THE ALPHABET SPELLED OUT
Phoenician alphabet.
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1700 BCE
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c. 1600 BCECanaanite alphabet.
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c. 1400 BCE
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1100 BCEPhoenician alphabet.
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c. 1000 BCE
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800 BCE
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c. 350 CE - c. 950 CE
The history of the alphabet started in ancient Egypt. By 2700 BCE Egyptian writing had a set of some 22 hieroglyphs to represent syllables that begin with a single consonant of their language plus a vowel (or no vowel) to be supplied by the native speaker. These glyphs were used as pronunciation guides for logograms, to write grammatical inflections, and, later, to transcribe loan words and foreign names.
However, although seemingly alphabetic in nature, the original Egyptian uniliterals were not a system and were never used by themselves to encode Egyptian speech. In the Middle Bronze Age an apparently "alphabetic" system known as the Proto-Sinaitic script is thought by some to have been developed in central Egypt around 1700 BCE for or by Semitic workers, but only one of these early writings has been deciphered and their exact nature remains open to interpretation. Based on letter appearances and names, it is believed to be based on Egyptian hieroglyphs.
This script eventually developed into the Proto-Canaanite alphabet, which in turn was refined into the Phoenician alphabet. It also developed into the South Arabian alphabet, from which the Ge'ez alphabet (an abugida) is descended. Note that the scripts mentioned above are not considered proper alphabets, as they all lack characters representing vowels. These early vowelless alphabets are calledabjads and still exist in scripts such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac.
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The consonants of the ogham alphabet (non-IPA).
Phoenician was the first major phonemic script. In contrast to two other widely used writing systems at the time, cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs, it contained only about two dozen distinct letters, making it a script simple enough for common traders to learn. Another advantage of Phoenician was that it could be used to write down many different languages since it recorded words phonemically
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Phoenician colonization allowed the script to be spread across the Mediterranean. In Greece, the script was modified to add the vowels, giving rise to the first true alphabet. The Greeks took letters which did not represent sounds that existed in Greek and changed them to represent the vowels. This marks the creation of a "true" alphabet, with both vowels and consonants as explicit symbols in a single script. In its early years, there were many variants of the Greek alphabet, a situation which caused many different alphabets to evolve from it.
The Cumae form of the Greek alphabet was carried over by Greek colonists from Euboea to the Italian peninsula, where it gave rise to a variety of alphabets used to inscribe the Italic languages. One of these became the Latin alphabet, which was spread across Europe as the Romans expanded their empire. Even after the fall of the Roman Empire, the alphabet survived in intellectual and religious works. It eventually became used for the descendant languages of Latin (the Romance languages) and then for the other languages of Europe
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A to L
The letter that has stood at the head of the alphabet during the whole of the period through which it can be traced historically. The name of the letter in the Phoenician period resembled the Hebrew name aleph meaning “ox”; the form is thought to derive from an earlier symbol resembling the head of an ox. The letter was taken over by the Greeks in the form of alpha. In the Phoenician alphabet the letter stood for a species of breathing, as vowels were not represented in the Semitic alphabets.
The letter that has stood at the head of the alphabet during the whole of the period through which it can be traced historically. The name of the letter in the Phoenician period resembled the Hebrew name aleph meaning “ox”; the form is thought to derive from an earlier symbol resembling the head of an ox. The letter was taken over by the Greeks in the form of alpha. In the Phoenician alphabet the letter stood for a species of breathing, as vowels were not represented in the Semitic alphabets.
A History of the letter A. Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) gave way to early Semitic writing (about 1500 BCE) on the Sinai Peninsula (2). About 1000 BCE, in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (3), the source of all later forms. In Semitic languages this sign was called aleph, meaning “ox.” The Greeks used the sign for the vowel a, changing its name to alpha. They used several forms of the sign, including the ancestor of the English capital A (4). The Romans incorporated this sign into Latin, and it is the source of the English form. The English small a first took shape in Greek handwriting in a form (5) similar to the present English capital letter. About the 4th century CE this was given a circular shape with a projection (6). This shape was the parent of both the English handwritten character (7) and the printed small a (8).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
The letter B was part of the Phoenician alphabet more than 3000 years ago in 1000 BCE. ... In Hebrew, the letter was called beth, bet, or bayt which also means “house.” In the Greek alphabet, the letter took on the name beta, and the word beta has stuck around in English to refer to the second in any series.
