Alphabet

An alphabet is a series of symbols that enable the spoken word to be recorded for later use and are the foundation stone of writing. The word "alphabet" is a combination of the first two letters (alpha and beta) of the Greek alphabet. Modern alphabets have evolved from ancient pictograms where a spoken sound was represented by small drawing of an object. These pictures eventually developed into formalised graphical symbols. By convention these symbols are written in a specific order (alphabetic order).

Latin Alphabets

The Latin alphabet (or Roman alphabet) is the most widely-used alphabetic writing system in the world. Most Western alphabets are based on the script of ancient Rome which comprises the following 23 characters or letters:

Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz

English Alphabet

In the English language three characters have been added to the Latin alphabet, and the English alphabet comprises the following 26 characters:

Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz

Other Languages

Most European languages use the same letters as the English alphabet but often less than the full 26 except in the case of imported words. Other languages have extended the alphabet with diacritics, digraphs and ligatures .

Greek Alphabet

The Greek alphabet comprises the following characters:

Αα, Ββ, Γγ, Δδ, Εε, Ζζ, Ηη, Θθ, Ιι, Κκ, Λλ, Μμ, Νν, Ξξ, Οο, Ππ, Ρ ρ, Σσς, Ττ, Υυ, Φφ, Χχ, Ψψ, Ωω

In addition to the single letters, Greek letters may be combined to make completely new sounds, such as ντ, which makes a "d" sound or αυ, which makes the sound "af" or "av".

Cyrillic Alphabet

The Cyrillic alphabet, and variants of it, is used in Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat and Mongolian (in the Republic of Mongolia). It was used in some other Soviet republics before their independence from the Soviet Union, but many of these have changed to the Latin Alphabet.

Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet is made up of 22 letters used in the Hebrew and Jewish languages. The Hebrew word for "alphabet" is אלף-בית ("alef-bet"), derived from the first two letters of the alphabet. Five of the letters - Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pe and Tsadi - have a different appearance when used as the last letter in a word. The letters are written and read from right to left, and have only one case.

Alef	Bet/Vet	Gimel	Dalet	He	Vav	Zayin	Khet	Tet	Yod	Kaf/Khaf
א	ב	ג	ד	ה	ו	ז	ח	ט	י	כ
										ך
Lamed	Mem	Nun	Samekh	Ayin	Pe/Fe	Tsadi	Kuf	Resh	Shin/Sin	Tav
ל	מ	×	ס	×¢	פ	צ	ק	ר	ש	ת
	ם	ן			ף	ץ