The Alphabet Connection

When we learn a new language, we often need to learn also a new script system to represent it by written or to read in it, a new script different than the ones we were using already. But sometimes, those scripts may be related

One of my favourite web pages to search information about languages and scripts is http://www.proel.org/index.php?pagina=alfabetos . in this specific slide, we can see how alphabets are related.

It all started with Egyptian script. It was basically an ideographic script. But Egyptians were in contact with other people through relations of power and trade. One of them, the Phoenicians, took some samples of writing, and instead of using them to represent words, they started to use them to represent sounds. Here we have the first Alphabet.  

Phoenicians were traders, and they had to travel long distances. Other lands who were in close contact with them, also learnt how to write. For some reasons, some scripts became more popular and had more influence over many languages. Among them, we have Latin and Cyrillic scripts, which are used very often in today´s world.

In this article, I am going to focus on the relations between 4 alphabets, but starting from Phoenician and make special emphasis on Latin letters. In Internet, there is much more information available and very well researched and explained in case you want to learn more about this subject. Wikipedia has several articles about this subject full or references where to search for more information. Very often are cited as references the Oxford English Dictionary 2^nd edition, and the Merriam-Webster’s 3^rd New International Dictionary of the English Language. Spanish speakers can also consult www.proel.org . English speakers can read the page http://omniglot.com/writing/phoenician.htm where you can see the original Phoenician letters and where I took the names of letters and the meanings.

The first letter is Aleph: It means “Ox” in most Semitic languages. The original symbol is like the Ox Head. This symbol evolved in a phonetic one that was mute, but took the place of different vowels. From the evolution of this letter originated the first letter of the alphabet: A. In Greek, we have the equivalent letter “Alpha” (“α”)

The second letter is Beth: It means “House” and has the “b” sound. From this letter we have the letter “B”. In Greek, we have the equivalent letter “Beta” (“β”). In Cyrillic we have the letters “Б” and “В” With respective sounds “b” and “v”.

Gammal: Means “Camel”. Some G letters come from here like the Greek “Gamma” (“Γ”, “γ”) and the Cyrillic “Г”. The case of the Latin alphabet is more complicated. The place of this letter is occupied by the letter “C” which has a different sound. There are theories that letters “C” and “G” come from same source.  I, personally, am not convinced of the relation of this letter with Gammal.

The fourth letter is Daleth: It means “Door”. It represents the “d” sound. From this letter comes the letter “D”. It is interesting to see the resemblance of the letters “Delta” (“Δ”) in the Greek alphabet and “Д” in the Cyrillic.


“He” is the fifth letter. Some translate this word as “Window”. But the voice “he” may come from an expression of emotions represented in the left symbol.  Gave origin to letters with “e” sound, like “E”, like the Greek letter “Epsilon” (“ε”) and the different versions of this letter in Cyrillic  (“Е”, “Є”, “Э”)

Waw is the sixth letter: It is translated as “hook”, but also as “Nail”. Originated letters that represent mainly U, V, W, Y.

In Phoenician, this letter represented sounds like “u” and “w”. Some other Semitic languages use this symbol to represent also sounds like “o” and “v”.  This letter originated the Greek letter “U-psilon” (“Υ”, “υ”) that originally sounds like “u” and like “v” in diphthongs. This letter originated the “V” letter in Latin that could be used as “u” or “v”. later, those letters became separated symbols and eventually appeared the letter “W”. The Latin letter “Y” came from a letter borrowing from Greek. There are also theories that link the Latin letter “F” with the Waw letter, and thus we can explain its shape and its place in the Alphabet. In Cyrillic we have the letter “У” with “u” sound. Personally, I believe the “F” letter is more related with “P”.

The seventh letter is Zayin: Zayin means “Sword”. The letters with “z” sound have their origine in this Phoenician letter. From this letter come some other like the Greek “Zeta” (“Ζ”, “ζ”), the Latin “Zed” (Z) and the Cyrillic “З”.

Heth : Often translated as “Wall” but some researchers talk about the pole used to support a tent. Although its sound is [ ħ ] it gave origin to the letter “H”. From this Phoenician letter also come the Greek letter “Eta” (“Η”, “η”) and the Cyrillic “И”. It is interesting to see that the Cyrillic “Н”, although looks alike, it is not coming from those letters.

Theth:  often translated as “wheel”, “good”, or “knot”, Letters that reproduce English sounds of “th” are from this letter. As an example we have the Greek letter “Theta” (“θ”). Among the Latin letters we have “Д and “ð” that still exists in a couple of languages, and it existed in old English. In Cyrillic we have (“Ѳ”) that is no longer in use.

Yodh: it means “Hand”. It originated the “i” letter and sounds related. We have the example of the Greek letter “Iota” (“Ι”), the Latin letter “I”, that eventually originated the letter “J” to separate vowel use from non vowel, and the Cyrillic letters “I” and “Й”.

