Evolution of the Alphabet | Earliest Forms to Modern Latin Script

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CREDITS:
Chart/Narration: Matt Baker usefulcharts.com/
Animation: Syawish Rehman / @almuqaddimahyt
Audio Editing: Jack Rackam / @jackrackam
Intro music: "Lord of the Land" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0. Available from incompetech.com

[@danielthybomouritsen8990]

Imagine how big of a genius you would have to be to get the idea to attribute symbols to verbal sounds that you can then write down to form words

[@Novasky2007]

Imagine the guy chizelling 1000's of identical pictures of eyes day after day coming home at night and thinking there's gotta be an easier way than this turned round and saw his wife painting eye liner in a mirror.

[@ememmeme8722]

and thus world war 1

[@AdoptedDaughterofJesus]

Apparently angels taught us how to write Book of enoch go look

[@BabySonicGT]

What

[@OskaIvanovichSmirnov]

@@Novasky2007 for chizel my nizzle

[@imaginerus]

I think it's incredible that after more than 3000 years, some letters still somehow resemble the original symbol, like the upside-down bulls head in A, the ladder in H, the snake in N and the eye in O

[@lookoutforchris]

Western Civilization is complex but cohesive. There are threads of art, history, language, religion, literature, philosophy and law which bind the entire West together across a span of 6,500 years. The West is not a fragmentary collection of unrelated detritus, which is what post-modernism tries to teach.

[@user-xb5qq2pr2k]

þ ) þ

[@user-yc6vr8vn5j]

@@lookoutforchris I find it interesting to define western civilisation. It always seemed like such a clear concept to me but it's not so obvious when you think about defining features of western civilisation.

[@cesarkastoun5752]

@@lookoutforchris It's "Western civilization" but only if you include its Mediterranean roots: Phoenician, Greek, Latin and Judeo-Christian.

[@frankmartin8471]

If it works, don't fix it.

[@richardhall206]

The letter Thorn was still in regular use in England at the time of the invention of the printing press but, because it was not used in the German alphabet, standard typesets did not include it. Instead, English printers used a capital Y as a surrogate because it had a similar appearance. So 'The' (which would have had a Thorn instead of TH) was rendered 'Ye' but pronounced the same way. "Ye Olde Boke Shoppe" would have been pronounced as "The Old Book Shop", not with a Y sound at all.

[@Lazu__li]

That is incredibly interesting

[@ashbridgeindustries380]

Presumably this is also how the word "thou" came to be "you"?

[@geekyboringfilms233]

@@ashbridgeindustries380 'Thou' is the singular while 'you' is the plural, they developed concurrently. 'Thou' fell out of use because it became informal, like in French.

[@ashbridgeindustries380]

@@geekyboringfilms233 Thanks for the info!

[@nunyabiznez6381]

So we've been singing "God rest ye merry gentlemen" wrong all these years?

[@faramund9865]

Still one of the best videos about any topic out there. Gets all the information you want across clearly in a heartbeat.

[@schalotten]

I find it interesting how a letter that looked like an "I" became "Z" and the one looking like a "Z" became "I"

[@TiagoH1710]

Me too

[@sajidulhaqababil77777]

@MoolsDogTwo yes.... correct. KAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@michroz]

Maybe so: Imagine the capital "I" in Times New Roman font - with upper and lower "shelves". Now try to write it in this natural order: the upper shelf (left-to-right), then the body (from up to down), and the lower shelf (from left to right). With fast writing this may look like Z. Just an idea.

[@bashiry4218]

Arabic appears to have preserved the original form of these two letters. z = ى . The sound is like i in modern English i = ز . The sound is like a Z in modern English.

[@echohollowhome]

@@bashiry4218 Interesting!

[@jasonchiu272]

Every alphabet: Goes through quite a few changes O: Literally O

[@carbonmonteroy]

Xx and Oo stayed the same because they were really easy to make. Same with Vv, though that Uu/Vv/Ww split did happen

[@guiorgy]

Many alphabets probably have a letter or two that don't change much. In Georgian for example, the alphabet went through major changes (or maybe better say replacement) twice but the letter S stayed pretty much the same: modern ს, old Ⴑ PS. Other letters are completely different though, like A: Ⴀ became ა, B: Ⴁ - ბ, G: Ⴂ - გ, D: Ⴃ - დ

[@pickleneck526]

: O

[@countofdownable]

I think O was originally an "eye". Like A was an "ox head", M was "water" and N a "snake".

[@cornheadahh]

O actually makes sense because because that's the shape your mouth makes when it says it.

[@boggybolt6782]

This actually explains a lot of stuff. the names of different writings like alphabet, abjad, and abugida, all originate from the first few letters (abgd). In Serbo-croatian, for example, the word "abeceda" (meaning alphabet) literally means abcd. Also explains why the cyrillic aplhabet is ordered similarly, but not quite, like the latin one.

[@viktorbaraga4514]

Good question. Greeks invaded the territory of today's territory of Greece except Macedonia, only around 700 BC. Vinca script / Cyrillic today was copied by Greeks and changed some letters as they could not pronounce them. Latin developed from Greek and Etruscans writing was deciphered by using Vinca script / todays Cyrillic script.This means, that the so called barbarians from the north were actually far from that. They invented melioration, calendar ,alphabet and writing. It was an egalitarian society and they never had slaves and have had no arms even though they developed metalurgy,copper,tin, agricultural tools etc. No war for over 6000 years .And then the big migration from the east apeared,still did not know any metal, but they had arms made from stone. Most of the original man virtually disapared.Aparently it was a plaque which only kills men and does not affect women or the invaders .Number of books was written on this events by leading paleologists from Germany and Italy, Russia and USA. All the claims can be supported with science .

[@edgarracosta2362]

In Spanish we have "abecedario" (meaning also alphabet), but we also have the cognate "alfabeto"

[@huskytail]

@@viktorbaraga4514 did you just write that the Cyrillic is a Vinca alphabet? Please tell me I just misread because I am not yet at the end of my first coffee for the day 😂

[@GolAcheron-fc4ug]

Yup! Abjad comed from the original first 3 letters but it’s the sounds they make in arabic Ah Bah Jim Dal

[@slehar]

Real eye opener to ancient alphabets! Very informative! Thanks!

