Evolution of Writing

Hieroglyphics

Have you ever wondered why the Hebrew abgad (alphabet) has no vowels (i.e., “what were they thinking”)? Hebrew relies on its readers to fill in the vowel gaps as they decode words. What?

This practice can be traced back to ancient Egypt where, from the 32nd to the 4th century BCE, hieroglyphs served as the primary writing system. That’s right: For a mind-blowing 3000 years, hieroglyphics dominated written communication.

Hieroglyphs are not an alphabet in the modern sense. Rather, they are a hefty collection of:

• Logographs: Symbols that represent entire words, similar to most Chinese characters today
• Syllabaries: Symbols that represent entire syllables
• Alphabetic: Symbols that represent individual phonemes, similar to most English characters today

The Birth of the Abgad

Around 1800 BCE, the people of Canaan—home­land of the Hebrews (aka Israelites)—adapted and simplified Egypt’s hieroglyphic model into a revolutionary alternative. This new system—the 22-character abgad—was exponentially lighter and easier to use than its predecessor, allowing for greater accessibility. It is entirely plausible that the Canaanites, who modeled their system after the powerful Egyptians who managed without vowels for thousands of years, didn’t miss vowels, or even gave them a second thought.

Consider what a techno­logical leap forward this was: The 22-letter writing system that led to the Hebrew abgad was far easier and quicker to learn and use than the complex array of Egyptian symbols, For the first time in history, writing became accessible to all, facilitating recordkeeping, inventory management, legal documentation, and improved communication.

The Hebrew Abgad

We refer to the Hebrew abgad as the Alef Bet, named after its first two letters—Alef and Bet. The Alef Bet‘s been going strong for thousands of years, with letter shapes evolving to meet the needs of its users.

The Hebrew abgad has undergone several iterations before landing on the contemporary Maalouli Aramaic or square Assyrian writing, which we recognize as modern Hebrew characters. While mainstream Jews adopted square Assyrian writing, Israel’s Samaritan* community continues to use a form derived from Paleo script. How cool is that!

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* Samaritans—Israelites indigenous to the Shomron region (“Samaria” in English) in the heart of Israel—splintered off from mainstream Judaism in the 4th century CE. They have preserved ancient traditions practiced by their ancestors, adhering to the five unedited books of the Torah. Today, they retain the priesthood and other elements of Judaism that had been modified or eliminated by Ezra’s reforms to Judaism.

Influence on Modern Alphabets