After 2,500BC the idea of syllabic writing spreads:
Crete - Linear A (undeciphered), Phaistos disk (undeciphered)
Meroe, Sudan - Meroitic syllabary (undeciphered)
1,800BC (Lebanon) - 28 letters for single sounds
West Semitic writing (alphabet without vowel symbols)
by 1,200BC developed into the Phoenician alphabet (24 letters)
James Gardiner (1908)- discovers how this alphabet was invented
acrophonic principle: Egyptian hieroglyph shape given Semitic name then used to signify the initial consonant of that name instead of the entire syllable.
West Semitic (later Phoenician) alphabets:
better called a consonantal alphabet or vowel neutral syllabary
it is written horizontally from right to left.
Phoenicians spread writing around the Mediterranean
before 1,200BC, Mycenian Greeks use this syllabary (Linear B)
At the end of Bronze Age (1,200BC) Dorian Greeks invade, writing disappears in Greece
Legendary Greek Prince Cadmus (776BC) reborrows Phoenician writing, but adapts it by inventing vowel symbols. This Greek alphabet is the first full alphabet.
Cadmus keeps the Phoenician shapes and names (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, etc.), but gives the letters Greek sounds.
Boustrophedon (ox-turning) writing technique (right-to-left alternating with left-to-right) leads to the inverting of many letter shapes and the eventual adoption of left-to-right direction for Greek.
Other developments from Phoenician writing
Hebrew and Arabic - originally consonantal, dots added to signify vowels; still written right-to-left
Ethiopic (Africa) - 400AD, later adds marks for vowels
Georgian and Armenian
codified by Bible translator Meshrop Mashtots, 320AD
South Asian scripts:
Devanagari (Sanskrit), also modern Hindi, Bengali, etc.
Bhuddism spread Indian writing to Southeast Asia: modern Thai, Laotian, Cambodian, etc.
Greek alphabet (Prince Cadmus, 776BC) first alphabet with vowels and consonants
Etruscan (Italy) – adapted from Greek before 700BC, now extinct
Latin (borrowed from Etruscan by 650BC
adoption of new, phonetic letter names instead of alpha, beta, etc.
originally contained only 21 letters
later addition of new letters: j, k, u, y, z
Latin spread around the world with Christianity, and with European colonialism.
Most European languages use a version of Latin
Most newly written languages, use Latin alphabet, often with IPA symbols included
Stimulus diffusion of writing (where the idea is borrowed but the form is locally invented)
Ogham – pre-Christian Celtic (used in Ireland and Scotland)
Runes – pre-Christian Germanic (an alphabet called the Futhark)
Words for 'write' in Old English have to do with 'scraping': OE wrat = scrape, which
is cognate with modern German reissen = to tear.
Also Latin scribere 'write' is cognate with English 'scrape.
Roman Catholics replaced Germanic Runes and Celtic Ogham with Latin letters
Greek Orthodox Christianity likewise spread Greek writing
Slavic writing
Glagolithic (a totally new alphabet invented by the Orthodox monks Cyril and Methodius in 9th century AD for use in writing Slavic languages
Cyrillic later invented by Cyril's followers to look more like Greek.
Today, Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian and Bulgarian (the Slavic countries that are traditionally Orthodox rather than Catholic) still use versions of Cyrillic
Through Soviet influence, Cyrillic is now used for over 100 languages of the Caucasus, Central and North Asis. It replaced traditional Mongolian vertical script
Major alphabetic writing systems in use today (besides Latin and Cyrillic) include:
Arabic, Hebrew (both written right to left),
Georgian, Armenian (written left to right)
Many South Asian scripts descend from Sanskrit (Thai, Cambodian, Tamil, etc.)
All alphabetic writing (except modern Korean) descend somehow from
the West Semitic Consonantal Alphabet.