History of the alphabet | Journey into information theory | Computer Science | Khan Academy

The origin of letters
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[@saitaro]

This video deserves more views.

[@roosal3920]

LMAOOO NO

[@RecordableID]

Amazing seeing how we still use signs descended from the ancient Egyptians!

[@ryanhampson673]

It’s interesting to see languages that sound and look nothing alike have a common ancestor…The L,M,N,O,P order in English is also seen in Russian and also Arabic, which means they all came from the same source language thousands of years ago.

[@Kristy_cat]

In Spanish they have L, M, N, Ñ, O, P. The Ñ first started as NN and at some point became Ñ.

[@paulohagan3309]

Excellent condensed version of how the majority of writing systems came to be.

[@etymologist1976]

Etymology of education: E DU characters (English alphabet) systematized by Seolchong (person's name) in ancient Korea. 《EDUCATION = 이두깨쳐느》 The present English alphabet is the script used by the ancient Slavic tribes, and the letters were not systematized in each region. It is the English alphabet that the ancient Koreans ruled as the imperial family and systematized the characters. Latin means Slavic language. This is systematized by a man named Seol Chong in ancient Korea.

[@katiamartinsdasilva6770]

Embora tenha apreciado mais ver o vídeo com áudio original e legenda em português ao invés de dublado em português (por detalhes com letra h para homem, quando o desenho se assemelha a m referindo a men), um detalhe que acho importante mencionar para quem assiste sem buscar mais pesquisas, e não se equivocar com a legenda, é: "por volta de 1.000 B.C (antes de cristo), chegamos ao Alfabeto Fenício' - 7min 16seg

[@karishmadevani6598]

it is very helpful for my exams

[@MrMobe127]

Great video!

[@gregzeng]

Quick summary video. Looking for more. If capable. Grammar? Paragraphs? Time line of development?

[@aj_doge7734]

Khan Academy Labs! GGGG on the yt rank for hypixel GGS congrats!!!

[@xiaodongjia2361]

Great! Same to 0 to 9 and keyboard design.

[@karmaroam7371]

Hello! I really really apreciate your videos, they are really lovely, but this time I was completely hypnotized by the ost, what's that? the guitar arpeggios... sounds postrock? title somebody? :)

[@timetraveller6643]

8:31 the "M" and "W" have been swapped and inverted. And I'm suspicious of that Zed.

[@tiktokshorts123.8]

And X and Y have been swaped

[@dnd2216]

Truly fascinating

[@user-wn2nv5tr9n]

Hello from Syria 😊🇸🇾

[@nanaramishvili4499]

Georgien alphabet and writing sistem diserves attention as well.It is the same age as Sumer.This language is one of the encient language inthe world .there are 33letters in it

[@danielbairey4411]

The video is lovely and instructive. Absolutely amazing how you have managed to create it without mentioning Hebrew a single time: 22 characters, aluph (bull), bet (house) etc, Wonderful bypass !

[@djangounchained6099]

Aramaic predates Hebrew.

[@danielbairey4411]

Yes. Relevance ? It is actually probably neither, it is surmised to be a Canaanite dialect spoked by people who came into close contact with the Egyptians, perhaps in the Sinai.

[@Ratnoseterry]

By questioning the relevance you fail to understand that electric guitars didn't influence the creation of the harp. Time doesn't go backwards, and something that didn't exist yet wasn't necessary to the formation of its predecessor. The Israelites did not invent their language or alphabet, they inherited it, and our Hebrew today is a reconstruction regardless.

[@danielbairey4411]

@@Ratnoseterry harps surely had worthy predecessors and electric guitars shall beget progeny - surely in the human concert all are worthy of mention: recovered, revived or not. There are not many extant languages that still use what some refer to as Hebrew letters. Although there are those who still speak Aramaic , it is dubious it has not developed or changed. To each his or her own biased narrative.

[@Ratnoseterry]

@@danielbairey4411 there aren't other cultures using Hebrew letters because Hebrew went extinct. Harps and Phoenician letters did not, and Greek, Latin, and English did not go extinct. Though I'm sure it won't be long and they will be forgotten too lol

[@chuongpham2493]

Awesome vid

[@vaibhavpoliwal2820]

You should also discuss about sanskrit language which is thousand year old language.

[@user-xk2ot7eg7f]

வாழ்க தமிழ்!

[@tribhuvangiri4153]

Thank you

[@hiramanirout3121]

very good 😍😇

[@jibriel4918]

I am a proud Semite

[@akeem4772]

@MENIKA East-Afro True dat

[@thydev6]

2:39 muito passa ver essa tecnologia antiga !!

[@duelz3885]

I’m learning Hebrew slowly but surely as if it matters today with anything being translatable

[@pamelabrambilla4487]

Ótimo texto

[@thydev6]

9:10 eu ja fiz esse telefone de fio e latinha e massa demais. incrivel como tudo foi evoluindo !

