Where did our letters and alphabet come from?
Ox-House Journey
Where did our letters and alphabet come from?
Look at the letter A. Flip it upside down. See that little triangle with two legs poking out? That's not a coincidence. Long, long ago, that shape was a picture of an ox's head — horns and all. Every letter you read today is a tiny fossil, a doodle that started as a picture of something real.
Our story starts over 5,000 years ago, but not with an alphabet. The first writing was just pictures. In ancient Egypt, a drawing of an owl meant "owl." A drawing of water meant "water." Simple — until you tried to write something you couldn't draw, like a name, or a feeling, or "Tuesday."
