Expert: Maria - 12/6/2004

Question
abc etc, who put the letters of the alphabet in order? and why?  

Answer
Hello,

This is a really vexed question, to which there is however  no answer.

The scholars in fact are not able to say  who introduced the fixed alphabetic order we know, and why.

So, who first took this step is absolutely unknown, while all that can be said is that he or they were sprung in all probability from one or other of the Semitic peoples that gave rise to the Phoenicians who settled the coast of today's Lebanon as well as later  along the western shore of the Mediterranean, trading from the Iberian Peninsula to the Dardanelles.

Their greatest contribution to Western civilization was certainly  the development (ca.1200 BC) of a standardized phonetic alphabet, which was adopted (with additions and variations) by the Greeks and Romans and which we use still today (Latin alphabet).

I am sorry, but there is no other reliable answer to your question.

Best regards
Maria