Alphabet

An alphabet ( from Ancient Greek ἀλφάβητος alphabētos ), colloquially known as " ABC", is an ordered and closed set of graphical symbols or graphemes ( called caps), linked via orthographic rules to words an associated spoken language can present writing. The name Alphabet goes to the first two letters of the Greek writing system returns (alpha - α, beta - β ). In German they say, starting from the first letter of the German alphabet, "ABC". The fixed order allowed alphabetical arrangements such as in dictionaries.

Alphabet fonts include as syllabic writing to the phonographic writings and are thus unlike pictographic or logographic systems, in which the sign of terms are (eg beef, Sunrise, friendship). In contrast to the syllabary designate alphabetic letters usually only one sound ( phoneme ). In a narrower sense, the term alphabet is also used in contrast to consonants writings and Abugidas only for those writings in which all phonemes and especially all the vowels have their own, equal graphical characters.

Also, formal languages ​​in computer science consist of words which consist of characters of an alphabet. See also Alphabet ( computer science ).

The various alphabets, according to age

Alphabets of natural languages

  • Ugaritic writing 1400 BC
  • Ancient Hebrew Scriptures 1200 BC
  • Phoenician Alphabet 1000 BC
  • Aramaic writing 900 BC
  • Greek alphabet 900 BC
  • Old South Arabian script 800 BC
  • Latin alphabet 700 BC
  • Libyan script 300 BC
  • Tifinagh script
  • Germanic font 100 AD
  • Coptic Alphabet 200 AD
  • Gothic Alphabet 350 AD
  • Armenian Alphabet 400 AD
  • Georgian alphabet 400 AD
  • Kufic writing 600 AD
  • Altnubische font 800 AD
  • Arabic Alphabet 800 AD
  • Glagolitic 860 AD
  • Cyrillic alphabet in 1000 AD
  • Korean alphabet in 1446 AD

Alphabets of plan, special and secret languages

  • Voynich Alphabet unknown origin and time.
  • Theban Alphabet 1500 AD
  • Enochian language in 1583 AD
  • Tengwar alphabet in 1919 by JRR Tolkien, which is used for the fictional languages ​​Sindarin and Quenya
  • Writing of the Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini 1978
  • Klingon writing in 1984 AD

The German Alphabet

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Ää Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Öö ẞ ß Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz Üü

Functioning of the alphabet

The letters of the alphabet are written symbols for the smallest meaningful distinctive phonetic units of language, the phonemes (for example, differ ⟨ t ⟩ and ⟨ s ⟩ in ⟨ skin ⟩ and ⟨ house ⟩ the meaning of words (see also minimal pair and allophone ) ).

In an ideal alphabet each letter corresponds to a phoneme, and vice versa. In practice, however, will always find exceptions:

  • It can be the same character for different sounds apply (eg ⟨ v ⟩ for [ f] in bird and [v ] in the vase or three ⟨ e ⟩ give away in [ ge ː ˌ vɛk bən ] ).
  • It can be the same sound recorded with different characters ( for example, [ f] in ⟨ ⟩ and ⟨ bird fish ⟩ ).
  • There may be multiple characters for a single phoneme are ( ⟨ sch ⟩ ).
  • There can be multiple sounds reproduced by a single character (eg ⟨ x ⟩ for / ks / ).
  • It may remain a sound unmarked ( ⟨ ⟩ note, for example, the glottal stop in / bəʔaxtən / ).

Moreover, once established correspondence of phoneme and grapheme also by the natural language change is lost ( compare English ⟨ ⟩ and ⟨ sign signal ⟩ prev. Latin ⟨ ⟩ signum ).

Absence in a writing system for sign phonemes, language (content ) differences can not be reproduced in written policy. So some alphabets were originally only of consonants ( consonant letters). They were later supplemented with signs for vowels, as small additions ( eg, points, lines) could be related to the consonants (eg Arabic and Hebrew alphabet).

If, however, in a writing system for sign phonemes becomes excessive, semantic (content ) differences even with the same phonetics can be expressed in writing. For example, in the German ⟨ ⟩ and ⟨ lark larch ⟩.

The writing systems for most European languages ​​use variants of the Latin alphabet. Here, the characters for Latin sounds were assigned to similar sounds of the language. The same characters were in different languages ​​for partially different sounds. In addition, it has come in the course of language development to further changes in pronunciation (see ⟨ j ⟩ in English and German ).