[@rreagan007]

Thorn is a very interesting letter which I wish we kept around in modern English instead of using a "Th" digraph to make the same sound. Since most early English printers didn't have a thorn letter, they would often substitute a "Y" for thorn, which still survives today in an attempt to make something seem old and nostalgic, such as "Ye olde...". Most people will pronounce the "Y" like a modern Y, but since it is meant to represent the letter thorn it should be pronounced the same as the modern English "th" digraph.

[@stephenderry9488]

*digraph (sorry!)

[@HarryGuit]

Ya, a diphthong are two vowels pronounced directly after another

[@timt2753]

Dipthongs are two *vowels* not consonants

[@joshuapray]

@@HarryGuit And, to be even more precise, a diphthong is not two vowels. It is one vowel sound that requires a glide between two mouth shapes. Look at us go!

[@driveasandwich6734]

As loņ as people start usiņ it again...

[@patrickhayes3099]

Having been involved in a Greek letter group in college, I never realized that Omega & Omicron were simply Big (mega) O and Little (micro) O. This was a good reminder.

[@MegaMementoMori]

If the little O variant of COVID is so dangerous, I don't ever want to see it's big brother...

[@TheTrueAltoClef]

Oh damn, you're right!

[@jorgegonzalez-larramendi5491]

get ready for the Next covid: the possessed brainwashed are Refusing to vax - and the virus seems to evolve in few lunations. am Ready for #4 vax Now. go ron de caligula go go rasputin go !!

[@jorgegonzalez-larramendi5491]

@@MegaMementoMori nice troll you go ahead and evolve it in your lungs sorry i am not nice to demons

[@MegaMementoMori]

@@jorgegonzalez-larramendi5491 No, Jorge. You are the demons.

[@Dayta]

just found out about this channel .... what a beautiful way to learn i enjoyed this so much and looking forward to what else will be found on this channel .. thank you

[@armankashef]

Fun fact about 10:17 In Turkish language, the letter C still sounds as a J or a G (as pronounced in the word “general” or “just”) But the letter G sounds as it is pronounced in words like “glass” or “great”.

[@edwincomia5068]

So its "abj"?

[@sthenzel]

I wouldn´t mind getting þ back, as THe sound is so common in English.

[@flapperf4237]

What about the immigrants?

[@mikeoxsmal8022]

In hiberno-english or at least some it isn't even pronounced

[@Rakonax]

@@flapperf4237 almost every language has costum letters, and the immigrants don't have problems with them either

[@flapperf4237]

@@Rakonax Immigrants mostly do low paying jobs because they have no choice. Bringing more nonsense will be discriminating. Unless you want that!

[@Rakonax]

@@flapperf4237 nonsense? a new letter that would make engish a lot more phonetic and so easier to pronounce and write? thats not discrimination.

[@Kastagaar]

It would be really interesting to trace this alongside the runic and cyrillic scripts and see how they all contributed to each other.

[@michaljanwarecki763]

sa oef It’s as old as the modern Latin alphabet, so why not?

[@VisibleSink]

Its against „agenda” because Slavic runic is older than Phoenician as we all know “that can’t be”. Although author using some runic letters in Phoenician and Greek alphabet. Or maybe post-Latin speaking people still don’t understand Slavic people.

[@user-xd4fw5wy6m]

@sa oef well it was created around the 10th century,it's only about 300 years younger than the Latin alphabet

[@SameLif3]

Tatara at Studio Interesting, what about Sumerian, and Mongolian?

[@TLguitar]

@@VisibleSink No, it's not. There isn't even solid evidence any script had been used over there before the introduction of Cyrillic.

[@sachabaptista]

W "double U" is actually pronounced "double vé" in French, meaning "double V", which makes more sense since it's shaped like a VV and not a UU.

[@blain20_]

V used to be U. Latin changed the sound. They're really the same letter. The original W was rounded. So, in French, v is really u with the new sound. Thus, double-u and double-v are synonymous.

[@rasmuswestergren6221]

Same in Sweden, here we call W dubbel-ve

[@jeopardy60611]

The "W" sound is like a stronger "U" sound, so that is why we call it "double U."

[@jekylwhispy4181]

Thanks. I couldn't but help think of this as I watched. I've thought for a while it might be better called 'double-v' in English. Idk

[@Lyca33]

Tbf when writing the lowercase w a lot of us write it looking like a double u

[@yz4043]

Fascinating and brilliantly described with beautiful charts because it's a complex topic I know nothing about. Subscribed!

[@mtranchi]

you should put a little QR code on the chart that leads to this vid

[@mtranchi]

@MichaelKingsfordGray I don't follow your train of thought there, champ

[@janedoe8901]

@MichaelKingsfordGray wtf lmao

[@touffedaviau8370]

@MichaelKingsfordGray...what?

[@Ery1389]

In Italy, when I was little, 25 years ago, at school I learned at first a shorter alphabet: the letters j k x y w were missing because we didn't need them for italian words... than I learned the complete one that I use everyday but, in my mind, even if my name has a k in it, they remain as foreign letters to me 😂😂

[@GiuliaBlack394]

italian here too, i love that we litterally call those letters "lettere straniere" (foreign letters) 😂

[@charlesayache6801]

You are definitely right. J: non existant in semitic. K, Greek from the semitic Kaf is used instead or in paralell with c in many others scripts, Y is Greek as it is called is used in many scripts instead or in parallel with I. It is born from the semitic Yud. X is non existant in semitic, instead is ks. Z is existant in semitic.