[@henrywahlang3198]

OK it means symbols and pronunciation are sources of Alphabets🤗👍🤝

[@yvonne530]

There is only a way to decipher the hieroglyphs. You need two instruments: (1) the symbolic algorithm, found by Albanian Genie Mr. Petro Zheji and, (2) the Albanian Language. You just need to read the Book of Petro Zheji: "The mesianic role of the Albanian Language". Albanian is really the Cosmic Language, close to the symbols. She is the mother of all languages. Furthermore you have to read the Books: "Thoth spoke Albanian" by Giuseppe Catapano and "The Enigma" of Robert D'Angely. The old Sanskrit Language was in fact the Albanian Language. Sanskrit and Latin are dead languages, from the old languages is alive only the Albanian Language, it has strong roots. The Greek Language is a very new language, has no roots, it can be easy deciphered through Albanian Language too.

[@haidarasafi136]

I am from Syria 05:50☺️🤙

[@nahilkamil8366]

😂

[@mahmoudhatab2257]

I am from Egypt 😂

[@lilianguyen2368]

I love this video

[@mrkemoymrbailey9741]

It's your desire` huh 😨 come on now! weh ya seh! eh

[@dafilo3554]

crazy how we’ve gone so far now... 😌

[@addalavenkataratnam5449]

How india has used phoenician ALPHABETS?

[@nannonkay733]

Looks like a text book from school just different letters

[@FubbleSmurf]

Tripping sooo hard rn

[@manonsam1453]

the phoenicians created the alphabet we use today, it was created in a Lebanese city called Tyre (sour , صور ) in south Lebanon bye Mr kudmous ( قدموس )

[@user-pm7hx1xw4k]

Which came from Coptic, and Coptic came from demotic

[@Amanto7777]

Yes from lebanon but Byblos City

[@finnsalsa9304]

8:30 EXCUSE ME?! Are M and W in wrong places?

[@nadiarayne6384]

no x and y are mixed up

[@obscureorigins11111]

Plus 1000 veiws, because the whole sixth grade at my school is gonna watch this

[@Ugaritic]

Ebla: not only the oldest library in the world but also the oldest dictionary

[@mikolaj33]

What about Akkadian script?

[@SoheilaKamali]

Hello there. We're working on an exhibition about public archaeology where we need to present this video. Is there any person to whom I can speak whether there is any problem to present the video by the academy name or not?

[@C0pp3rm1nd]

You possibly do not need it anymore, but this is the e-mail i found in their profile after a little search. [e-mail] Hope this comment helps in any way.

[@SoheilaKamali]

@@C0pp3rm1nd So kind of you anyway to answer. :)

[@hornafrica7796]

This guy's information is not complete and worst biased information he is not saying o the public all the true informations

[@nguyeno7839]

Papyrus

[@sammyjacksonofhollywood1245]

Black Africans gave the whole world a system of writing, also paper to write ✍️.

[@SHEKHAR...BISWAS]

Who has come to watch in 2021

[@player111q7]

Is it me or the music is kinda scary? It just invokes a feeling of emptiness

[@user-xk2ot7eg7f]

Why does alphabet starts with a ?

[@jheniffynena5041]

daora pai

[@MrMobe127]

You said that the shift from word signs and sound signs happened in many cultures. Then why does Chinese and other East Asian languages still use word signs?

[@ErezGeva2]

Well the Chinese are using their signs as both word signs but a also as a consonant signs, the same shift as the Babilon and the Egyptian had. The Japanese have a fully consonant signs developed from the Chinese signs called Hiragana and Katakana. So the claim is quite OK. However to move from consonants to a sound letter using 22 letters is unique to Semitic languages. The reason which the Video did no mention is due to the structure of the Semitic languages, using root which consist only of sounds, so you do not need the consonants to understand the meaning. The vowels were created later by the Greek and Latin languages which must have vowels to distinguish meaning as most other human languages. The interesting is the development of the vowels letters show that most were used as both for sound and vowel and the reason is that the original Alephbet did not have any vowels. That also explains why even in English all vowels have sound, for example the word English the 'E' letter is a sound (with its own vowel).

[@trien30]

Erez Geva there was is and never were any CONSONANT signs in Chinese at all!!!

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

Chinese isn't purely ideographic, hanzi despite what people say is primarily phonological.

[@jeffreybonanno8982]

Because "many" and "all" are two different things.

[@baileyharrison1030]

Hafez Bechnak ‘Many cultures’ doesn’t mean ‘all cultures’

[@fadiestifani8307]

🇮🇶💪🇸🇾💪🇮🇶💪🇸🇾

[@Ugaritic]

Ugaritic alphabet is older than the Phoenician one

[@Cisco11211]

I AM 8:23

[@AFRoSHEENT3ARCMICHAEL69]

Fun fact: there's 26 letters in the English alphabet. Well the word God adds up to 26 in English gematria. G O D 7 15 4 7+15+4=26

[@mayajames4751]

Good video helped me with my history project. Buuuuut, i would rather play papas cupcakeria! Mainstream voice btw

[@Baarbosa7]

!

