What is Alphabet?

Set of symbols or characters used to represent the sounds of a language. Each character in an alphabet usually represents a simple vowel, a diphthong, or a consonant, rather than a syllable or a group of consonants and vowels. The term alphabet, as used by some, however, also includes the concept of syllabaries.

An alphabet is a system of representing the sounds of a language by a set of clearly understandable and reproducible symbols. This generally involves assigning to the most common sounds their own individual graphemes, or written forms.

Further study

  1. Alphabet, Wikipedia
  2. Evolution of Alphabets, by Prof. Fradkin, Dept. of Asian and East European Languages, University of Maryland.
  3. The eventual evolution of the Arabic Character set from its Phonetician roots

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