[@Ery1389]

@@charlesayache6801 yes, we have ch that sounds like k

[@eduardalopes7155]

In Brazil I learned everything at onde but was told that W, X and Y were only used in names and foreigner words. And I think that's accurate

[@surfernorm6360]

they left those letters out because they are germanic and Italians think germans are barbarians

[@xyzjoe42]

Absolutely fascinating. I have always wondered about the alphabet's origin and then stumbled upon your presentation. It's caffeine for history nerds. Thank you for putting this together and I will be visiting your store. On a technical note, what software did you use to create the animations? Very clear, concise, and easy to follow along with you.

[@andrebenites9919]

10:44 Cool how C still makes a double function (which can mean k- as in cat and s- as in city) but back then it was K- and G-. What is REALLY interesting is that in Hiragana (Japanese Sylabic Writing System) the G is also derived from the K (with only a mark to distinct). Pretty cool how 2 distinct cultures/societies merged on seing a similarity between k- and G-. Both are in the back of the throat (g- is even more far back) and... Well, it is so interesting how sometimes we make 2 symbols for the same sound or represent 2 different sounds with the same symbol. Edit: OMGGGG. THE G IS JUST A C WITH A LINE IN IT!! OMGGGG SAME THING HAPPENED!!! Edit 2: Omg. Zed is just like the month February. Let's just change whatever is in last. But, in February's case. It used to be last and nos it is not, while Z is the last letter preciselly because it is not so used. This makes so much sense. Of course it is not the whole alphabet that uses this order by popularity, but it really shows in the last few. Pretty cool!

[@jakkuwolfinsomnia8058]

That’s so fascinating, I love charts like these. It makes sense now why some of the letters are backwards, I didn’t know Romans and Greeks would interchange between which direction they would write

[@rachelLadyD]

romans being awkward

[@element1192]

The phenomenon of switching writing directions within text even had a name: boustrophedon, meaning "as the ox plows"

[@lastyhopper2792]

they probably got tired from writing with their right hand, then switch to their left hand to continue writing, then switch back again when the left hand's tired... so on so forth, haha

[@funkyfranx]

@@lastyhopper2792 What makes you think they would switch hands?

[@lastyhopper2792]

@@funkyfranx because they can write with both hands?

[@peterandersson3812]

In Scandinavia, ”w” is actually called ”double v”. In Swedish, it’s not considered a separate letter when it comes to dictionaries and other times when words are placed in alphabetical order. It’s considered a variant of ”v”.

[@KoovoParkolainen]

It is the same for Finnish as well. "Tuplavee" means double v.

[@oshywardlaw4375]

Double-U, U + U + W

[@malcolm5514]

In french as well "double v" or "vé" if you want to write the letter phonetically

[@Wolfeson28]

Same with Spanish, where the letter is named "doble ve" (double-V).

[@untruelie2640]

In German, it's the other way around. :D Also, no Double-Something here. We call the W "Wêh", but it isn't pronounced like in English; it's pronounced like the english V. The letter itself V is not often used in German (only in loanwords) and therefore has no distinct pronounciation. It's either pronounced as "f" or as "w"; the german Name of V is therefore "Fau". (Note that the german E is not pronounced like in English; in German, it's more similar (though not identical) to the english A.)

[@brianjoelbasualdo7436]

7:30 I love it that even without the audio you can still read it left to right perfectly. Amazing

[@finalbossoftheinternet6002]

I’ve been watching for years and somehow you keep coming out with amazing charts lol

[@nathanalexandre137]

the letter "Y" (called "why" in English) is still called "ípsilon" in Portuguese

[@rod33137]

And it's "I griega" ("Greek I") in Spanish

[@jejtherusheddoodle23]

In Vietnamese, Y is named “I co rec” meaning Greek Y and “I giai” meaning long I, because I (which some would call it “I ngan”, which means short I) and Y sound very similar, so they use that name to avoid confusion.

[@Pidalin]

Y is called ypsilon in Czech too, I think in most of phonetical languages it's ypsilon

[@Raikuthedragon]

In france it's called: i grec (Greek i)

[@_ldwk]

@@Raikuthedragon That's quite interesting

[@pianoforte611]

When you consider that essentially every language in the first century is either dead or completely unrecognizable from it's modern form - it's impressive that we still use an alphabet that existed back then.

[@Jumpoable]

And ultimately, it's fascinating to know that ALL alphabets, abjads & abugidas (ALL start with A and then B) stem from Egyptian hieroglyphics, which inspired the Phoenician alphabet (the 1st alphabet), which then became Aramaic > modern Hebrew/ Arabic/ Roman & Greek scripts, and also the Indic scripts, from Devanagari that is used to write Sanskrit & modern Hindi, to modern Thai. In the East, it's Chinese that dominated. The Japanese syllabary is still inspired by Chinese shapes. Only Korean Hangul/ Hangeul is a purely ORIGINAL invention (although inspired by Chinese or East Asian philosophy & linguistics). Mind-boggling indeed. Oh I'm not 1 of those crazy Korean netizens claiming that everything under the sun's from Korea, but for their script, they do take the prize for originality.

[@user-vo6ec7hk4u]

Not all languages died... Arabic is still alive and was not at any time a dead language.

[@karlosdaniel6537]

What about the Greek?

[@emilia1911]

@@karlosdaniel6537 "completely unrecognizable from it's modern form", I guess

[@GeneralPet]

@@emilia1911 Bullshit. It's the same language with a slightly different vocabulary. You can easily learn ancient greek if you already know greek.

[@tylerstevens1904]

Great video. It's refreshing to watch something both educational and entertaining. Thanks!

[@raywhitehead730]

Fabulous !! Learned some things, great, loved it. Your a winner!

[@marie-andreec5164]

My mind was just blown: now I know why, in French, we call the letter y "greek i".

[@al-carissimi]

Same in italian, it's called "i greca"

[@tonygomezma]

As in Spanish. We call it "i griega"

[@spiritusIRATUS]

@@tonygomezma No in spanish they now call it "ye" because RAE hates greek apparently.