As the number and type of phonemes in different languages ​​is different, the character set of the Latin alphabet often not enough. Why were introduced (eg ⟨ ou ⟩, ⟨ ch ⟩, ⟨ sz ⟩ ) and diacritical marks to indicate the intended phonemes letter combinations (for example, ⟨ ö ⟩, ⟨ š ⟩ ).

In addition, variants of the original Latin characters ( ⟨ i ⟩ > ⟨ j ⟩, ⟨ u ⟩ > ⟨ v ⟩ ) and ligatures ( ⟨ ae ⟩ > ⟨ æ ⟩, ⟨ uu ⟩ / ⟨ vv ⟩ > ⟨ w ⟩, ⟨ sz ⟩ / ⟨ ss ⟩ > ⟨ ⟩ ß ) evolved into separate characters, and occasionally also taken letters from other alphabets ( ⟨ þ ⟩ ).

Phonetic Alphabet

An absolutely phonetic alphabet would be useless in practice, because it would have countless characters due to the myriad nuances of a language. An optimized in terms of the phonetic alphabet is the IPA, which allocates as many nuances According to a graphical character.

A phonemic notation treats different pronunciations of the same phoneme same. Thus, the regional differences (phonetic ) pronunciation of the phoneme / g / in ⟨ ⟩ day as a North German [ taχ ] and high German [ ta ː k] is not considered, for example in the German orthography. And no fewer than morphemic spellings for a more constant typeface for flexion, for example, to write not because of the plural days * ⟨ ⟩ Tak, but ⟨ ⟩ day, and take in the derivation, eg ⟨ ⟩ daily * ⟨ ⟩ teglich.

Spell

When people tell each other linguistically correct spelling of a word, by calling one after another all the letters of that word, is referred to this process as spelling (verb: to spell ). When spelling letters are usually pronounced by their letter names (Ah [a ː ], Beh [be ː ], Ceh [ tse ː ] ... ). In difficult words and / or sound circumstances, such as in radio or telephone conversations, this can be dealt with also using a Buchstabieralphabets ( Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, ... ), whereby the intention of the speaker letter are detected with much higher probability of correctly by the listener should.

Formation and development

Developed from the common in the Near East cuneiform dealer in Ugarit in 1400 BC, the first alphabetic system of writing, called the Ugaritic script. Out of it has been developed by 1000 BC, among others, the alphabet of the Phoenicians, which in turn is the starting point for today's common alphabets. They used this elements of existing images writings. The characters they were benefiting fully from their visual importance and had them clear phonetic values ​​to. The Phoenician writing was from right to left. Despite these differences, the character of the Phoenicians can bring each character with the Ugaritic script in conjunction.

The Phoenician script was purely consonantal script. This corresponded to the structure of the Semitic languages. The Hebrew and the Arabic script, which emerged from it, decided to refrain from (largely) on vowels. When the Greeks about the 10th or 9th century BC took over the Phoenician script, use characters for consonants, which, although present in Semitic, but not in European languages ​​to denote vowels, for example, was from the character for " H", the Eta = " e". Some characters for consonants that did not know the Phoenician language were recreated, such as the Psi. In the year 403 BC, the alphabet was standardized in Athens. It thus became the writing system for the whole of Greece. Beginning of the 4th century BC Greek settlers brought the alphabet to Italy, where the Etruscans ( in Tuscany today ) it took over the course of the 4th century. In the 3rd century BC, the Romans based on the Greek- Etruscan writing, and delivered it in the 1st century BC to Central Europe.

Historical Significance

Through the Alphabet, a system with relatively few characters originated. In order to understand the records of ancient Egypt, you had hundreds, later even learn thousands of hieroglyphs. Now sufficed two dozen characters to all thoughts that are ever formulated to note. The simplicity of this system favored its spread over half the world.

" The human speech organs can indeed generate a huge number of sounds, but almost all languages ​​are based on the formal recognition of only about forty of these sounds by the members of a society. " ( Jack Goody ).

The order of the Greek and Latin alphabet follows globally ( with few exceptions ) the order of the Phoenician alphabet, because the characters were also coupled with a numerical value.

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