[@mitzvahgolem8366]

שלום מה וסה אסי hello what's up?

[@nahilkamil8366]

Fuck u

[@shorin5384]

That was uncalled for

[@Opa-Leo]

Phoenician isn't an Alphabet because it doesn't have vowels. It is a syllabary.

[@szecr]

I'm not sure but I think it's an abjad

[@samerhaddad5838]

Phoenician are the modern Lebanese ancestors

[@CASHKEZ]

if you think about it, america has such a boring history compared to the rest of the world. but on the other hand, americans are actually migrated europeans so our history is also their history.

[@jonathandavis1449]

The fuck you're taking about?

[@karmaroam7371]

all wich is human belongs to all humanity.

[@buelanismu2751]

secrets of the universe simply abc's,, elementary watson. suprisingly many sheep dont kni how to spell

[@solavix-1808]

Well this sucks that writing was created cuz people have to do fuccing book report and sh!t!!!!

[@gwen6622]

incisive commentary

[@GoodVibeWolf]

Am i the only one who isn’t here for school?

[@georgekokkos5347]

Nice video but towards the end you got it totally wrong. (Strange you don’t even mention Linear B ! GFor various different reasons, the Semitic alphabet you mention was not a real alphabet in the modern sense of the word. Greek city states created the first 100% real alphabets in the 8th c. BC

[@markmcwilliams5165]

The Greeks did make a significant contribution, however. Phoenician writing did not contain symbols for vowels, it only had consonants. The Greeks added the vowel symbols.

[@lelitsa]

Exactly right. The Greek innovation of vowels was a huge contribution making the alphabet functional.

[@user-xk2ot7eg7f]

FYI Tamil is Mother langauage.

[@ramithrajasinghe3340]

still letters for some English words has to be memorized, its a primitive way

[@onlinename7548]

@8:35 the “Y” and “X” are out of order SMH, rookie mistake on a video about the alphabet hahahahaha

[@BAFREMAUXSOORMALLY]

Hieratic? Demotic? Why not Ancient Arabic? Like on the Rashida (Rosetta) Stone!

[@raphaeladeniran1028]

FRÉMAUX SOORMALLY Because Arabic was derived from Hieratic writing...Arabic is not original.

[@bigozimak]

If the Chinese are so smart (and they are) then how come they never invented an alphabet? Very odd indeed.

[@jonavin]

Michael Aleksovski same reason why people make use of emoticons today. It’s more compact and concise. If emoticon use continues its trend, future generations will be writing in what will look like Chinese. I’m only half joking. In reality, the writing has a lot to do with art and culture. Chinese (Han) characters do have sound components in them so that you can guess/learn new characters from context. The Japanese still use Han (kanji) characters even though they developed their own phonetic alphabets. The other thing is that with hundreds of dialects that are mutually unintelligible to each other, it was convenient to have a written language that can be read and understood even if you pronounce the words completely different.

[@Alex-fv2qs]

There's a Chinese syllabary called Bopomofo, but they still use Hanzi because a sillabary or alphabet isn't very practical for a languagelike Chinese with so many homonyms

[@karmaroam7371]

simply different needs.

[@paulohagan3309]

Very conservative people (until the commies came with rather brutal methods of change and no argument allowed ... they tried to change the writing and language too ...)

[@thanasispapadimopoulos3498]

The Phoenician writing system was a great development for civilisation, but it is not an alphabet, as it is now defined and we know it. Please let me explain: It is true that the Phoenician 'alphabet' pre-existed the Greek alphabet, but the Phoenician was an abjad. Abjad is a type of writing system where each symbol or glyph stands for a consonant, leaving the reader to supply the appropriate vowel. On the other hand, an alphabet is defined as a set of graphemes that represent both vowels and consonants. So, although the Greek alphabet was developed on the basis of the earlier Phoenician abjad, the concept of alphabet and the first 'true' alphabet, in its narrow sense of word, was Greek.

[@mtdtheprince9029]

Even though this Abjad/Alphabet division is new thing and based on more European point of view, the Creeke had used the Phoenician alphabet and even alpha beta themselves are samtic words mean oxe and house. the greek made some changes on the alphabet to suit their language. But based on the definition of Alphabet I would say Latin alphabet is not a real Alphabet since it doesn't had enough symbols for all the sounds like ð or ø or æ or é sounds

[@tzaphkielmelekiyah1518]

Brah, it’s aleph bet for a reason, the modern definition is not the constant, it’s ever changing, we are talking about something then, and then it WAS an alphabet, more of an Aleph-Tau though.

[@Horemakhet_]

How is the phonician alphabet not an alphabet when that's what the greek language adopts? If greek had it's own alphabet it would've been in use instead of using an outside alphabet?