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The first alphabet was probably developed by the Canaanites? around 1700-1500 BC (see early Semitic alphabet), and all subsequent alphabets are derived from it or inspired by it, directly or indirectly. Of special note among its descendants is the Greek alphabet, which was the first to have separate symbols for vowels (Semitic didn't need them). Most subsequent alphabets with vowels are derived from the early Greek alphabets. The most popular alphabet in use today is a modern 26-letter version of the Roman alphabet, used by the English language and most European languages. In modern linguistic usage, the term latin alphabet is usually used to refer to the modern derivations from the alphabet used by the Romans (i.e. the Roman alphabet).
- A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M,
- N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z
An alphabet also serves to establish an order among letters that can be used for sorting entries in lists, called collating?. Languages that use the roman alphabet have varying collating rules: In German and English, umlaut characters (Ä, Ö, Ü) are treated just like their non-umlauted versions, which makes the alphabetic order ARG, ÄRGERLICH, ARM. In Swedish, W is a foreign letter which is treated just like V, but the alphabet has three extra letters at its end (..., X, Y, Z, Å, Ä, Ö), giving the order URBAN, WALTER, VILGOT, ÅKE, ÄRLIG, ÖSTEN. This order is different in Danish and Norwegian (..., X, Y, Z, AE, Å, OE). Some languages have more complex rules: for example, Spanish treats "ch" as a single letter, giving an ordering of CINCO, CREDO, CHISPA. In Icelandic, Þ þ is added, and d is followed by Ð ð. Both letters were also used by Anglo-Saxon scribes who also used the Runic letter Wynn to represent /w/. Þ (thorn) is also a Runic letter, some scholars derive it from Latin D. Ð is the letter D with an added stroke.
Other alphabets: Runic - Tifinagh - Old Turkic alphabet - Iberian alphabet - Ogham - Meroitic - Gothic alphabet - Glagolitic alphabet - Cyrillic alphabet - Deseret alphabet -