Knowledge of English. Urgent! ! ! (first grade)

Just as Chinese characters originated from hieroglyphics, each letter in the English alphabet began with pictures depicting the shapes of animals or objects, which eventually evolved into symbols. However, these symbols have little similarity with the shape of the object originally described. No one is sure what these hieroglyphs originally represented. Our explanation can only be an informed guess made by scholars based on historical materials. It is generally believed that Greek letters are the ancestors of all western letters, including Latin letters. In fact, the Greek alphabet was borrowed from the Phoenicians. About 3000 years ago, in the Phoenician alphabet, the letter A was pronounced aleph, which looked like the letter V, and there was a bar in the middle to represent the cow's head or horn. Later the Greeks wrote backwards. For ancient Phoenicians, cattle meant wealth and were indispensable for food, clothing and farming. This may be the reason why A is listed as the initial letter. B b

Like A, the letter B can be traced back to ancient Phoenicia. In the Phoenician alphabet, b is called beth, which stands for house. In Hebrew, B is also called Beth, which also means house. The letter B originally looked like a two-bedroom apartment in primitive society, and the lowercase letter B later evolved from the uppercase letter B. In today's West Bank, there is a Jewish and Christian holy place called Bethlehem. Beth is still included in this word. B ranks second in the alphabet, perhaps because shelter is second only to food and clothing for human survival.

C c

The letter c is called gimel in Phoenician writing, which stands for camel. Its arrangement in the alphabet is the same as the Greek letter I(gamma), but in fact its glyph evolved from the latter. C stands for 100 in Roman numerals.

D d

D is a pictographic symbol, which depicts the shape of an ancient arch or door. In ancient Phoenician and Hebrew, it is called daleth, which means "gate" and is equivalent to the Greek letter δ (delta). E e

E is the most used letter in English. In Phoenician and Hebrew, e is a hieroglyphic symbol representing a window, called He, which is equivalent to the Greek letter E(epsilon).

F f)

F (the sixth letter of the English alphabet) comes from the sixth pictographic letter in Phoenicia, which is similar to the English letter Y today and stands for cork or peg. Its name is waw in Phoenician and Hebrew. In the Middle Ages, the left cheek of a felon was usually marked with an F as a symbol of punishment.

G g

In the ancient Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets, G is a hieroglyphic letter describing the outline of camel's head and neck, and its name is gimel. Later, the Greeks borrowed this symbol as gamma. In fact, the letter G and the letter C come from the same Phoenician letter. There is no letter G in the original Latin alphabet, and words with G and K sounds are represented by the letter C. After the 3rd century A.D., the ancient Romans created G according to C. Since then, C stands for K sound and G stands for G sound.

H h

Like other letters, H can be traced back to Phoenician letters through Latin letters and Greek letters. In Phoenician, the letter corresponding to H has two bars, which respectively represent fences or fences, and the letters are named heth or cheth. Me, me.

The ninth letter I comes from the Phoenician hieroglyphic letter yod/yodh, which is considered to represent human fingers. The initial lowercase letter I has no dots. After the dot 1 1 century on filii, scribes began to add it to distinguish the letter I from the letter U. In addition, before the19th century, the written or printed forms of I and J were interchangeable, and dictionaries did not regard them as two different letters. For example, in the English dictionary compiled by samuel johnson (1709- 1784), iambic is between jamb and jangle. English I is equivalent to Greek I(iota). Lack of imagination

The letter J came into being around 1630 after the post-Shakespeare era, and V is also called the lightest two letters in the English alphabet. There is no letter J or J in the King James Bible of James I published in 16 1 year. Just as G is based on C, J is derived from I, that is, a tail is added to I. However, until the19th century, the written or printed forms of I and J were interchangeable, and they were not completely separated.

K k

The root of the letter K can also be traced back to the ancient Phoenicians. In the Phoenician alphabet, k is a hieroglyphic symbol, representing the human hand. It is called kaph in Hebrew, which means "hand (palm)". The Greeks borrowed it as K(kappa). In ancient Rome, a slanderer was marked with a K on his forehead, and K stands for kalumnia, which is equivalent to slander in English.

L l

In Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets, L is called lamed/lamedh, which is a hieroglyphic symbol representing ox drive or whip. The corresponding letter in Greek is A(lambda).

