It was my fathers grand copy of the Random House dictionary that sparked my lifelong interest in etymology, comparative languages, and equally the development of alphabet characters - it illustrated every ‘chapter’ heading with the root shapes and development of every letter, similar to this chart.
Illustrated partially here:
Seriously, access to this information as a child changed my study habits and ways of learning hugely. Words and letters were not dry rote handed down to be memorised, as they were in school - they were/are all just steps in a line of history to be worked with… there is a “why” behind why every letter is written this way.
There is a lot here which I don’t understand or is missing. The sequence is very linear, and there are many fewer dropped letters than added ones. What about the Celtic and Scandinavian letters which were dropped from the current alphabet? Things like thorn, eth, ash, ethel, yogh, wynn, eng, ampersand and I don’t know what? http://mentalfloss.com/article/31904/12-letters-didnt-make-alphabet
Or even the ancient latin letters which became M and N but which look like the Cyrillic Schchay or Chay?
Still an interesting post, though.