B, letter, corresponding to Semitic beth and Greek beta, that has from earliest times retained the second place in all the European alphabets except the Cyrillic. The earliest form of the letter appears on the Moabite Stone, dating from the 9th century BCE. Early Greek forms gave way to intermediate Greek and Latin renditions that were virtually identical to the modern B.
B probably started as a picture sign of a house, as in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) and in a very early Semitic writing (2). In about 1000 BCE, in Byblos and in other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (3). In the Semitic languages the sign was called beth, meaning “house,” but the Greeks changed this name from beth to beta. Later, when the Greeks began writing from left to right instead of from right to left, they turned the letter around (4). The Romans adopted this form almost unchanged into Latin, and from Latin it came down into English.The present small b first took shape in later Roman times,
when scribes fell into the practice of omitting the upper loop of the capital and and making the sign long and thin (5). By the 9th century the letter had its present form.
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This letter may have started as a picture depicting a throwing stick in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) and very early Semitic writing (c. 1500 bce) on the Sinai Peninsula (2). ... Originally the sign was used for both the g and k sounds, but in time the two sounds were differentiated in writing
C, third letter of the alphabet, corresponding to Semitic gimel (which probably derived from an early sign for "camel") and Greek gamma (Γ). A rounded form occurs at Corinth and in the Chalcidic alphabet, and both an angular and a rounded form are found in the early Latin alphabet, as well as in Etruscan. The rounded form survived and became general, and the shape of the letter has since altered little.
The letter D has retained the fourth place in the alphabet from the earliest point at which it appears in history. It corresponds to Semiticdaleth and Greek delta (Δ). The form is thought to derive from an early pictograph, possibly Egyptian, indicating the folding door of a tent. The rounded form D occurs in the Chalcidian alphabet, whence the Latin alphabet may have acquired it by way of the Etruscans. The letter has retained the rounded form that it had in the Latin alphabet until the present day.
History of the letter D
The letter may have started as a depiction of a door in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1). The earliest form of the sign in Semitic writing is unknown. About 1000 BCE in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centers, the sign was given a linear form (2), the source of all later forms. In Semitic languages the sign was called daleth, meaning “door.” The Greeks changed the name to delta, but they retained the Phoenician form of the sign (3). In an Italian colony of Greeks from Khalkis (now Chalcis), the letter was made with a slight curve (4). This shape led to the rounded form found in Latin writing (5). From Latin the capital letter came unchanged into English. In Greek handwriting the triangle of the capital letter was given a projection upward. During Roman times the triangle was gradually rounded (6).
E is the fifth letter of the alphabet, derived from a Semitic consonant that represented a sound similar to the English h, Greek ε, and Latin E. The original Semitic character may have derived from an earlier pictograph representing a lattice window or a fence. From the 4th century CE both the uncial and cursive forms were rounded. From these developed the Carolingian form, from which the modern minuscule e is derived.
History of the letter E
The letter may have started as a depiction of a man with arms upraised in Egyptian hieroglyphic writing (1) and in very early Semitic writing (2). The sign meant “joy” or “rejoice” to the Egyptians. About 1000 BCE, in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centers, the sign was given a linear form (3), the source of all later forms. The sign was called he in the Semitic languages and stood for the sound h in English. The Greeks reversed the sign for greater ease in writing from left to right (4). They rejected the Semitic value h and gave it the value of the vowel e. The Romans adopted this sign for the Latin capital E. From Latin this form came unchanged into English. Roman handwriting changed the letter to a more quickly written form (5). From this is derived the English handwritten and printed small e.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
is the letter that corresponds to the sixth letter of the Greek, Etruscan, and Latin alphabets, known to the Greeks as digamma.