[@tonygomezma]

​@@spiritusIRATUS Yes, you are right. I had forgotten it ,but for me "y" will always be "i griega"

[@XoneSpecialsGaming]

same in romanian: "i grec"

[@irolaan292]

13:32 It's fun to note that W is "double U" in english but "double V" in french. In english, the name is approximately based on the sound, but in french we based the name on the look of the letter. Both sounds about the same, "oo" for english as in "hooligan" or "ou" in french as in "Hibou" . In french, W is mainly used to write foreign word and I don't remember any real french words that do use w. Nice video! very informative.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Ouest!

[@BabySonicGT]

Oh.

[@thelordnaevis4946]

Well the video said that in the past, U and V were the same so U is V, and “double u” is just “double v”

[@Twiddle_things]

In Finnish we call it "kaksois V" (pronounced roughly kæksuis veeh, for you English-ers), which I find pretty funny since we don't use W. We say V, and most kids can't even say nor pronounce V, and when they do it's like a long V!

[@GiuliaBlack394]

in italian too! it's called "doppia vu", litterally double v as well :) i assume it is the same in spanish then since our languages are similar

[@chadify007]

These videos are the ultimate ads for your products wow! Love your channel!

[@brandonmccranie]

thank for how in depth you got with each letter, your amazing.

[@Sealdrop]

this channel is pure gold

[@wolfgangboettcher3126]

Richtig Gut

[@invernapro]

Dangit! I would've bought this chart immediately, but it's missing one letter: ð (eth). Though I am happy to see thorn in there. For those who might not know, ð (eth) is used for the voiced "th" sound, like in words such as "then" and "though." Whereas þ (thorn) is used for the unvoiced "th" like in "thin" or "throw." Both þ and ð are still used in Icelandic and Faroese, serving the same functions that they used to serve in English.

[@davidjorden2433]

Quick question. How do you know when to use eth and when to use thorn. Thanks.

[@danielmunoz6866]

@@davidjorden2433 As Nolan mentioned, depending on the sound being voices or unvoiced, that is, if your vocal cords vibrate, then you use eth, if not, you use thorn... in any case, in old times, when they were still in use, people use them less consistently... remember that there was no official spelling of words, and people were not always aware of the phonetic difference.

[@davidfrischknecht8261]

Also, if you see some signs that say "Ye Olde Shoppe", the 'Y' is standing in for "eth", so it should be pronounced "the", not "ye".

[@Cruxador]

@@davidjorden2433 It's the difference between the words bath and bathe.

[@r.m.pereira5958]

Thorn is not used in Faroese. Only ð is used, but it is silent or a slight /w/.

[@andrebenites9919]

6:40 After realizing after this transition all leters were "inverted" to the way we look at today. I just made a quick wikipedia search and found out that Old Italic also used Right-to-left direction for reading sometimes. So, maybe when they made the transition from right-to-left to our standard left-to-right, they also switched the letters. So the beginings and ends would stay the same, just in different directions. Edit: OMG, I'm a genius (JK). But great explanation! They did both directions simultaneously!! That way the eye travel is minimized while reading! So engenious! I loved the snake-like movement of the reading. Great animation to show your point.

[@annedeguernon8117]

What an incredibly simple demonstration. Thank you so much

[@shipwreck9146]

7:23 Oh cool, an explanation for dyslexia.

[@srccde]

Somewhat, but a non-dyslexic brain can still learn to read this fluently rather easily.

[@scottleacox7516]

Dyslexia is a combination of things. Mainly the symbol part of the brain does not work. I think due to induced birth drugs creating a lite version of autism where the pruning process is not complete like an autistic.

[@jackoliving]

Bro, did you know the Roman alphabet wasn't complete? Really? What was it missing? U, bro. Bro...

[@hrvojebartulovic7870]

...and a J...

[@espera_2192]

NO U

[@evm6177]

🤓

[@evm6177]

@@joopmoop4089 Totally ! 🕶

[@generichomosapien4666]

Espera _21 indeed there is no u

[@ZeraPrinc]

Really super explained. Thanks for the effort. It was worth watching.

[@anastasiar9625]

I have to say I love your detail research! Ever since I was a little child I was always interested knowing where we came from where we going, and most importantly what is the purpose of it all. I always feel like I don't belong here, that there's something that I have to do in order to be somewhere else. I don't know where, and how, and why, but I just simply cannot feel home out here. I love many things in this life and being here, but I feel like I'm just a visitor here and none of it is mine not even my family and children, that I was just given a test to bring them into this world and raised them in a good manner before I could leave somewhere else. But I don't know where, how and when.

[@AnthonyBerkshire]

Alpha in phoenician means bull “ALF”. And you still can see the bull horns in the latter A if you turn it upside down

[@simko8665]

In the Biblical Hebrew it called Elef - a bull.

[@yossibivas]

@@simko8665 Not quite, Aluf= Ox (a castrated bull). Elef=1000.

[@simko8665]

@@yossibivas "שגר אלפיך ועשתרות צאניך"

[@eurostar0711]

In Aramaic its Aleph. Assyrians call the alphabet "aleph-bet". Also, modern Hebrew adopted Aramaic alphabet. Arabic also borrows a lot of words from Aramaic, and uses modifications of other Aramaic words to create other Arabic words.

[@abdakabarkat7572]

in arabic is alif the first language is aramen language which is now arabic language

[@fgconnolly4170]

can you make a family tree of the Indo-European language family? and if that goes well, maybe other language families

[@boemiobe4t993]

Up

[@CucumberBat227]

yesssssss please

[@JaxzanProditor]

Cannot second this enough

[@injunsun]

Yes, please.

[@MinnesotaExpat]

So much yes on this! Even just starting with Romance or Germanic would be lovely!

[@dranzacspartan8002]

Bloody clever. Great research. Thanks for the enlightenment mate! A Coopers to you.

[@ay-ku9un]

Thank you so much for this amazing video If you can make a video talking in depth about the sounds of these letters and why they changed, that would be terrific. Another video, maybe on the evolution of the alphabet to other languages as Arabic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Thank you so much!