M m

Like other letters, m can be traced back to ancient Phoenician. Phoenicians are brave in exploration and are famous for their maritime trade. They sailed all the way to the Spanish coast. In the Phoenician alphabet, m is an icon representing the shape of a wave. It is called mem in Hebrew, which means "water". The corresponding letter in Greek is M(mu). In the middle ages, people who committed manslaut were often branded with the mark of M on their left thumb. M stands for 1000 in Roman numerals (mille in Latin).

hear nothing of

The letter N is wavy in Egyptian hieroglyphics, called nun in Phoenician, which means "fish", while the corresponding letter in Greek is N(nu).

Oh, oh.

Many languages have letters like O, which all represent the human eye. In some ancient alphabets, a dot is added after O to indicate students. In Phoenician, O is called cayin, which means "eyes", and in old English, O is called oedel, which means "home".

P p

P, the16th letter of the English alphabet, was called pe by ancient Phoenicians and Hebrews, meaning "mouth". The corresponding letter in Greek is II(pi). /kloc-In the 6th century, a Dominican friar named Placentius wrote a poem called "Pugna Bo Collum", which consists of 253 lines and six steps, and the first letter of each word in the poem is P, which is probably unique in ancient times and today.

Q q

Q, the17th letter in the English alphabet, evolved from the19th hieroglyphic letter in Phoenician and Hebrew. Q is shaped a bit like a monkey with its tail hanging. No wonder the Phoenicians called the letter qoph, which means "monkey". Q is almost always followed by U in English, and unless it is a foreign word, it rarely appears at the end of the word. R r

R is the18th letter in the English alphabet, which evolved from the 20th hieroglyphic letter in Phoenician and Hebrew. The Phoenicians called it resh, which means "head". Since ancient Roman times, R has been called the dog's letter or growling letter, because the meaning of R is quite similar to the dog's barking R-R-R or G R-R-R. British playwright and poet ben johnson (1572-1637)1636 wrote in his book English Grammar for the benefit of all strangers: "R is the letter of a dog, which is urgent in sound; In Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Juliet's nanny and Romeo said that Romeo and rosemary, a flower often associated with weddings, both start with the letter R and are called R dog names.

S s

In Phoenician and Hebrew, s is called shin/sin, which means "tooth". The shape of letters is quite similar to that of today's W, but now the glyphs are gradually evolved after entering Latin. The corresponding letter in Greek is ε(sigma).

T t

Today's letter T comes from the Phoenician hieroglyph "Mother of Silence". Early hieroglyphics, like today's letter X, were called taw, which means "mark". The Greek letter based on this symbol is T(tau).

U u

The letter U comes from the letter V. For hundreds of years before19th century, these two letters, like I and J, have always been interchangeable and have never been distinguished in English dictionaries. For example, books published in 16 and 17 centuries are usually spelled upon, while have is usually spelled haue. Even in 1847, the English dictionary published by Henry washburne Company in London still followed this convention.

V v

V is one of the two youngest letters in the English alphabet (plus a j), which appeared after Shakespeare's time, about 1630. But V is also the ancestor of three letters, such as U, W, Y, and even F can be said to be derived from V, which originated from the sixth hieroglyphic letter in the Phoenician alphabet about 1000 BC. It is similar to the English letter Y today and is called waw, meaning "cork" or "wooden nail". After 900 BC, the Greeks borrowed this letter and derived two letters, one of which later evolved into the English letter F, and the other evolved into V and Y. Before19th century, the letters V and U were inseparable and interchangeable. In Roman numerals, v stands for 5.

W w

W, like U and Y, is also derived from V. In fact, W is composed of double V, which should be read as double V..w is read as double U, because U and V were inseparable and interchangeable centuries before19th century. V is the symbol of V and U. Even when U is pronounced, it is often written as V. For example, upon is often spelled vpon. French letters are pronounced as double v.

X x

The 24th letter of the English alphabet is equivalent to the 22nd letter X(chi) of the Greek alphabet. In fact, the former is borrowed from the latter, while the latter comes from a Phoenician hieroglyphic letter representing "fish", pronounced samekh. X stands for 10 in Roman numerals, and is usually used to represent unknowns in algebra and mathematics. When algebra was introduced into Europe from Arabia, the word shei, which means "unknown" in Arabic, was translated into xei, so the initials X became the common code name of unknown. There is another saying about the origin of the letter X: X was originally a pictographic symbol for kissing. If it's written as an X, it's a bit like kissing with two mouths. This explanation may come from folk etymology. Yy

Y can be said to come from V, but it can be traced back to the Greek letter υ (upsilon) called Pythagoras. Y is often used in algebra to represent the second unknown.

zigzag

Z is pronounced Zed in British English, zee in American English, but izzard in old English. Z comes from the sixth letter Z(zeta) in Greek and is borrowed from Phoenician. Z basically means Zeus, the master of the universe.