History of the letter f. The Greeks used the Semitic sign vau in two forms. One form (1), called upsilon, was for their vowel u. The other form (2), called digamma, was for the sound w. The latter sign disappeared in Greek, but it was preserved in the Latin writing because the Romans needed a sign for their consonant f. Several forms of the new sign (3 and 4) were used in Italy. The latter form of this Latin capital came unchanged into English. The English small handwritten f took shape in late Roman and early medieval times. Scribes in the 5th century began to use a continuous curving stroke, making the stroke at the top first, then the stroke down, and finally the lower side stroke (5). A carefully made 9th-century version (6) gave rise to the English printed small f.
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The sound represented by the letter in Greek was a labial semivowel similar to the English w. This sound had disappeared early from the Ionic and Attic Greek dialects, so that the Ionic alphabet, which eventually came into general use in Greece, contained no digamma. It was retained, however, for some time in many local dialects and alphabets, including that from which the Etruscan (and through it the Latin alphabet) was derived.
None of the various Greek forms occur in the Semitic alphabets. Its origin in the Greek alphabet has been a matter of dispute, some maintaining that it descends from Semitic vau and others, less convincingly, maintaining that it was merely differentiated from the preceding letter E by the omission of a horizontal stroke. In either case it is probable that the Greeks were not the innovators, since a form of the letter occurs in the Lydian alphabet. The letter was probably contained in an Asian alphabet from which the Greek, Lydian, and Etruscan were derived.
In some very early Latin inscriptions, f was used in combination with h to represent the unvoiced labial spirant (English f). The h was soon dropped, and the sound was represented by the letter f alone. It was not required in Latin to represent the bilabial semivowel (w), for the Latins had taken the letter V to represent both this sound and the corresponding vowel (u). The letter f has represented the unvoiced labial spirant ever since.
In the Faliscan alphabet the letter had the curious form resembling an arrow pointing up. The Latin cursive of the 5th century CE employed a lengthened form, and the letter was generlly extended below the line in uncial writing. In Irish writing of the 7th century the form came to resemble the modern f, and the Carolingian added further rounding of the top. From this developed the modern minuscule f.
The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of 'C' to distinguish voiced /ɡ/ from voiceless /k/. The recorded originator of 'G' is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga , the first Roman to open a fee-paying school, who taught around 230 BCE .
G, seventh letter of the alphabet. The history of this letter began with the Latin alphabet. The Greek alphabet from which, through Etruscan, the Latin was derived, represented the voiced velar stop by its third letter gamma (Γ). This passed into Latin and was used in its rounded form C to represent the same sound, as in the word recei (probably an early dative form of rex, “king”), occurring in an early Latin inscription. The letter, however, came to represent the unvoiced velar stop, thus ousting K. This was probably due to Etruscan influence.
To avoid confusion a new letter G was differentiated from C and used to represent the voiced velar, while C henceforward stood for the unvoiced velar only. The new letter was placed in the alphabet in the place of Greek zeta (Ζ) which was not required in the Latin alphabet.
History of the letter g. The letter G is a descendant of the letter C. In about 1000 BCE, in Byblos and in other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (1), the source of all later forms. In the Semitic languages the sign was called gimel or gaml, meaning “throwing stick.” The Greeks changed the Semitic name to gamma. Later, when the Greeks began to write from left to right, they reversed the letter (2). As among the Semites, the sign gamma was used for the sound g. The Romans took this sign over into Latin, but they rounded it (3). Originally, they used the sign for the sound g. They also used it for the sound k. In time they learned to differentiate the two sounds in writing. The original form of c was used for the sound k, and a new form of G—C plus a bar (4)—was used for the sound g. The two sign forms passed unchanged into English. The handwritten small g developed from the capital by using a loop at the bottom (5).Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
History of the letter G.
