The Alphabet: Seeds of World Languages
How many languages have a written form?
According to Ethnologue, 4,065 language currently have a written form. However many are rarely written, or few of the people who speak them are able to read and write them.
According to ScriptSource, 917 languages are not written at all.
7,100 languages spoken today
Examples of Written Language
Egyptian Hieroglyphic Alphabet –
In AD 391 the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I closed all pagan temples throughout the empire. This action terminated a four thousand year old tradition and the message of the ancient Egyptian language was lost for 1500 years. It was not until the discovery of the Rosetta stone and the work of Jean-Francois Champollion (1790-1832) that the Ancient Egyptians awoke from their long slumber.
The script was developed about four thousand years before Christ and there was also a decimal system of numeration up to a million. Unlike other cultures the early picture forms were never discarded or simplified probably because they are so very lovely to look at.
Hieroglyphs were called, by the Egyptians, “the words of God” and were used mainly by the priests.
History of the military alphabet also known as the NATO alphabet
The military alphabet is also known as the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet (IRSA). It was created by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The IRSA is used to spell out words and letters over radio. This helps prevent confusion between similar sounding words. The first official version of the military alphabet was adopted in 1927, although a version was used as early as 1913. The current version, which is also the NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, alphabet and used by the countries of NATO, was adopted in 1957.
The military phonetic alphabet consists of the standard English alphabet, plus a few extra words that are specific to military use. Some of these words include "Alpha," "Bravo," and "Charlie." Each word in the military phonetic alphabet corresponds to a letter of the regular English alphabet.
Alphabet Project
1. Create a new alphabet using symbols or originally created letters.
2. Display your new alphabet on a poster board, showing what each symbol represents (ie: a= *(-, b= ~, etc. )
3. Create 3 worksheets with special messages for others to translate.
4. Finally, write a one page paper using your new alphabet, to address the importance of a global language, and how your new alphabet could be used in a postive way.
Your project will be graded on completing the following components: