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Home , Alphabet, Boustrophedon, Greek alphabet, Phoenician alphabet

Early

Alphabetic characteristics 1

Cretan Pictographs 11

Hieroglyphics 16

The Phoenician 24

The 31

The Alphabet 39

Summary 53 GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 1 / 53

Alphabetic characteristics

3,000 BCE Basic building blocks of written GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 2 / 53

Early visual language systems were disparate and decentralized

3,000 BCE

Protowriting, , Heiroglyphs and far Eastern all functioned differently

Rebuses, ideographs, , and

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 3 / 53

HIEROGLYPHICS REPRESENTING THE REBUS PRINCIPAL · BEE & LEAF · SEA & SUN · BELIEF AND SEASON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 4 / 53

PETROGLYPHIC AND IDEOGRAPHS · CIRCA 200 BCE · UTAH, UNITED STATES GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 5 / 53

LUWIAN LOGOGRAMS · CIRCA 1400 AND 1200 BCE · GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 6 / 53

OLD PERSIAN · 600 BCE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 7 / 53

Alphabetic structure marked an enormous societal leap

3,000 BCE Power was reserved for those who could read and write

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 8 / 53

What is an alphabet?

Definition

An alphabet is set of visual symbols or characters used to represent the elementary sounds of a .

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· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 9 / 53

What is an alphabet?

Definition

They can connected and combined to make visual configurations signifying sounds, , and uttered by the human mouth.

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· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Alphabetic Characteristics 10 / 53

What is an alphabet?

Definition

• An alphabet is a commonly recognized set of letters used to write one or more

• It has separate glyphs for individual sounds, rather than larger units, like syllables or words

• A true alphabet has letters to represent the of a language as well as the .

• Standard ordering () provide structure

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 11 / 53

Cretan Pictographs

2,800 BCE Early Minoan pictorial mark-making GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 12 / 53

A possible basis for later alphabetic forms because of its visual similarities

CRETAN PICTOGRAPHS COMPARED TO THE LANGUAGES THEY INFLUENCED GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 13 / 53

• Figures, arms, body parts, animals, plants,

• About 135 pictographs survive

CRETAN PICTOGRAPHS · LINEAR SYLLABARY · · 1,700 BCE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 14 / 53

Phaistos Disk

• 241 hieroglyphic tokens

• Hatchet, eagle, carpenter’ square, animal skin, vase

• Relief impressions in terra cotta

• Origin of ?

PHAISTOS DISK · · EXCAVATED IN 1908, GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Cretan Pictographs 15 / 53

PHAISTOS DISK AND KEY GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 16 / 53

Hieroglyphics

2,700 BCE Three varieties of proto-alphabetic expression GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 17 / 53

Three types of writing

1. Hieroglyphics—The classic pictographic Egyptian writing

2. —Developed around the same time as the hieroglyphic script and was used for official tasks (record keeping, accounting, and writing letters)

3. script—The popular script, a name given to it by , developed from a northern variant of the Hieratic script in around 660 BC

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 18 / 53

CLASSIC EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 19 / 53

THE EVOLUTION OF HIERATIC SCRIPT GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 20 / 53

DEMOTIC SCRIPT, CONTRACT, PTOLEMAIC ERA GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 21 / 53

THE · EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, EGYPTIAN DEMOTIC SCRIPT AND CLASSICAL GREEK GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 22 / 53

Hieroglyphics were made from three different parts

1. —Pictorial denotation of an object

2. Phonograms—Denote a sound or sequence of sounds

3. Determinatives—Provide clues to meaning and sounds

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / Hieroglyphics 23 / 53

• sounds existed but were unwritten

• Consonantal alphabet ()

• Requires cultural knowledge

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 24 / 53

The

1,500 BCE Cuneiform, Hieroglyphs, and Cretan pictographs come together to form the seeds of the modern alphabet GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 25 / 53

The Phoenicians

• Modern day , Syria and Israel

• Seafaring and ship builders

• Needed an alphabet for their native tongue

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 26 / 53

Distillation of Cuneiform, Hieroglyphs, and Cretan pictographs

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 27 / 53

THE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET · CIRCA 1,500 BCE · 22 CHARACTERS GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 28 / 53

PHOENICIAN PETROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 29 / 53

• Unprecedented use of alphabetical order

• 22 letters, each representing a single sound

• Read from right-to-left

• Democratized writing for Phoenicians

• Simple for non-Phoenician people to learn

• Consonantal alphabet (abjad)

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Phoenician Alphabet 30 / 53

Since vowels sounds were not specified, a two- like drama could have at least nine different pronunciations.