The letter G is a descendant of the letter C. In about 1000 BCE, in Byblos and in other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (1), the source of all later forms. In the Semitic languages the sign was called gimel or gaml, meaning “throwing stick.” The Greeks changed the Semitic name to gamma. Later, when the Greeks began to write from left to right, they reversed the letter (2). As among the Semites, the sign gamma was used for the sound g. The Romans took this sign over into Latin, but they rounded it (3). Originally, they used the sign for the sound g. They also used it for the sound k. In time they learned to differentiate the two sounds in writing. The original form of c was used for the sound k, and a new form of G—C plus a bar (4)—was used for the sound g. The two sign forms passed unchanged into English. The handwritten small g developed from the capital by using a loop at the bottom (5).
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In proto-Semitic, the letter H was also the word for thread or fence, and if you look at the letter H, it is still clear that it looks like a portion of a fence. Like most stories of the English language, the tale of the H involves scribes in England in the 1000s and 1100s. As the French influence on Middle English began, the letter h kept moving around, coming in and out of words.
H, the eighth letter of the alphabet, corresponds to Semitic cheth and Greek eta (Η). It may derive from an early symbol for fence. In the early Greek alphabets a form with three horizontal bars and the simpler form H were both widely distributed. In Etruscan the prevailing form was similar to the early Greek form, and the same or a similar form occurs in very early Latin inscriptions, but the form H came into general use in Latin, either from the Chalcidic Greek alphabet of Cumae or from some other source. The modern majuscule H is derived directly from the Latin. The cursive Latin form resembled a stylized version of the modern minuscule h, as did the uncial form. Both of these forms result from writing the letter without taking the pen from the paper, the right-hand vertical bar being thus foreshortened and the horizontal stroke rounded. From these came the Carolingian form as well as the modern minuscule h.
In some very early Latin inscriptions, f was used in combination with h to represent the unvoiced labial spirant (English f). The h was soon dropped, and the sound was represented by the letter f alone. It was not required in Latin to represent the bilabial semivowel (w), for the Latins had taken the letter V to represent both this sound and the corresponding vowel (u). The letter f has represented the unvoiced labial spirant ever since.
In proto-Semitic, the letter H was also the word for thread or fence, and if you look at the letter H, it is still clear that it looks like a portion of a fence. Like most stories of the English language, the tale of the H involves scribes in England in the 1000s and 1100s. As the French influence on Middle English began, the letter h kept moving around, coming in and out of words.
HISTORY OF H
The letter H may have started as a picture sign of a fence, as in very early Semitic writing used about 1500 BCE on the Sinai Peninsula (1). About 1000 BCE, in Byblos and other Phoenician and Canaanite centres, the sign was given a linear form (2), the source of all later forms. The sign was called cheth in the Semitic languages, which may have meant “fence.” The sound expressed by the cheth sign stood for a pharyngeal sound which is not found in the English language. The Greeks renamed the sign eta and used it in two functions—first for the consonant h and then for the long vowel e (3). The Romans took over the form H (4), with the sound value of the English h. From Latin the capital letter came into English unchanged. A small Greek eta with curves (5) was developed from the capital letter. By the 9th century the corresponding Latin letter acquired a shape (6) much like the English handwritten and printed small h.
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In the alphabets used to write the East Ionic dialect of Greek the letter became superfluous as a result of the disappearance of the aspirate which it represented in that dialect. It was accordingly put to a new use to indicate the open long e which had arisen through alteration of the primitive Greek long a. In a few inscriptions from Thera, Naxos, and several other localities the letter was used with syllabic value; that is, it included he, thus showing its old consonantal and its new vocalic value at the same time. Eventually, as a result of the spread of the Ionic alphabet, its use for the long vowel e or η became general throughout Greece, while its consonantal value as the aspirate h passed from the western Greek alphabets into the Etruscan alphabets and then into the Latin and other alphabets of ancient Italy. In the Romance languages the sound has largely disappeared, but the letter is still extensively used, partly with only etymological value, (e.g., French homme), partly with fancied etymological value (e.g., French haut from Latin altus, with h through the influence of hoh, the Old High German word of the same meaning), partly with special orthographical functions. For example, in Italian h is used in combination with c or g to indicate the hard sound before a front vowel (e.g., chi, ghetto).