Kaph: It means “Palm of hand”. It originated the letter “K”. We can also mention the Greek letter “Kappa” (“κ”). There is a possibility that this letter also had influence over other letters, like “X” and “C”, that today have similar sounds, including the “kh”.

Lamedh:  It means “goad”. The letter “L” comes from this one. Also, other letters with similar sounds like the Greek “Lambda” (“Λ”, “λ”) and the Cyrillic “Л”, come from here.

Mem: It means “Water”. The letter “M” originated from here. The Greek letter “Mu” (“μ”) also comes from here.   

Nun: It means “Snake”. The letter “N” has its origine in this letter. Other letters with “n” sound also come from here like the Greek “Nu” (“ν”) and the Cyrillic “Н”. 
Although this last letter is similar to the “H” letter, they are not related.

Samekh: It means “Fish”. It has the “s” sound. From this letter, come others with “x” sound, like the Greek letter “Xi” (“Ξ”, “ξ”) and the Cyrillic letter “Ѯ”, although this last is no longer used. No letters in the Latin alphabet come from this one.  

‘Ayin: In most Semitic languages this word means “Eye”. It represents  a guttural sound present in most Semitic languages but not in the Indo-European ones.  In Greek this letter was adapted with the name “Omicron” with “O” sound. In Latin and Cyrillic letters it represents an “O”. It is interesting to note that in Greek, in most of Latin and Slavic languages, the word for ”Eye” starts with an “O”. [ spanish: “ojo”; italian: “occhio”;  latin: “oculus”;  portuguese: “olho”;  romanian: “ochi”;  french: “œil”;  greek: “οφθαλμόσ”;  bulgarian: “око”;  croatian: “oko”;  czech: “oko”;  polish: “oko”;  russian: “око”;  serbian: “око”;  slovak: “očné”;  slovenian: “oči”;  Ukrainian: “око”;]

Pe: It means “Mouth”. Some letters with “p” sound originates here like the Greek “Pi” (“Π”, “π”) and the Cyrillic “П”. 
The Latin letter “P” although more similar to the letter “Resh”, that we will study later, it also comes from the Phoenician “Pe”. A possible theory is that the Greek “Pi” was borrowed by Etruscans, who did not place the “vertical” strokes at the same level like we see in Greek and Cyrillic.

Tzade: It means “papyrus”. Can also mean “Wing”. It has the “Ts” sound. There are no indications that this letter helped to create any of the ones in the alphabets we are studying in this article.

Qoph: It means “Eye of a needle” . In modern Hebrew means “Monkey”. It has a gutural Q sound. The Latin letter “Q” has its origine here. In ancient Greek, exists a letter known as “Qoppa” (“ϙ”) that is not used in modern Greek.

Resh: It means “Head”. Originated the letter “R”. in Greek,the letter “Rho” (“ρ”) and the Cyrillic “Р”. It is very similar to the Latin letter “P”

Shin: It means “Tooth”. Letters representing “s” or “š” come from here and some of them are: The Greek “Sigma” (“Σ”), the Cyrillic “Ш” and the Latin letter “S”.         

Tav: It is a “Mark”. Although we still use “X” for check mark, the letter that originated is “T”.

Hebrew, although its letters are different, they are finally using the same alphabet as Phoenician or Aramaic, with same order and same name for letters. The following letters in Hebrew have double sound:   ” ב” ”כ” ”פ” ”ש” ”ת”

It is interesting to see how those double letters duplicate in Latin alphabet:

“בּ” for “b” and ”ב” for “v”

”כּ” for “k”; “כ” for “kh”. (For some languages are “c” and “ch”.

”פּ” for “p”; “פ” for “ph”

“שׂ” for “sh”; ”שׁ” for “s”

“ת” for “t” and “th”, this last is not used in Modern Hebrew.

 

We have covered the relation that exists between the letters of Phoenician alphabet and almost all letters in the Latin alphabet, at least the ones used in English. But in English, there were  other letters that are not used anymore, although still some other languages have kept them. We already mentioned the letter “Eth” (“ð”). More can be read in Quartz. Other letters are:

-Yogh:  “Ȝ” Mostly represented the “gh” sound, although it was also used for “ch” as in the Scottish word “Loch”. This letter is related with “G”.

-Thorn: “þ” It is pronounced like “th” in “think”. It may come from the Runic alphabet. It was used in Scandinavian languages, and is still is used in Icelandic.

-Wynn: “ƿ” It represents the sound /w/ . It may come from the Runic alphabet, which also comes from Greek alphabet.

-Ash: “æ” represents a sound between “a” and “e”. This letter existed in Latin where represented a diphthong “ai” and it was a ligature between “a” and “e”. Some Scandinavian letters still use it.

-Ethel:”œ” was a ligature between “o” and “e”, it represented a sound between both letters. It existed in Latin and represented the Diphthong “oi”. It is believed that its origine is runic.

This is me, lecturing about this same subject