[@louloucht]

Fun fact : the letter Y was called "Y graeca" in latin by the Romans (Y being pronunced like latin V or modern U, like explained in the video) and in French we call it "I Grec' = literraly "Greek I". The Portuguese, Romanians and Spanish (+ Catalan and Galician) also use something similar to this. (Not sure if the Portuguese use it over Ipsilon though) Also the Dutch and Polish also use respectively "I-Grec" and "Igrek" but i'm pretty sure it was borrowed from French (correct me if i'm wrong) :).

[@tibethatguy]

Y actually has many Dutch names, like i-grec, ij, and ypsilon.

[@nathanalexandre137]

in Portuguese we only use ípsilon

[@Snagabott]

In some languages Y is a vowel, but in English it's a consonant. Which is more common?

[@mortalkombatworld9707]

In american spanish we call it "i griega" wich is also literally "greek i", but it functions as a "sh" sound and a "i" sound at the same time, tough it is not considered a vowel as the letter i is.

[@alessandras8980]

@@mortalkombatworld9707 It's actually something like a "sh" sound only in Argentina and Uruguay. Everywhere else it sounds like an English y or, of course, like an i (pronounced "ee") but the latter is the case in every Spanish-speaking country.

[@TurboZera]

Could you make a Useful Chart about the Knights of the Round Table and the Arthurian Legends in the future please?

[@UsefulCharts]

Good suggestion.

[@TurboZera]

@@UsefulCharts Thank you very much. 😊

[@stillbruised]

Zera Omg best suggestion!!!

[@AbsolXGuardian]

I second that.

[@ecuadortheconstructionwork3835]

What about the Knights Who Say “Nee”?

[@purple_sky]

Wow, this was so interesting! I'm genuinely glad I chose to watch this at midnight instead of going to sleep

[@rodrigobola]

Beautiful and very interesting. I always catch myself wondering about the way words and speaking are evolving, it's awesome to see the way the alphabet evolved.

[@HugostarGames]

"Blackletter or Gothic" Me as german: Hey, thats Fraktur!

[@canadian2uk]

Fraktur is just a more beautiful version. The Blackletter was a very economical script to write books cheaply.

[@atatu4551]

In Poland we know the blackletters as gothic letters

[@saisayuri]

@@atatu4551 well in calligraphy in Poland we would have: tekstura (texture) = skrypt gotycki, gotyk (gothic script) = blackletter; fraktura (frakture) - fancier, smoother, more fluorishings; bastarda (bastarde) - even more smooth and soft; szwabacha (Schwabacher - was seen as type of bastarde, evolved to printing german letters, also szwabacha polska exists - polish early print version), rotunda (earlier, closer to carolignan bas still gothic)... :D

[@Pidalin]

@@atatu4551 we are calling it švabach in Czechia, only nazis are using it today

[@MacakPodSIjemom]

@@canadian2uk How is this the case? Useful Charts said it also, but I don't understand, The Blackletter is much thicker so it looks as if it uses more ink to print, and it also looks more complicated to write.

[@capitus1295]

To follow on your remark, W is actually called "double - v" in French, and pretty much anyone learning English makes the joke at least once as to why call it "double - u" when it's not even written as a double u.

[@urieldaboamorte]

For some ungodly reason Portuguese also reads w as "double u". I wish I knew why

[@urieldaboamorte]

ofc I know /u, v/ are extremely similar and Vulgar Latin was explicit about that. But why would French and Portuguese decided on a different "double X"? Edit: /w/ is also extremely similar

[@ericklucasmenezesdelima570]

Here in Brazil we just took the English spelling and pronounced in a Portuguese way, Wich sounds strange because we could have translated "double u" to "u duplo", but instead we got "dábliu", Wich is not even a word kkkk

[@tommasolarghetti]

Even in italian , it's "doppia v" (double v)

[@broccoliflorette1970]

@Manchac It's also the only letter name in English which is not monosyllable which is mildly infuriating.

[@removalldamme]

Dude i just come to discover your... Channel.... Let me tell you this : you are a brillant genius...👍👍

[@riddlezastra1496]

great animation and very informative stuff.. I loved it; please make more of these by family of writing systems

[@moongirl786]

Wow, timing: this is literally what I have spent a couple months of the pandemic learning!! I did a (very) rough chart of my own, also focusing specifically on the evolution of the Latin alphabet, but I also included the hieroglyphs that the Proto-Sinaitic characters were most likely based off of. This is because I have also been learning Egyptian hieroglyphs, and when I learned that many of them were the origin of the characters I use every day I was over the moon with excitement :)

[@bernadettetreual]

You could have mentioned that the W was already used in Roman times as they encountered the Germans who used that sound.

[@AlDunbar]

It would be interesting to also consider the development of all of the letter like cyrillic and various Asian systems, and their occasional influence on each other. Then there is hangeul developed by Sejong, the fourth king of the Korean Choson dynasty in 1443 . It's purpose was to improve literacy, which had been hampered for many by the complexity of Hanji (Chinese characters).

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Cyrillic is much more inspired by the greek alphabet than the latin one. You can see it when the letter "P" is pronounced like the english/latin "R"

[@TheYeetedMeat]

Probably wasn’t developed by a king but was just attributed to him

[@Declanjhoulgrave]

@@HappyBeezerStudios yea especially п! π

[@thomaswoodward3903]

the way Greek transformed into Cyrillic is fascinating

[@cerebrummaximus3762]