In English the initial h is pronounced in words of Germanic origin (e.g., hunt, hook); in some words of Romance origin, the h remains unpronounced (e.g., heir, honour), but in others it has been restored (e.g., humble, humour). The initial h often disappears in unaccented syllables (e.g., “What did he say?”). In chemistry H is the symbol for the element hydrogen.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray, Editor.
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In the Phoenician alphabet, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative (/ʕ/) in Egyptian, but was reassigned to /j/ (as in English "yes") by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound. This letter could also be used to represent /i/, the close front unrounded vowel, mainly in foreign words.
The Greeks adopted a form of this Phoenician yodh as their letter iota(⟨Ι, ι⟩) to represent /i/, the same as in the Old Italic alphabet. In Latin (as in Modern Greek), it was also used to represent /j/ and this use persists in the languages that descended from Latin. The modern letter 'j' originated as a variation of 'i', and both were used interchangeably for both the vowel and the consonant, coming to be differentiated only in the 16th century.[3] The dot over the lowercase 'i' is sometimes called a tittle. In the Turkish alphabet, dotted and dotless I are considered separate letters, representing a front and back vowel, respectively, and both have uppercase ('I', 'İ') and lowercase ('ı', 'i') forms.
HISTORY OF I
I, ninth letter of the alphabet. It corresponds to the Semitic yod, which may derive from an early symbol for hand, and to the Greek iota (Ι). Early Greek forms from the island of Thera resembled the Semitic more than the later single vertical stroke. In Attic and early Corinthian inscriptions a form resembling an S appears. The Chalcidian alphabet had the form I, and this was the form in all the Italic alphabets, including the Etruscan.
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Note on i & j:
What’s The Name For The Dot Over “i” And “j”?
While many languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew, add specific accents to the letters or characters throughout their alphabet, the English alphabet has only two letters that include a diacritic dot. This mark is added to a letter to signal a change in either the sound or meaning of a character. What is the additional name of this curious dot that hovers over the ninth and tenth lowercase letters of the English alphabet, and how did it get there?
What is a tittle?The small distinguishing mark you see over a lowercase i and a lowercase j is called a tittle—an interesting name that looks like a portmanteau (combination) of tiny and little, and refers to a small point or stroke in writing and printing. Generally, a diacritic dot such as a tittle is also referred to as a glyph, a mark that adds meaning to the written letter. However, in regards to i and j, the removal of the mark is still likely to be read as I or J; as such, these are not true examples of a glyph.
Derived from the Latin word titulus, meaning “inscription, heading,” the tittle initially appeared in Latin manuscripts beginning in the 11th century as a way of individualizing the neighboring letters i and j in the thicket of handwriting. With the introduction of the Roman-style typeface in the late 1400s, the original large mark was reduced to the small dot we use today.
Many alphabets use a tittle specifically in the case of the letter i. For example, the absence or presence of a tittle over the i in the modern Turkish alphabet, also Latin-based, helps to differentiate two unique letters that represent distinct phonemes.
What does to a tittle mean?
The phrase to a T is believed to be derived from the word tittle and the following passage from Edward Hall’s Chronicles circa 1548: “I then … began to dispute with my selfe, little considerynge that thus my earnest was turned euen to a tittyl not so good as, estamen.” It is believed the phrase to a T originated as to a tittle and means something done exactly right. It originally referred to the tiny detail of a tittle, suggesting that every minor detail was correct.
J, or j, is the tenth letter in the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its usual name in English is jay (pronounced / ˈ dʒ eɪ /), with a now-uncommon variant jy / ˈ dʒ aɪ /. When used in the International Phonetic Alphabet for the y sound, it may be called yod or jod (pronounced / ˈ j ɒ d / or / ˈ j oʊ d /).
- Unicode codepoint: U+004A, U+006A, U+0237
- Type: Alphabetic
- Language of origin: Latin language
- Writing system: Latin script
J, tenth letter of the alphabet. It was not differentiated from the letter i until comparatively modern times.
