A-dventure-Z: The Story of the Alphabet

An amusement for children and parents alike, this book includes a charming tale that illustrates the main signposts leading to the invention of the alphabet, as well as an informative text that accompanies full-page color illustrations and contains rich paleographical, historical, and linguistic information.

The letters of the alphabet have a common ancestor. The early signs used for the writing of the ancient Canaanite language evolved in Egypt in about the second millennium BCE. These early signs underwent fundamental changes during the ages and split into different alphabetical systems, the most prominent of which are the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Arabic alphabets. Tracing back of the graphical changes that occur in the forms of the letters reveals the common origin of these alphabets.

The illustrations in this book are based on the forms of the letters as they appear in ancient inscriptions, dating from various epochs.