Cyrillic has a more straightforward path. It was the second Slavic alphabet (after Glagolithic), created in the Bulgarian Empire during Christianisation, with inspiration from Greek. Despite this, it has naturally seen changes over time, which would be cool to see in a video. The biggest being when Cyrillic was transferred onto typewriter for the first time, in Russia, and the designs of various letters would slightly change, while others would be replaced with similar existing Latin letters; that would become the standard Cyrillic font for a while. Cyrillic also has three forms: print, cursive/technical, handwritten. It'll be interesting how each form developed from the original. ------------- *If anyone is interested, here's quick history how Cyrillic was formed:* Saints Cyril and Methodius had been sent on a mission to Greater Moravia in order to Christianise the Slavs there and standardise the language to translate Christian texts. They had developed the Glagolitic alphabet to match the language. The Saints had reached decent progress, even gaining many Followers. After St Cyril’s death however, the Missionaries St Methodius and their Followers/Disciples we expelled from Greater Moravia (Cyrillic would later be named that in memory of St Cyril). Meanwhile in the First Bulgarian Empire, a land that has relied on the cooperation between two completely different people groups: Bulgars and Slavs, each with different languages (although Slavic was predominant since 681), cultures and religions to keep the country united. After devastation from famine and wars, the difference between the peoples was beginning to leave a mark on the country. There had to be a uniting factor, and the language had to be standardised. The Knyaz (Slavic leader title) at the time, Boris seeked Christianisation. Conveniently, by coincidence, St Methodius and the followers had been expelled from Moravia at this time. Boris welcomed them with open arms, and even opened to major schools in the Bulgarian empire for them. Boris will seek standardisation (Old Church Slavonic) so texts could be translated, and eventually a simpler alphabet more suitable for the needs of Bulgarian/ South Slavic Dialect. Knyaz Boris commissioned from students of the Saints and Disciples, Clement, Naom and the Седмочисленици for the creation of Cyrillic. Following the Christianisation and Language Standardisation, Bulgaria would follow through into a Golden age under Boris’ son, Tsar Simeon ------------ Cyrillic would then spread across the other Slavic countries and tribes. Via following reasons: • Cyrillic is simpler than former Glagolithic, and hence being more appealing, especially when educating previously illiterate lower classes. • As Cyrillic was inspired by Greek, many countries that have close relations to the Byzantine Empire may be more appealed to pick Cyrillic. • Lands under, influenced or invaded by the Bulgarian Empire would adopt Cyrillic • If a country adopts the Orthodox church (especially likely if it was help from Bulgarian mercenaries), or is influenced by Bulgarian Orthodox mercenaries may adopt the Cyrillic alphabet. Russia is the famous example. Edit: Spelling

[@patrickjmolloy]

Beautifully communicated, both visually and in spoken word. I’m a type designer. I found this video interesting and engaging.

[@angryduck8621]

"Enchanting Table Language"

[@datarioplays]

Get your fact straight before dropping jokes and memes

[@triatic9476]

Oh look, an alphabet and symbols i'm not familiar too, it must be the minecraft enchantment table language

[@unitedblueberryempire8176]

The part where u flipped the letters while talking normally tripped me out

[@injunsun]

What's weird was, because of context, I would be able to easily read this.

[@efulmer8675]

Take a word that you are familiar with (this is even more fun with a sentence) and scramble its letters but keep the first and last letter in their places and don't add or remove the letters in the middle of the word. Waht ylo'ul get is sthimenog lkie tihs but the wreid prat is yol'ul sltil be albe to raed it lkie nrmoal. It might slow you down a little though. Someone fluent in English tends to focus on the first and last letters as the basis of the word and then everything else in between is mostly just 'there'.

[@st0rmchild]

Fascinating! I love this stuff.

[@knockoutnorko7500]

Bloody fascinating lad. Glad I have finally sorted my confusion of why is the Hebrew alphabet so similar to the older Phoenician. Thank ye for posting’ this masterpiece.

[@therealsosi8204]

No one: The Romans :VTF MAN I CAN ONLY SCREAM

[@dd-nz8ry]

The Chinese：尔弱智乎？

[@Baamthe25th]

IVST TRY TO BE QVIET

[@ajhare2]

@@Baamthe25th Qvit rn

[@hueychan6907]

@@dd-nz8ry wtf man

[@Kanal7Indonesia]

Romas

[@iDarkBladei2]

So many interesting little details that jump at me as i view it as a Hebrew speaker... - The most ancient version of the alphabet is at times sooo similar to the modern Hebrew letters. - So many original meanings of letters also stayed almost the same. - The letter that looks like an eye, is pronounced 'a-i-n', and that also how you say 'eye' in Hebrew! That is largely true to 'bet' (b), 'mem' (m), 'nun' (n), 'dalet' (d), 'reish' (r)... It's all connected to words in modern Hebrew that sound almost the same as the name of the letter, and have the meaning of the original Egyptian letter... AMAZING. Not to mention that the shape of the letters is olso very similar... I'm always blown away by such stuff. Thousands of years of human development in your face. 0:

[@ignemuton5500]

it's quite incredible how almost every language in the world today uses an alphabet based on this one.

[@LordJagd]

That’s because while Greek and Latin alphabets were developing, back in the Near East the Aramaic alphabet began, and Hebrew is a branch off of that.

[@mikicerise6250]

Greek: Alpha! 😎 Hebrew: Alef! 😎 Latin: ... 😖 Ancient Egyptian: Go on, my child... 👵 Latin: Ahhhhhhh 😳 Ancient Egyptian: I am so disappointed in you, my child. 🤦

[@prismaticfalcon]

This is way more intriguing than I thought it would be. Amazing

[@lakshmi7138]

I'm sooooo glad I found this channel!!! ❤️

[@wallstreetoneil]

Just found this video - wow. Why things like this aren't taught in school just blows my mind. Incredible summary.

[@jackiereynolds2888]

I love this stuff. I've loved languages since I was little. Thank you for introducing these five major 'systems'.

[@maddi62]

Another great vid. Thx for posting

[@writerinrwanda]

Fascinating. Thanks!

[@nikostheater]

Also, in the Greek alphabet, every letter had a numerical value, it was both a letter and a number, so when the letters stigma, digamma, qoppa, sampi, were dropped from the alphabet, they were continued to be used as numbers. The stigma is still being used the same way in modern Greek when there is numbering using letters.

[@sumlocals2544]

εχουν μπερδευτει γενικα.. περνουν ως δεδομενα καποια πραγματα που δεν ισχυουν καν...

[@megasbaladoros]

I don't recall digamma used as a number. Maybe it was dropped too early? I don't know. The other three yes, they are 6, 90 and 900.

[@magnificentscoop]

Hi! You're my favorite youtuber. Keep up the great content!