J is a bit of a late bloomer; after all, it was the last letter added to the alphabet. It is no coincidence that I and J stand side by side—they actually started out as the same character. The letter J began as a swash, a typographical embellishment for the already existing I. With the introduction of lowercase letters to the Roman numeric system, J was commonly used to denote the conclusion of a series of one’s—as in “xiij” for the number 13.
Are J and I related?
J’s phonetic quest for independence probably began with the sound of the letter I. Originally a Phoenician pictogram representing a leg with a hand, and denoting a sound similar to the Y in “yes,” I was later adopted by Semitic groups to describe the word “arm” which, in Semitic languages, began with a J (also possessing the same Y sound as in “yes”).
How did J get its sound?
Both I and J were used interchangeably by scribes to express the sound of both the vowel and the consonant. It wasn’t until 1524 when Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian known as the father of the letter J, made a clear distinction between the two sounds. Trissino’s contribution is important because once he distinguished the soft J sound, as in “jam” (probably a loan sound), he was able to identify the Greek “Iesus” a translation of the Hebrew “Yeshua,” as the Modern English “Jesus.” Thus the current phoneme for J was born. It always goes back to Jesus.
History on the Letter J
The letter J originated as a swash character to end some Roman numerals in place of i. The letter J came about in the 17th century where it was established as a constonent.
A distinctive usage emerged in Middle High German.[3] Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478–1550) was the first to explicitly distinguish I and J as representing separate sounds, in his Ɛpistola del Trissino de le lettere nuωvamente aggiunte ne la lingua italiana ("Trissino's epistle about the letters recently added in the Italian language") of 1524.
[4] Originally, both I and J repesented /i/, /iː/, and /j/; but Romance languages developed new sounds (from former /j/ and /ɡ/) that came to be represented as I and J; therefore, English J, acquired from the French J, has a sound value quite different from /j/ (which represents the sound in the English word "yet").
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The English letter j did not come into existence until the end of the Middle Ages, when scribes began to use a tailed form of i, with or without the dot, next to the short form of i (1). When printing was invented, the tailed form of i (2) was often used for an initial i, which is usually consonantal.
Although the symbol "j" had been invented about 1200 A.D.--three hundred years before Tyndale 's time--Tyndale does not use it here in his translation. The capital "J" was not invented until after Tyndale's translation was made.
Below: J In Various Epochs
Below: Classical Latin J
History of the letter K
The letter K comes from the Greek letter Κ (kappa), which was taken from the Semitic kaph, the symbol for an open hand. This, in turn, was likely adapted by Semitic tribes who had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for "hand" representing D in the Egyptian word for hand, d-r-t. Nov 14 2019
K, or k, is the eleventh letter of the modern English alphabet and the ISO basic Latin alphabet. Its name in English is kay (pronounced /ˈkeɪ/), plural kays.[1] The letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive.
The letter K comes from the Greek letter Κ (kappa), which was taken from the Semitic kaph, the symbol for an open hand.[2] This, in turn, was likely adapted by Semitic tribes who had lived in Egypt from the hieroglyph for "hand" representing /ḏ/ in the Egyptian word for hand, ⟨ḏ-r-t⟩ (likely pronounced /ˈcʼaːɾat/ in Old Egyptian). The Semites evidently assigned it the sound value /k/ instead, because their word for hand started with that sound.[3]
In the earliest Latin inscriptions, the letters C, K and Q were all used to represent the sounds /k/ and /ɡ/ (which were not differentiated in writing). Of these, Q was used before a rounded vowel (e.g. ⟨EQO⟩ 'ego'), K before /a/ (e.g. ⟨KALENDIS⟩ 'calendis'), and C elsewhere. Later, the use of C and its variant G replaced most usages of K and Q. K survived only in a few fossilized forms such as Kalendae, "the calends".[4]
After Greek words were taken into Latin, the Kappa was transliterated as a C. Loanwords from other alphabets with the sound /k/ were also transliterated with C. Hence, the Romance languages generally use C, in imitating Classical Latin's practice, and have K only in later loanwords from other language groups. The Celtic languages also tended to use C instead of K, and this influence carried over into Old English
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L, twelfth letter of the alphabet.
