Phrasebook

Alphabets

We can communicate with languages. We tell others what we're thinking or feeling. Writing has this function as well. Most languages have a written form, or writing. Writing consists of characters. These characters can be diverse. Most writing is made up of letters. These letters make up alphabets. An alphabet is an organized set of graphic symbols. These characters are joined to form words according to certain rules. Each character has a fixed pronunciation. The term "alphabet" comes from the Greek language. There, the first two letters were called "alpha" and "beta". There have been many different alphabets throughout history. People were using characters more than 3,000 years ago. Earlier, characters were magical symbols. Only a few people knew what they meant. Later, the characters lost their symbolic nature. Today, letters have no meaning. They only have a meaning when they are combined with other letters. Characters such as that of the Chinese function differently. They resemble pictures and often depict what they mean. When we write, we are encoding our thoughts. We use characters to record our knowledge. Our brain has learned how to decode the alphabet. Characters become words, words become ideas. In this way, a text can survive for thousands of years. And still be understood…