Origins of the western alphabet

·Phoenician alphabet

>It is originally from the ancient Middle East about 3000 years ago.

>It is the ancestors of western Hebrew, Arabic, Tibetan and many Indian letter forms

>The Phoenicians were Mediterranean people.

>The biggest influence is from the area that is now Syria in 1050 BC

>The letters used to be drawing of animals or objects for example the letter ‘A’

>In 1050 BC letter ‘A’ was an ox,when time passes by the alphabet got rotated and simplified.

 As shown below:

 ·800 years later(600 BC)in ancient greece the alphabets have been either;rotated,simplified or completely changed.the way the alphabet is read is also different,the text is read from left to right.

                                                                                             ·100 AD about 1800 years ago the ancient Rome have carved the capital letters in to stones.

>It is capitalized because it is easier to carve straight lines on hard surfaces like stones.

>For the lower case(non capitals)they are written on paper by ink.

>Up to 1440 AD all books and documents were hand written(eg.Lindisfarne Cospel  750AD),until the invention of the printing press.

·When Henry VIII (the 8th) took control of the church and made everyone to be a protistant.It was the new religion that henry the eighth made everyone and every  priest to be a protistant.

>The reason why he changed and made a new religion is because he wanted to devorce and marry a new wife.

>the only people that could read or write in those days were the monks and the priests.

>Because no one knows how to read books,they believe everything the priest says and think it is right.

·In 750 AD: The irish hand written bible was released.They were written by monks.

>The style changed from serif fonts to san-serifs.

· Printing used to be very expensive and the only organisation that could posibbly get hold of them are the government.They used it to be in control of people’s ideas by propaganda.The books that are printed were all checked by the government,so no body speaks against them.
 

>Go back about 200-300 years,different font style eg. TIMES then become digitallised and people starts to design their owm fonts.

·  In 1450 AD: Gutenberg bible was printed.

>Johaness Gutenberg:the invention and impact of the printing press.

>Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1440s.

>he was a metal worker in Mainz,germany.

>The printing press was the first machiene to spread the rebellion(knowledge) by printing books.Personally,Printing press machiene was a success and had produced the first gutenberg bible in the 1470s.

>In 1470, germany starts to spread their knowledge around europe.Italy, france, England, poland, netherland and spain were interested and start to use the printing press.

>By 1500,People all over the world were interested on the facts;People starts to read and write;universities,scientists,professors and teachers starts to write books and documents to spread the knowledge.

>Thousands and million of books have been printed.

· In the 18^th century literatures around the word starts to write books.1 Billion books were printed in europe that year.Huge amount of ideas and knowledge have been shared.

>all the documenturies made the church have no longer have the control of their knowledge towards the world.

WRITTEN BY NINA JONES