Why is the alphabet in that order?
Asked by
aisyna (
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November 15th, 2008
Is it because of that song?
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3 Answers
No, the song came later. Here. is some wonderful information. look under ‘History’. :)
In the year 1011, a writer named Byrhtferð ordered the Old English alphabet for numerological purposes. He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet (including ampersand) first, then 5 additional English letters, ...A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ
Sorry, that’s a bit wonky. I’m on my phone.
You can trace the orders of the letters in some instances back to the oringinal Hebrew or Aramaic: from Latin to Greek to Hebrew.
For example, our A, B, C, D, in the Greek would be Alpha, Beta, Gamma Delta to Hebrew Aleph, Bay Gimel Daled.
There are much better examinations of the subject but that is all I can mention tonight
Well, if it weren’t, it would just be in some other order that would make you wonder.
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