The mysterious origins of the alphabet

[WORLD] If you’re an English speaker, chances are you’ve had the alphabet committed to memory—A through Z—in perfect order since early childhood. You can probably rattle it off without hesitation, and some people have even mastered reciting it backwards. The idea of the alphabet existing in any other sequence feels almost unthinkable. But have you ever wondered: why is it arranged that way in the first place?

When you stop to consider it, the order doesn’t seem to follow any obvious logic. It’s not grouped by vowels or consonants, similar sounds, or letter frequency. (That varies across languages—on French keyboards, for example, the letter “Q” is where our “A” is. There’s a whole explanation behind the seemingly random layout of our keys.)

The origins of the alphabet are as intricate as they are captivating. The earliest version emerged around 1800 BCE in the Sinai Peninsula, where Semitic laborers, influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, developed a simplified writing system. Unlike the pictographic nature of hieroglyphics, this proto-alphabet used symbols to represent sounds—a revolutionary step in the history of communication. Over time, this system was adopted and refined by the Phoenicians, who became instrumental in spreading it throughout the Mediterranean.

So how did we end up with the familiar A-to-Z order? There’s no straightforward answer. No ancient scholar sat down and designed the sequence with a master plan. Instead, it evolved slowly over centuries, shaped by cultures and empires. Interestingly, there are several letters that existed in earlier versions of the alphabet but have since fallen by the wayside.

That original alphabet, born in ancient Egypt, made its way into Phoenician culture between 1500 and 300 BCE. From there, the Greeks adopted it around the 8th century BCE, making significant changes—including the introduction of vowels. (They also gave us birthday cake, but that’s a story for another time.) The Greeks adjusted letter shapes and added new ones to suit their language, laying the foundation for many modern European scripts. They even pioneered the use of uppercase and lowercase forms, improving readability and nuance.

Eventually, the alphabet made its way to Rome. The Romans refined it further, shaping the version we use today. The University of Maryland even created a fascinating animation showing this evolution. While the appearance of the letters changed dramatically, the overall order remained surprisingly consistent—with just a few notable shifts. The Romans reintroduced the Greek “Z” (originally “zeta”), which had fallen out of use, and placed it at the end of their alphabet. They did the same with “Y.” (Fun fact: neither of those was actually the last letter to be added.)

Even after the Roman period, the alphabet kept evolving. During the Middle Ages, scribes tweaked letter shapes and occasionally added new ones to represent unique sounds. A good example is the letter “J,” which didn’t become distinct from “I” until the 16th century.

So why this specific order? Honestly, we still don’t have a definitive answer. Some scholars suggest it may have been inspired by the sequence of Egyptian hieroglyphs. Another theory proposes that each letter originally had a numerical value, long since lost. Others believe the order may have come from an early mnemonic—a kind of sentence where each word began with a different letter, like the memory tricks we use to remember planets or taxonomy. But can you imagine a mnemonic for 26 letters? (We certainly can!) Still, we think the alphabet song does the job pretty well.