[@MedEighty]

Amazing! The letter A is an upside-down head of a cow and the letter K is a sideways head of a calf. K is specially interesting, because of it being called kaf in Modern Hebrew (and Arabic), which is awfully similar to the world calf.

[@jeopardy60611]

I find it interesting how letters that look similar are one letter that is "spun off" from another letter. I never realized that C and G, as well as I and J, were originally the same letter. I am Jewish and studied Hebrew, and I always wondered why the letter "gimmel" is third in the Hebrew alphabet when the English letter G is 7th.

[@jekylwhispy4181]

And I don't speak Hebrew but it seems to me like those two sounds are similar. They definitely are in English. G and C you make the same shape with your mouth

[@asocos]

@@jekylwhispy4181 Because /k/ is the voiceless version of /g/, so the Roman’s may have had some sounds that were originally /g/ but became voiceless /k/

[@tfan2222]

@@asocosIt’s because Ce and Gamma come from the same thing. It’s not a sound change, it’s that a particular teacher in Rome (forget his name at the moment, forgive me) realized that it wasn’t possible to tell when to say C and when to say G (as they were phonemes, not a allophones). So…he just added a line when it was G.

[@asocos]

@@tfan2222 bruh, he is talking about the sounds, not the letters

[@user-yw4fz6xk2j]

In fact the Etruscan alphabet is even closer to Greek, because it's exactly the Chalkidic alphabet of Greece, which was used in Kyme, ancient Naples, a colony in Italy that used the alphabet of its metropolis Chalkis, where the Etruscans took their letters from.🤗❤️🇬🇷

[@sebastianandezradiscoverse1246]

:( now I can’t let letters goes not to ffffff

[@sebastianandezradiscoverse1246]

B

[@gleesik]

It might be very useful to have something similar for the mathematical symbols, especially for numbers.

[@bojanstare8667]

And what is wrong with present number?

[@fruity4820]

Oh, you mean lmaking a chart and a video about the development of the symboles for numbers? That would be very interesting. The 10 base system as we know it was brought to Europe from Arabic culture, but the Arabic symbols seen today look very different from the classic symbols most of us use (٣ for 3, ٨ for 8, but some have similarities between them like ٩ for 9), but those are the symboles seen today, imagine all the different stages they must have been through, like the letters' symbols (I actually don't know how much Arabs use those Arabic symboles in math class and in everyday numbers usage, but I do know they love putting them on their notes and coins, which makes the most unique items in my humble coins collection, but this is off topic..). But things get even more complicated because Greek and Hebrew also had their own 10 base counting system, which is still a bit different from the Arab one, and they used their Alphabet letters as symbols for numbers! (Im pretty sure Jews actually never stop using that system ever since, it's the system in which chapters and verses in the hebrew bible are numbered, plus, because the letters are the numbers, you can calculate the "value' of words, and compering values of different words to find connections and hidden meanings has always been part of practicing Judaism ) And I haven't even started with Roman numerals! About those I know the least, so it would be extremely cool to see a video about it.

[@A1441]

Very educational and very entertaining! This should be shown to grade school and high school students around the world.

[@brainstormingsharing1309]

Absolutely well done and definitely keep it up ❗👍👏👍👏👍

[@secretmeatball3767]

I should be doing my homework that’s due in a few hours but instead I’m learning about the evolution of the alphabet.

[@rowanz74]

relatable

[@hakkiiv3672]

i am doing this as my homework xd

[@chrisrj9871]

You _should_ finish your assignment (adults get assignments at work, too), but at least you're learning something.

[@rowanz74]

secret meatball

[@jacobsale5511]

F

[@gabriele7921]

Great video! I tried to tell this story once and I made a mess: congratulation for telling it so clearly! One point is slightly incorrect in my opinion: why the Romans split the letter C. It is usually believed that the Romans first learnt the alphabet from the Etruscans, so they first came into contact with a version of the Greek alphabet that had been adapted for the Etruscan language. Now Etruscan is typically reconstructed as having no voiced stops but several K-like sounds in different places of articulation. According to my sources the Etruscans had no use for a G-sound and had repurposed C for one of their K-sounds instead. So the Romans learnt that C had a K-sound and they had to recreate a new letter for the G-sound. You can look into it .

[@DaveVargas90012]

Wonderful presentation...well done!

[@Mercure250]

You should have mentioned the "Y" was used in Latin for Greek loanwords. You didn't intend to talk about pronunciation, but this is because the letter, which was originally pronounced like English "oo", became pronounced like the French "u" or German "ü". The Latin borrowed words from the Greeks during that time, and the Y was used to represent that sound, which eventually became pronounced like the letter "i" ("ee") in both languages, while "V" was still used in Latin to represent the "oo" sound and the "w" sound. Another thing also : There was actually a rule for when to use "V" and when to use "U". At the beginning of words, "V" was the dominant form, and "U" was used elsewhere. Since, at the beginning of words, the "w" sounds changed to become a "v" sound in Romance languages (descendant languages from Latin), the rule eventually changed and "V" came to represent the "v" sound and "U" the "oo/u" sound. If I remember correctly, something similar happened for "I/J". It's a bit hard to talk about the history of the alphabet without talking about pronunciation, as it's sometimes very important for understanding why certain changes in the alphabet happened.

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

This is very interesting! It's explained pretty well in the "Y" video by jan Misali.

[@Mercure250]

@@clockworkkirlia7475 you mean "w"?

[@clockworkkirlia7475]

@@Mercure250 Yes I mean "w" but to be fair I could have been making a hilarious joke for all anyone knows. :P Definitely wasn't confused by the subject matter or anything.

[@Mercure250]

@@clockworkkirlia7475 Ah, so that's why

[@otanasivert]

True. Latin word for Syria was ... Syria (with a Y).

[@bluetintedchromee3881]

Wow. First time I'm actually interested in learning about the history of english. How do youtubers make learning so interesting??

[@SilverHeadim]

Thanks a lot for this educational video. Literally what i was looking for

[@drumsR4girls]

So fascinating! Thank you!

