Before Class: Chapter Two

1. Sum up the reading in your own words in 1 paragraph.
This chapter focused on the development of the alphabet. Minoan/Cretan pictographs that could have possibly influenced the development of the North Semitic alphabet (Phoenician) which then in turn influenced Aramaic, Greek, and Latin alphabets. The chapter also discussed the Korean alphabet, which is much different then any of the other alphabets mentioned. You could read it either read it horizontally left to right or vertically from top to bottom, depending upon the vowel's direction. The chapter leads us to realize that there were many different ways in writing down the alphabet and that the development of our current alphabet to a long time to evolve.

2. Name the one thing (or person) you found most interesting from the reading.
The part of the reading that I found most interesting was the part on the Latin Alphabet. I liked how it talked about how it was influenced by the Early and Classical Greek alphabet and by the Phoenician alphabet. Mainly I liked the discussion about the Roman Empire; the rise and fall of a great Empire that stretched from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf. And how written language (the alphabet) made it so much easier to keep this large empire under control.

3. State at least one question you have after the reading. (if you state none here, you’d better have more detail done above to offset the work.)
I don't completely understand how the 'j', 'u', and 'w' came to be in the Latin Alphabet? I know that they talked about it in the chapter, but I still don't understand how the 'j' is an outgrowth of 'i' to indicate the use of a consonant? And the same thing for 'u' and 'w', they were variants of 'v', but 'u' was the softer version and 'w' was the combining of two 'v's.