3. The Westem Alphabet The Westem alphabet which is ined in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and New Zealand
as well as in other countries, originated in the Middle East. The people who gave the world this
alphabet were the Phoenicians, a people who established colonies allora the Mediterranean
including Carthage in Africa and Gades in Spain. In their alphabet, the letters were represented by
bule pictures which represented sounds. The Phoenician A was aleph, which means "bur and it
was made from a little picture of a bull's head. The letter B was beth which meant "house". and
showed the round-roofed buildings which you can still see today in Syria.
The Phoenicians had contact with another nation of sailors, the Greeks, with whom they fought and
traded. The Greeks also started to use the Phoenician alphabet. They changed the names so deph
and beth became alpha and beta. The shapes of the letters are the same but they have been tumed
sideways. Of course, the first two letters of the alphabe give it its name. Over the years there have
been changes. Latin developed an alphabet with some different lates to the Greeks, and other
letters have been added since. But really westemes are using the same system of writing which has
served them so well for thousands of years.
Questions
1. The purpose of this text is to tell something of Phoenician history,
T/F
2 The information in the text is meant to be funny
T/F
3. The Phoenicians came from Carthage.
T/F
4. The Phoenicians were a nation of sailors.
T/E
5 The Phoenician alphabet was composed of individual signs
T/F
6. The Greeks tumed the letters in a different direction
T/F
7. The Greeks developed the alphabet from Latin
T/E
T/F
& There were fewer keters in the onginal alphabet than there we now
9. Three letters compose the name of the alphabat.
T/F
T/E
10. Our modem system of writing is similar to the Phoenician alphaba.
