Name: Daugdaug, Jestony I.

Program – Year: BSCim- 3rd Year

ALPHABET

A. History of Alphabet

1. The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By 2700 BCE Egyptian
writing had a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent syllables that begin with a
single consonant of their language, plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by
the native speaker. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for
logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words
and foreign names.
2. However, although seemingly alphabetic in nature, the original Egyptian
uniliterals were not a system and were never used by themselves to encode
Egyptian speech. In the Middle Bronze Age an apparently "alphabetic" system
known as the Proto-Sinaitic script is thought by some to have been developed in
central Egypt around 1700 BCE for or by Semitic workers, but only one of these
early writings has been deciphered and their exact nature remains open to
interpretation. Based on letter appearances and names, it is believed to be based
on Egyptian hieroglyphs.
3. This script eventually developed into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which in turn
was refined into the Phoenician alphabet. It also developed into the South
Arabian alphabet, from which the Ge'ez alphabet (an abugida) is descended.
Note that the scripts mentioned above are not considered proper alphabets, as
they all lack characters representing vowels. These early vowelless alphabets
are called abjads and still exist in scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.
4. Phoenician was the first major phonemic script. In contrast to two other widely
used writing systems at the time, cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, it
contained only about two dozen distinct letters, making it a script simple enough
for common traders to learn. Another advantage of Phoenician was that it could
be used to write down many different languages since it recorded words
phonemically.
5. Phoenician colonization allowed the script to be spread across the
Mediterranean. In Greece, the script was modified to add the vowels, giving rise
to the first true alphabet. The Greeks took letters which did not represent sounds
that existed in Greek and changed them to represent the vowels. This marks the
creation of a "true" alphabet, with both vowels and consonants as explicit
symbols in a single script. In its early years, there were many variants of the
Greek alphabet, a situation which caused many different alphabets to evolve
from it.
6. The Cumae form of the Greek alphabet was carried over by Greek colonists from
Euboea to the Italian peninsula, where it gave rise to a variety of alphabets used
to inscribe the Italic languages. One of these became the Latin alphabet, which
was spread across Europe as the Romans expanded their empire. Even after the
fall of the Roman Empire, the alphabet survived in intellectual and religious
works. It eventually became used for the descendant languages of Latin (the
Romance languages) and then for the other languages of Europe.
B. Greek Alphabet
 1. Greek alphabet, writing system that was developed in Greece about 1000 BCE. It
is the direct or indirect ancestor of all modern European alphabets. Derived from
the North Semitic alphabet via that of the Phoenicians, the Greek alphabet was
modified to make it more efficient and accurate for writing a non-Semitic
language by the addition of several new letters and the modification or dropping
of several others. Most important, some of the symbols of the Semitic alphabet,
which represented only consonants, were made to represent vowels: the Semitic
consonants ʾalef, he, yod, ʿayin, and vav became the Greek letters alpha,
epsilon, iota, omicron, and upsilon, representing the vowels a, e, i, o, and u,
respectively. The addition of symbols for the vowel sounds greatly increased the
accuracy and legibility of the writing system for non-Semitic languages.
2. Before the 5th century BCE the Greek alphabet could be divided into two
principal branches: the Ionic (eastern) and the Chalcidian (western). Differences
between the two branches were minor. The Chalcidian alphabet probably gave
rise to the Etruscan alphabet of Italy in the 8th century BCE and hence indirectly
to the other Italic alphabets, including the Latin alphabet, which is now used for
most European languages. In 403 BCE, however, Athens officially adopted the
Ionic alphabet as written in Miletus, and in the next 50 years almost all local
Greek alphabets, including the Chalcidian, were replaced by the Ionic script,
which thus became the Classical Greek alphabet.
3. The early Greek alphabet was written, like its Semitic forebears, from right to left.
This gradually gave way to the boustrophedon style, and after 500 BCE Greek
was always written from left to right. The Classical alphabet had 24 letters, 7 of
which were vowels, and consisted of capital letters, ideal for monuments and
inscriptions. From it were derived three scripts better suited to handwriting:
uncial, which was essentially the Classical capitals adapted to writing with pen on
paper and similar to hand printing, and cursive and minuscule, which were
running scripts similar to modern handwriting forms, with joined letters and
considerable modification in letter shape. Uncial went out of use in the 9th
century CE, and minuscule, which replaced it, developed into the modern Greek
handwriting form.

GREEK ALPHABET

C. Roman Alphabet

1. Latin alphabet, also called Roman alphabet, the most widely used alphabetic
writing system in the world, the standard script of the English language and the
 languages of most of Europe and those areas settled by Europeans. Developed
from the Etruscan alphabet at some time before 600 BCE, it can be traced
through Etruscan, Greek, and Phoenician scripts to the North Semitic alphabet
used in Syria and Palestine about 1100 BCE. The earliest inscription in the Latin
alphabet appears on the Praeneste Fibula, a cloak pin dating from about the 7th
century BCE, which reads, “MANIOS MED FHEFHAKED NUMASIOI” (in
Classical Latin: “Manius me fecit Numerio,” meaning “Manius made me for
Numerius”). Dated not much later than this is a vertical inscription on a small
pillar in the Roman Forum, and the Duenos inscription on a vase found near the
Quirinal (a hill in Rome) probably dates to the 6th century BCE. Although experts
disagree on the dating of these objects, the inscriptions are generally considered
to be the oldest extant examples of the Latin alphabet.
2. The Classical Latin alphabet consisted of 23 letters, 21 of which were derived
from the Etruscan alphabet. In medieval times the letter I was differentiated into I
and J and V into U, V, and W, producing an alphabet equivalent to that of
modern English with 26 letters. Some European languages currently using the
Latin alphabet do not use the letters K and W, and some add extra letters
(usually standard Latin letters with diacritical marks added or sometimes pairs of
letters read as one sound).
3. In ancient Roman times there were two main types of Latin script, capital letters
and cursive. There were also varieties of writing that mixed capitals and cursive
or semicursive letters; Latin uncial script developed from such a mixed form in
the 3rd century CE. In the Middle Ages many different Latin scripts developed
from capital, cursive, and uncial forms. The round “humanistic” handwriting, used
for copying books, and a more angular cursive script, used for legal and
commercial purposes in 15th-century Italy, gave rise, respectively, to the roman
and italic typefaces currently used in printing.

