The Alphabet - Origins of Writing - Extra History

📜 Origins of the Alphabet, Extra History
Where did the alphabet come from? How did it develop, and why? The writing systems first developed in Sumer provided a basis for the written word, but their system of characters also inspired a shift to single phoneme systems where each letter represents a distinct sound.

#ExtraHistory #History #Alphabet

[extrahistory]

Where did the alphabet come from? How did it develop, and why?

[Ryukachoo]

This series is really hammering home the fact we live in a post apocalyptic world, considering the collapse was so bad even writing reset. Damn

[loganswanson]

"Simultaneously crafty and lazy" is the most perfect way to describe Greek civilization lol

[Gojiragon]

To sum up the episode;
*Now the Phoenicians can get down to business!*

[mithrilld]

Upset that the video didn't start with Dan singing the alphabet, stopping at Y, then going "Why... Why?" and the theme song opens

[idanzamir]

4:01
Great video! a minor correction, it is not that Semitic languages have fewer vowels, the pattern in which the vowels are used is much more predictable, rendering stating the vowels out right not necessary (although many Semitic languages added a kind of vowel system to help once writing developed)

[rgorojovsky]

Shoutouts to this week's artist for that baller egyptian sun!

[ladsworld]

1:10
It's over, Anaki, I have the Literacy

[MeepsNcheese]

I would love an additional video on how language in the eastern hemisphere developed! There was so much emphasis in Europe, the western world and the Middle East when it came to language development when I was in school and I'd love to learn more about how things formed elsewhere as well :D

[colorado]

*Now the Phoenicians can get down to business!*

[mathetesolei]

Eh.. your characterization of Semitic languages is off. It's not that they use no vowels, but their languages work by rearranging three (or four) sequence of consonant sounds called triliteral (or quadriliteral) roots in different templates to express variations of the basic meaning.

Example:
K-T-B (basic meaning: write)
yaKTuBu (he writes)
KaTaBa (he wrote)
KaaTiB (writer, secretary)
KiTaaB (book)
maKTaBat (library)

S-L-M (basic meaning: peace)
SaLiMa (he was in peace)
SaLLaMa (he rescued)
aSLaMa (he submitted, i.e. he exchanges self-defence for peace under another's rulership)
iSLaaM (the act of 'aslama' to Allah, i.e. the religion of Islam)

Because the templates are consistent across vocabulary, indicating short vowels (long vowels are usually indicated by aleph, vav and yod) was not urgent and you can usually guess the vowels pretty accurately.

Whereas Greek and other Indo-European languages work by mutating and adding inflections to a core syllable(s) called roots as well as making compound words to basically do the same thing.

Example:
speiro (I plant)
espeira (I planted)
esparka (I have planted)
sperma (seed)

gignomai (I am born)
egenomen (I was born)
genetika (things pertaining to being born; genetics)
genesis (the beginning)
spermatogenesis (the formation of seeds)

[Scribblersys]

Can't wait for the next History of Writing episode in summer of 2018!

[sfsfinancing]

I am more and more amazed by you guys. Not only are you pretty accurate, BUT, although brief, your presentations are remarkably dense with information. In fact, your brevity allows the broad connections to be understood, which can be lost when reading a 1, 000 page book. Sometimes, in a large book, you get lost in the facts, and miss the bigger picture. Your series on the East Indies Bubble really exemplified that.
Thanks alot.

[Chessrook]

Alpha + Beta = Alphabet

MY MIND HAS BEEN FREAKING BLOWN!!!!

[ckbooks]

I'm so glad you did another one of these. The history of writing is so fascinating to me, and I've been dying for more since the last episode. Awesome stuff!

[YYcomiendo]

I don't comment on videos often, but I wanted you guys to know that I love these series about history. Well written, well told and fun to hear.
<3

[Frahamen]

It"'s not that Semitic languages don't use vowels; the vowels are just less "fixed". Vowels change in context.

[justlily]

"Remember how easy it was to learn your ABC's, thank the Phoenicians!" - Dame Judi Dench, Spacship Earth

[Christiaan-]

5:11 EEH, why the AZERTY keyboard layout? Only the French (and Wallonians) use that abomination. You can't even write code on that effectively (according to the Belgians I spoke to).

[supersoulty]

You guys do a lot of great work, but I have to take some issue with your characteristic of vowels in Semitic languages. Vowels sounds are as common in those languages as they are in Indo-European languages, so that is not the reason vowels weren't written. Rather the reason likely has something to do with the grammar of those languages.

A well behaved Indo-European language like, say... Latin, normally adds an ending or creates a compound word (which is really the same thing, since "endings" are just what used to be free floating words that attached themselves to other words as endings, after enough time) when they want to make a slight change to the tense, or other meaning of a verb or noun. Semitic languages don't do this; instead they alter meaning by changing the vowel sound in a word, not unlike how Germanic languages have words like "eat/ate, " "sing/sang, " etc.(Germanic is the only IE language group that does this, in any form and it is thought it might actually the result of contact with Semitic speakers during the Bronze Age). Since this formula is used, Semitic languages usually follow a consonant-vowel-consonant structure of one syllable words (Proto-Indo-European was like this, but we went in a different direction). Well, when you have an entire language full of words like this, you don't need to write the vowels in the middle, because context takes care of that for you... so they didn't.