From Pictures to Letters: How Alphabets Evolved

Writing began with pictures and slowly learned to capture pure sound. Chinese Characters, the oldest continuous system still in use, keep over 50,000 symbols, though literacy needs only 3,000 to 4,000. The Arabic script writes right to left and bends its 28 letters into 18 distinct shapes depending on position.

Devanagari, home to Hindi and over 120 languages, links letters with the shirorekha headline across the top. The Latin Alphabet, born around 700 BC from Etruscan and Greek roots, grew from 21 letters to 26 and now serves 2.5 billion people daily..