ROMAN ALPHABET

D. Heiroglyphs

1. The word hieroglyph literally means "sacred carvings". The Egyptians first used
hieroglyphs exclusively for inscriptions carved or painted on temple walls. This
form of pictorial writing was also used on tombs, sheets of papyrus, wooden
boards covered with a stucco wash, potsherds and fragments of limestone.
 2. Hieroglyphics are an original form of writing out of which all other forms have
evolved. Two of the newer forms were called hieratic and demotic. Hieratic was a
simplified form of hieroglyphics used for administrative and business purposes,
as well as for literary, scientific and religious texts. Demotic, a Greek word
meaning "popular script", was in general use for the daily requirements of the
society. In the third century A.D., hieroglyphic writing began to be replaced by
Coptic, a form of Greek writing. The last hieroglyphic text was written at the
Temple of Philae in A.D. 450. The spoken Egyptian language was superseded by
Arabic in the Middle Ages.
3. It was not until the nineteenth century that Egyptian hieroglyphs were
deciphered. Several people had been trying to crack the code when the brilliant
young Frenchman, Jean-François Champollion discovered the secret to this
ancient writing. A decree issued at Memphis, Egypt, on March 27, 196 B.C. was
inscribed on the Rosetta Stone in three scripts: hieroglyphics, demotic and
Greek. After Thomas Young deciphered the demotic text, Champollion used the
information to break the code of the hieroglyphic text in 1822. In 1828, he
published the famous "Précis" that marked the first real breakthrough in reading
hieroglyphs.
4. Hieroglyphs are written in columns or in horizontal lines. They are generally read
from right to left and from top to bottom. Sometimes, the script is read from left to
right. The reader can determine the orientation by looking at the animal and
human figures -- they face towards the beginning of the text. For example: if a
figure faces right, the text should be read from right to left. For this reason
reason, funeral texts and the names of the deceased were written on coffins and
tomb walls. This meant that the gods would hear the prayers and the individuals
would be protected from harm. A name written in hieroglyphs embodied a
person's identity. If it was obliterated, the person's identity was lost, along with
his or her means to continue living in the afterworld. The names of pharaohs
such as Tutankhamun and Queen Hatshepsut, for example, were removed from
temple walls by their successors

HIEROGLYPHS

E. History of Philippine Alibata & Baybayin

1. Alibata is an ancient Filipino script that is believed to have originated from the
Javanese’ old kawi script. There are many theories as to where it actually
originated. It is also believed that it have originated from India. Isaac Taylor, a
historical writer, believed that Alibata is a derivation of ancient scripts such as
Vengi, Assam and Chalukya that originated from the Eastern coast of India.
2. Baybayin is the proper term for this ancient script. Baybayin in tagalong means
“to spell”. The term Alibata was derived from the first two letters of the
 Maguindanaoan alphabet “alif” and “bet”. It is believed that alibata was used on
the early 14th century to the late 19th century when the Spaniards have started
colonizing the Philippines. Spanish influence has introduced the modern Roman
alphabet. Despite the influence of the Spaniards, there are two forms of this
script that survives up to the present day. Mangyans from the island of Mindoro
and the Tagbanwa from Palawan still use this type of script.
3. Unfortunately, there are only a few records of the alibata script that remains up to
this day. This is because alibata scripts were not used by the ancient Filipinos to
record mythologies or ancient history that are meant to be passed on from
generations to generations. Instead, the ancient Filipinos who used this script
would write on perishable items such as bamboo or palm leaves. Their writings
are for ordinary transactions like love letters given by a man to a woman or write-
ups for business purposes and ordinary day to day needs. Because of the
unimportance of the content, those ancient scripts were not given any importance
at all and were not thought to be preserved for the modern Filipinos to see and
experience how the ancient Filipinos would write.
4. In our modern world, some people are still interested on this form of writing. To
these young Filipinos, they use alibata to express themselves. Tattoos of alibata
scripts with different translations are common as well as vandalism on public
walls. They find it cool but also, it’s a great way of reviving these young Filipinos’
love for country and they get to learn more about the Philippine’s history.

ALIBATA ALPHABET

F. Baybayin Alphabet

1. The Baybayin alphabet, probably developed from the Kawi script of Java, Bali
and Sumatra, which in turn descended from the Pallava script, one of the
southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi. Today the Baybayin alphabet is
used mainly for decorative purposes and the Latin alphabet is used to write to
Tagalog. The earliest known book in Tagalog is the Doctrina Cristiana (Christian
Doctrine) which was published in 1593. It was written in Spanish and Tagalog,
with the Tagalog text in both Baybayin and the Latin alphabet.
2. Notable features are: Type of writing system: Abugida / Syllabic Alphabet in
which each consonant has an inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are indicated
either by separate letters, or by dots - a dot over a consonant changes the
vowels to an /i/ or and /e/, while a dot under a consonant changes the vowel to
/o/ or /u/. The inherent vowel is muted by adding a + sign beneath a consonant.
This innovation was introduced by the Spanish. Writing direction: left to right in
horizontal lines. Script family: Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Aramaic, Brāhmī,
Tamil-Brahmi, Pallava, Kawi, Baybayin.

BAYBAYIN SCRIPT.