[@margalitdienstfrey5908]

13:03: The fact that the "V" was sometimes a vowel and sometimes made the "vvvv" sound makes a lot of sense. The letter "vav" (ו) in hebrew makes a "vvvv", "oh", or "ooo" sound depending on what word it is used in. Also I wonder if that is why vowel starts with the letter "v."

[@elimalinsky7069]

The word "vowel" itself has nothing to do with its semantic meaning and the fact it starts with a "v", if that is what you had in mind.

[@tomerschubert2095]

Its pronounced V because that how it was pronounced by Ashkenazi jews due to the slight germanization of Hebrew in Europe. (In German W makes a V sound) It was pronounced the original W sound by Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews. Now the V sound is used because that's the sound they decided to use when they were resurrecting Hebrew. Though some people do still use the W sound today.

[@Jujuoak]

It’s kinda interesting how the old letter for “H” looks like the “日” (ni) in Japanese

[@Portrial]

How strange people drew a ladder as H huh

[@royaljoe4901]

Actually , i think referring 日 to chinese is more accurate

[@Jujuoak]

@@royaljoe4901 hmm, yeah that’s a good point

[@razmann4k]

@@Jujuoak And 'H' in the Cyrillic script (Russian) represents the 'N' sound!

[@MVangelmx]

Funny, because depending on the use of the kanji, it also makes the “H” sound like when you write day in Japanese it makes the “H” sound.

[@MrTeeri4]

I become smarter every time I watch your amazing videos, thank you brother, love from Somalia

[@The_Silly_Funny]

2:02 This actually makes complete sense, because in Hebrew the word for fish is "daag" (דג). Interesting that it has barely changed since!

[@Artur_M.]

You may notice that the modern Latin lowercase letters look more similar to the Carolingian script (minuscule) than to the Blackletter. That's basically because the renaissance humanists mistook copies of classical works written in this script for the ancient originals and thought that this style looks more elegant than the oh-so-barbaric "gothic" letters. :D

[@damianmatras8568]

LoL, I can't believe it. I always liked Gothic more than anything.

[@michaljanwarecki763]

Could you back it with and source? The story I’ve heard is that blackletter is just more difficult to read in small font sizes. The podcast “99 Percent Invisible” has a great episode about this.

[@Artur_M.]

@@michaljanwarecki763 Excuse me, this might sound weird but I just noticed that my reply to your question about the sources (which I posted the same day) apparently got hidden because I can't see it when viewing this video while not logged on my account (maybe it has something to do with the links I have put there?). Did you get it?

[@Artur_M.]

@@michaljanwarecki763 In case you dindn't get my reply here's it again (without links this time): Oh yes, the practical aspect of better readability also played a major role. As for sources: Józef Szymański, Nauki pomocnicze historii, Warszawa 2004, p. 343. The Wikipedia article on Humanist minuscule, with this quote in particular: "When they handled manuscript books copied by eleventh- and twelfth-century scribes, Quattrocento literati [meaning the learned Italians of the 15th century] thought they were looking at texts that came right out of the bookshops of ancient Rome". from Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, 2nd ed. (Cambridge University Press) 2006, p. 134. I also found an interesting article on Humanistic Script on a blog about medieval manuscripts called 'Sexy Codicology'. I'll be sure to check out the podcast you recommended too.

[@user-vm1hi7bo5s]

@@Artur_M. This feature is called shadow ban. No one sees banned comments except you. Some keywords or any link will cause it. You can avoid it for links by putting them in between of two $, + or = symbols. But only if that link wasn't filtered by keyword

[@he2collinator]

I like how the O it’s just that person that just looks the same through the whole entire life and P is the person that gets plastic surgery their whole entire life and for some reason their best friends

[@calebopossum5023]

O is the oldest letter that has changed the least. Even in very ancient times.

[@kamrankerim636]

so informative, enjoyed every bit

[@stvp68]

Visuals were very helpful and easy to follow!

[@KaritKtana]

The Old Italic alphabet looks so cool and modern, it needs to make a comeback 😎

[@RMT0615]

But the M,N and P gotta go cuz it kinda sucks ngl

[@deutschekanadische]

I NEED a return of norse runes. they look so cool

[@MrWaffle-]

@@deutschekanadische Jag hatar dem

[@jimcopp6869]

Great tattoo ideas.

[@Arthur2023Thelogoslover]

​@@RMT0615 yes

[@Omnigreen]

Really interesting, I would watch an even more detailed and longer version of this! part 2 maybe?

[@adrianavaladez]

Very interesting! Thank you for sharing! 👍

[@abyssimus]

In learning calligraphy, I have to say that blackletter came about for easier reading, not writing. The uncial derived scripts (Insular, Carolingian) are much easier to write in but it's more open to accidental ambiguity (e.g. "oc" is easily read as "a").

[@generalsagmandia8239]

I find it interesting the oldest known example of the Proto-Sinaitic script was found in 1999 in Middle Egypt in the Wadi el-Hol inscriptions. This suggests that Proto-Sinaitic originated there and the term should probably be revised Proto-Middle Egyptian or something to that effect.

[@Gouws77]

I love history and your videos came across my KZbin suggestions. I find them fascinating. I know English & Hebrew and I find this historical explanation of the Alphabet very interesting and why some Hebrew letters locations now differs from Latin. Thank you.

[@jekylwhispy4181]

I liked it a lot. Thank you! And hey some tips on how to read Greek. Lots of good stuff

[@HuffGLaDTem]

i did a school project once on the Phoenician alphabet and the teacher was so surprised that i was interested enough on such a specific topic to do so much research

[@ThijquintNL]

12:42 now I know why we call this letter the 'greek Y' in dutch

[@Siansonea]

It's "Greek i" in Spanish and French, probably other languages as well.

[@ThijquintNL]

@@Siansonea the prenountiation of 'greek Y' is 'I' in dutch too

[@luukh833]

@@Siansonea Next to 'Greek Y' Dutch also say 'I-Grec', which is alike.

[@ThijquintNL]

@@luukh833 true