Sumer - Cuneiform - 4th millenium BC
Cuneiform started out as pictograms. These pictures later came to represent not only things (such as a bird) but sounds also. "It is clear that a written language with signs that represent sounds requires fewer characters than a language in which a sign stands for a thing or an idea. We use 26 letters (and the Romans used only 23 to create some of the most outstanding literature the world has ever known) while the Chinese, for example, have to learn thousands of characters to express themselves. Even early cuneiform comprised some 1,500 pictograms."
The Sumerian language ceased to be spoken in around 2000 BC, it was mostly replace by the Akkadian conquerers who adopted the written symbols. This form of writing was used until the 5th century AD.
Egypt - The writing of the Gods
Hieroglyphics started out as pictograms, similarly to cuneiform, they also later became used for sounds. Hierlglyphs came in several forms and styles, depending on the medium on which they were written, their purpose and their intended audience.
The first alphabets - Wadi el-Hol
An inscription found in 1999 has been traced to around 1600 to 1500 BC and it includes the sign of an Ox head ('aleph) - the origins of the Latin A - the early Sumerian cuneiform also used the Ox as a sign. By around 1600 BC, in the region between the two dominant writing systems (cuneiform and hieroglyphs) other more sophisticated alphabets were being developed.
Proto-Sinaitic
This alphabet was influence by Egyptian Hieroglyphs and each pictograph represented a sound rather than a thing or idea. "It is this proto-Sinaitic alphabet that really marks the starting point, the root of numerous modern-day alphabets, from Arabic and Hebrew to Greek and Latin."
The Phoenicians - The Purple People
"The Phoenician alphabet was probably developed for quick and easy to read notes that a merchant would make on his trips." "They owed their initial rise to a simple snail that can still be found on the coast of Lebanon and that, left rotting in the sun, could be used to make purple dye — thus the Greek-coined Phoenician or purple people, fromphoiniki, meaning purple or crimson." "This simple and ingenious modern alphabet of consonants from which the last vestiges of pictograms had been erased, is indeed a merchant’s instrument: easy to learn, to write and to adapt."
Greek - Enter the vowel
For a long time, the Greek scripts had no fixed direction, being written left to right, and right to left. IOn Greek scripts, we can see favour of abstract, linear forms and a dismissal of pictographic forms. "It appears that the Greeks simply adopted most of the Phoenician signs but added the vowels that the Phoenicians had left out."
Etruscan
With a passionate attaction to the Greeks, they adopted much of their art and religious rites, along with the Greek alphabet. Within a few centuries the Roman Republic became the master of Italy and absorbed the Etruscans completely. However, their alphabet survived and prospered as it spread over the world with the expansion of the Roman Empire.
Latin - Musical chairs & the tale of Z
"The Latin alphabet that we still use today was created by the Etruscans and the Romans from the Greek. It had only 23 letters: the J, U and W were missing. The J was represented by the I, the U was written as V and there was no need for a W. The story of the Z is particularly interesting.
The new letter G (based on C) was added; Z was borrowed from the Greek, then dropped as Latin had no need for it. G took its place in the line-up, until a little later when the Romans decided they needed the Z (when Greek literature became the vogue and they started to introduce many Greek words), they re-introduced it, but since its spot had be taken by G, it was sent to the back of the alphabet, where it remains to this day."
Detail from inscription 114 AD
In summary
"We stand in the 17th century, some 5,000 years after the Sumerians set stylus to clay. We now have a dual alphabet of 26 letters, uppercase and lowercase forms. There is hardly a straight line to be seen in the history of the alphabet. No Darwinian progress there, no survival of the fittest. Many of the aforementioned scripts developed side-by-side, some disappeared and reappeared, some can be shown to be the product of the mind of one man like Alcuin of York. And we do not know what would have happened if Hannibal had marched straight to Rome after winning the battle of Cannae instead of loitering.""Writing and alphabets evolve for a number of reasons. We can explain the transition from pictograms to the linear, more abstract forms in terms of rationalization ... A victorious invader brings its culture, including its language, both spoken and written. Context is also an important factor: text cut in stone contemplating the deeds of emperors is something different than an advertisement for a brothel scratched on a wall in Pompeii. The substrate, or writing material (whether clay, stone, wax tablets, wood, metal, papyrus, parchment, or vellum; and the writing implement, a reed, chisel, quill, broad nib pen — they all affect the form the alphabet takes. The speed of the hand is another factor. As an interesting exercise, write the capital alphabet, ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ slowly and deliberately — in your best hand. Now write it again at twice the speed. Finally, write it as quickly as you possibly can. The rapid hand introduces a reduced ductus (fewer strokes), and fewer pen-lifts, with those neat capital letters of the first round turning into something freer, more cursive. You can then further evolve your letterforms by using the most rapidly written alphabet, and begin to rationalise it, adjusting the proportions, altering the shading (contrast), and the result is an entirely a new hand."
Wow.
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