Alphabets without obligatory vowels are called ''[[abjad]]s'', with examples being Arabic, Hebrew, and [[Syriac alphabet|Syriac]]. The omission of vowels was not always a satisfactory solution due to the need of preserving sacred texts. "Weak" consonants are used to indicate vowels. These letters have a dual function since they can also be used as pure consonants.<ref>{{Harvnb|Coulmas|1989|p=147}}</ref><ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Matres lectionis |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/matres-lectionis |access-date=2023-01-20}}</ref>

The Proto-Sinaitic script and the Ugaritic script were the first scripts with a limited number of signs instead of using many different signs for words, in contrast to cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and [[Linear B]]. The Phoenician script was probably the first phonemic script,<ref name="Coulmas 140" /><ref name="Daniels 9296" /> and it contained only about two dozen distinct letters, making it a script simple enough for traders to learn. Another advantage of the Phoenician alphabet was that it could write different languages since it recorded words phonemically.{{sfn|Hock|Joseph|2009|p=85}}

The Phoenician script was spread across the Mediterranean by the Phoenicians.<ref name="Daniels 9296" /> The Greek alphabet was the first in which vowels had independent letterforms separate from those of consonants. The Greeks chose letters representing sounds that did not exist in Greek to represent vowels. The [[Linear B]] syllabary, used by [[Mycenaean Greeks]] from the 16th century&nbsp;BC, had 87 symbols, including five vowels. In its early years, there were many variants of the Greek alphabet, causing many different alphabets to evolve from it.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ventris |first1=Micheal |title=Documents in Mycenaean Greek: Three Hundred Selected Tablets from Knossos, Pylos and Mycenae with Commentary and Vocabulary |last2=Chadwick |first2=John |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-107-50341-0 |edition=Repr. |page=60}}</ref>