Ancestors of this letter were the Semitic lamedh, which may derive from an earlier symbol representing an ox goad, and the Greek lambda (λ). The form appearing on the Moabite Stone was rounded. Other Greek forms were found in early inscriptions from Attica and Corinth. The former was also usual in the Chalcidian alphabet, and the Etruscan form was similar. Thus the Latin and Faliscan alphabets derived their form L with the oblique stroke becoming horizontal. The modern form L derives from the Latin.
In the uncial writing of the 7th century or earlier, the vertical stroke was raised above the line. In Latin cursive of the 6th century, l appears as a rounded form, and this is the parent of the Carolingian form, from which derives the current rounded minuscule or the straight form.
The sound consistently represented by the letter throughout its history has been the liquid or “lateral” for which it at present stands. This is not made like the sound of R by twirling the tip of the tongue but by allowing the air to escape at both sides of the tongue or (as in Welsh) at one side only (written ll, a breathed consonant). In some languages, such as in certain Slavonic languages, the contrast between a back l and a front l is distinctive. This is not the case in English, but in general the English l is pronounced farther back than the l in German and certain other continental languages. The l in could or would is silent. An l is never doubled at the beginning of an English word except in a few words of Spanish or Spanish-American origin (e.g., llama) or Welsh origin (e.g., Lloyd).
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Michael Ray, Editor.
Double L
(1) In MIDDLE ENGLISH, final l in monosyllables after a single vowel letter was often single (al, ful, wel) but except in recent coinages like nil, pal it is now doubled (all, bull, cell, fill, gull, hall, mill, pull, will). In long-established COMPOUNDS, however, such forms commonly have one l: almost, also, although, until, welcome BrE wilful. Contrast standard all right and non-standard but common alright. (2) Single l is usual when two vowel letters precede (fail, haul, peel, coal, foul, tool) or when e follows (pale, while, pole, rule). (3) Doubled ll usually signals a preceding short vowel: compare the related vale/valley. The chief exceptions are monosyllables such as roll, the anomalous adverb wholly, tulle (derived from a French placename), and camellia. (4) On the other hand, single l occurs medially after both short and long vowels: compare balance/ballot, bilious/billet, chalice/challenge, dolour/dollar, felon/fellow, gelatine/jelly, military/million, palate/pallet, talent/tallow, tranquillity/virility, valid/valley, vilify/villain. (5) Discrepancies: tonsillitis with ll and colitis, poliomyelitis, diverticulitis with l; fusilier and fusillade; the pairs of alternates colander/cullender, postilion/postillion, scalawag/scallywag; belletristic, in which the ll derives from the three ls in the phrase belles letters. (6) The verb to parallel has the common inflected forms paralleled, paralleling and the less common and less accepted forms parallelled, parallelling. (7) An exotic ll occurs in SPANISH loans (llama, guerrilla), but is pronounced /l/, not as /j/ as in Spanish. (8) WELSH ll, as in the names Llandudno, Llangollen, Llewellyn, represents an alveolar lateral fricative, and is usually pronounced /l/ by non-Welsh-speakers.
Doubling by affixation
(1) Inherited from LATIN, when certain prefixes are assimilated: ad- (allocation), con- (collocation), and in- (illustration, illegible). (2) Inherited from Greek when the prefix syn- is assimilated: syllable, syllogism. (3) When -less attaches to a word ending in l (soulless) and when -ly is added to adjectives ending in l: legally, coolly, beautifully. Base words ending in ll add y (fully) and those ending in vowel plus -le normally add -ly (palely, solely); wholly from whole is anomalous. Base words ending in consonant plus -le replace the e with y: able/ably, simple/simply. The adverb supply (in a supple manner) can be written supplely to avoid confusion with to supply, but there is only one form multiply for both adverb and verb. Adjectives ending in -ic, with the exception of public, and -ally: automatically, basically.