1. drama 4. drima 7. druma

2. dramu 5. drimu 8. drumu

3. drami 6. drimi 9. drumi

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 31 / 53

The Greek Alphabet

1,000 BC , an epicenture of , philosophy, democracy, art, architecture, literature, and alphabetic evolution GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 32 / 53

The Phoenician alphabet was brought to Greece by mythic hero

• Invented history, created prose, designed some Greek letters

• His use of writing allowed him to raise and control armies quickly

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 33 / 53

THE GREEK ALPHABET GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 34 / 53

• Early Greek used Phoenician characters, arranged the same

• Anyone who could read ancient Phoenician could also read Greek

• Five were changed to vowels, making it a true alphabet

• All capital letters

• No , paragraphs, or word spacing

• The direction of changed several times

EARLY GREEK INSCRIPTION · THE ROSETTA STONE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 35 / 53

Greek was often read in a format known as or as the ox plows

One row would read left-to-right and then switch from right-to-left

BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 36 / 53

EARLY GREEK PETROGLYPHIC INSCRIPTION WRITTEN IN BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 37 / 53

REVERSE BOUSTROPHEDON GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Greek Alphabet 38 / 53

Centralized by

400 BCE

• Classical Greek settled on right- to-left orientation

• Letterforms became monumental and some letters were reversed

• Based on formal geometric ideals, lack of scripted-details

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS 39 / 53

The

200 BCE – 1,400 CE The ultimate expression of our modern written language GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 40 / 53

A brief timeline

750 BCE

Rome was a village on the Tiber River

200 BCE

Rome conquered Greece in the second century BCE

100 BCE

By the end of the first century CE the stretched from the British Isles in the north, to in the south, and from the in the West to the Persian Gulf at the base of the ancient land of Mesopotamia

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· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 41 / 53

Greek influence

The Romoans modeled their art, literature, religion and philosophy from the

• Greek scholars and libraries were taken to Rome

• The Latin Alphabet came to the Romans from Greece

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 42 / 53

The Latin Alphabet shows heavy influence from the of 700 BCE

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 43 / 53

250 BCE

• The Latin Alphabet is formed • 20 letters

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 44 / 53

250 BCE

• Spurius Carvilius designed to replace () • 21 letters

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 45 / 53

100 BCE (AFTER GREEK CONQUEST)

• The Greek letters Z were added to the end • Romans were appropriating Greek words using these sounds

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 46 / 53

A brief timeline

410 CE

Rome is sacked by the Visigoths

476 CE

Fall of the Roman Empire

Emperor Constantine was situated in Ravenna, Italy

The Latin Alphabet had gained use all over the world

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 47 / 53

900 CE (MIDDLE AGES)

• represented two sounds • was formed to assume the soft vowel sound • 24 letters

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 48 / 53

1,100 CE (MIDDLE AGES)

• VV in frequent use • double-u • Began as a of V • 25 letters

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 49 / 53 ABCDEFGH KLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ

1,300 CE (MIDDLE AGES)

• J was formed as a consonantal version of I • Manuscripts • Typically used at the beginning of a word • 26 letters

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 50 / 53

117 CE

The ultimate resolution of the Roman letterform appears in an inscription at the base of Trajan’s Column

· GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 51 / 53

TRAJAN’S COLUMN, ROME, 117 CE GDT-101 / HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN / EARLY ALPHABETS / The Latin Alphabet 52 / 53

· Summary

The evolution of our modern alphabet can be traced through Cretan Pictographs, to the Phoenician Alphabet, the Greek Alphabet and ultimately the Latin Alphabet.