Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet

Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet
Seven - Hebrew origins of
English
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As we have discussed, the Modern Hebrew alphabet is
derived from the Ancient Hebrew pictographs. The
Romans in turn adopted the Greek alphabet, also derived
from the Ancient Hebrew pictographs, for the Latin
alphabet, from which our English alphabet comes.
Indirectly, our own alphabet is derived from the Ancient
Hebrew pictographs. Below is the Ancient Hebrew
alphabet, as it appeared around 1000 BCE 41 (fig. 20).
Figure 20 The Ancient Hebrew alphabet c. 1000 BCE
When the above alphabet is reversed 42 , as the Greeks, who
adopted the Ancient Hebrew alphabet, wrote from left to
right, we can see a very close resemblance to our English
alphabet (fig. 21).
41 The alephbet is read from right to left.
42 Most Ancient inscriptions were written on stone using a hammer
and chisel. The hammer was held with the left hand, causing a right to
left direction of inscribing. When ink came into use, the direction of
writing often shifted to a left to right direction to prevent the hand
from smearing the ink.
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