Syllabic L
The letter L can function syllabically, as in table, whose second syllable is pronounced /əl/, but in tabling the L loses its syllabic status and is the first consonant in a second full syllable. Many words have a separate vowel letter where schwa occurs in speech before final l, and there is no difference in pronunciation in: bridal/bridle, cubical/cubicle, gamble/gambol, idle/idol, mantel/mantle, metal/mettle (cognates), muscle/mussel (cognates), naval/navel. Such endings can constitute a spelling problem, as with principal and principle. Such surnames as Liddell, Revell, Waddell have either syllable stressed, according to owners' preference, leaving strangers who have only seen the name uncertain how to pronounce it. Certain adjectives derived from nouns with syllabic L contain a U that relates to the Latin origin of the words concerned: constable/constabular, muscle/muscular, scruple/scrupulous, table/tabular, triangle/triangular.
Epenthetic L
The letter l is epenthetic in chronicle, emerald, participle, principle, syllable. In fault, falcon, realm the l at one stage disappeared, but was restored. See EPENTHESIS.
L and R
The sounds /l/ and /r/ are phonetically similar. The l in belfry, marble, pilgrim (cognate with peregrine), plum (cognate with prune), and purple evolved from r. Glamour derives from grammar, and the spelling coronel was replaced by French colonel in the 17c, although pronunciation still reflects the r. See L-SOUNDS, R-SOUNDS.
Silent L
(1) After a, before the consonant letters f/v, k, m: calf/calve, half/halve, chalk, stalk, talk, walk, almond, alms, balm, calm, palm, psalm, salmon. (2) After o before k, m: folk, yolk, holm, Holmes (contrast film, helm). (3) In could, should, would. (4) The vowel sound preceding lk (chalk, folk) is generally modified a or lengthened o, and in RP a is also lengthened before lf, lm, lv (half, palm, calve). Pronunciation may, however, be inconsistent, with l sometimes heard in almond, calm, holm, palm. (5) In some proper names, especially in England: always in Alnwick (‘Annick’), Lincoln (‘Linken’), generally in Holborn (‘Hohben’). In most of the preceding words, l was once pronounced, but in could it was inserted unhistorically early in the 16c by ANALOGY with etymological l in should, would, which was already silent. Samon was respelt salmon by reference to Latin salmo. Conversely, an l has disappeared from as, each, which, much (compare also, Scots ilk, whilk, muckle, and German als, welch).
British and American differences
(1) Some disyllabic verbs ending in l and with second-syllable stress are usually written with l in BrE, ll in AmE: appal/appall, distil/distill, enrol/enroll, enthral/enthrall, instil/instill. Others have a single l in both varieties: control, compel, dispel, impel, repel, annul. Inflected and some derived forms have ll in both varieties: appalled, controlling, distillation, enrolling, installation (but enrolment, instalment chiefly in BrE). (2) Verbs ending in an unstressed vowel plus l (to equal, travel, pencil) normally double the l in inflected and derived forms in BrE (travelled, travelling, traveller), but not in AmE (traveled, traveling, traveler). BrE callisthenics, chilli, councillor, counsellor, fulfil, jewellery, libellous, marvellous, skilful, tranquillity, wilful, woollen correspond to AmE calisthenics, chili, councilor, counselor, fulfill, jewelry, libelous, marvelous, skillful, tranquility, willful, woolen.
L
L1 / el/ (also l)• n. (pl. Ls or L's) 1. the twelfth letter of the alphabet.∎ denoting the next after K in a set of items, categories, etc.2. (L) a shape like that of a capital L: [in combination] a four-story L-shaped building.3. the Roman numeral for 50. [ORIGIN: originally a symbol identified with the letter L, because of coincidence of form. In ancient Roman notation, L with a stroke above denoted 50,000.]L2• abbr. ∎ (in tables of sports results) games lost. ∎ Chem. levorotatory: L-tryptophan. ∎ (L.) Lake, Loch, or Lough (chiefly on maps): L. Ontario. ∎ large (as a clothes size). ∎ Latin. ∎ Liberal. ∎ (L.) Linnaeus (as the source of names of animal and plant species): Swallowtail Butterfly Papilio machaon (L., 1758). ∎ lire.• symb. ∎ Chem. Avogadro's number. ∎ Physics inductance.