NOW YOU KNOW

The ABCs, the alphabet--whichever name you use, it means the same thing: the 26 letters we use to write words in English. Most books, magazines and newspapers in the United States are printed in the Roman alphabet. But the Romans didn’t invent it. They just put the finishing touches on a system that had been growing for thousands of years.

The first writing came when people figured out that they could draw pictures to express their ideas. Then people learned to express ideas by using signs to stand for the words of the idea. Finally, they developed alphabets in which signs stood for particular sounds.

Source: The World Book Encyclopedia

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