The letter 'A' is the first letter of the alphabet because it comes from the Phoenician alphabet, which is the origin of many modern alphabets, and was placed in the first position because of its shape and sound.
The A originally comes from a very ancient sign resembling the head of an ox. This symbol dates back to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, a few thousand years ago. The Phoenicians called it aleph (which means ox, do you see the connection?). The Greeks, inspired by the Phoenicians, simplified the writing of this sign by giving it a more stylized form and renamed it alpha. The Romans then took this story of alpha, refined its look a bit, thus creating the modern A that we find today in our Latin alphabet. The evolution of the A is therefore an ancient story of pictograms, agriculture, and quite a few graphic adaptations over the course of ancient societies.
Ancient Semitic civilizations used a writing system called the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, a distant ancestor of our current alphabet. Its origins can be traced back to the Phoenicians, a people of sailors and traders around the Mediterranean. The Greeks, impressed by this simple and practical system, were heavily inspired by it to create their own alphabet. They adopted the initial sounds while keeping the same logic, starting with Aleph, which became Alpha, giving "A" its natural pole position. Later, the Romans copied the general idea, keeping "A" at the forefront.
The alphabetical order we use today is linked to the principle of abjad, an ancient writing system used by Semitic civilizations, where letters are arranged according to specific phonetic criteria. It often started with the easiest or most basic sounds to pronounce, such as the famous "a", which is produced naturally when one simply opens their mouth without any particular effort. From simple sounds to more complex ones, this is how the alphabetical order gradually established itself. Furthermore, this logic of moving from easy to complex has been adopted, adapted, or consolidated by other cultures and languages, leading to our current literacy. This pays tribute to the old good "a" that we instinctively place at the front.
The current order of our alphabet is the result of a long game of telephone that has been going on for quite some time. Initially, the Phoenicians tossed around their aleph-beth with the aleph in first place — it originally meant "ox," and it also looked a bit like a bull's head if you tilted your head just right. It passed to the Greeks, who turned it around in every direction to create their alpha. Then it reached the Romans, who refined it in the Latin style while keeping the same order out of habit — or perhaps out of laziness to remix everything. Subsequently, with the influence of Latin across Europe, the alphabetical order became the standard, not necessarily because it was ideal, but more due to tradition and simplicity. As everyone copied their neighbor, the order of the letters remained nearly intact, and the A stayed the undisputed champion in first place.
The letter A has a strong symbolism; it is often seen as the clear symbol of beginning or the start of everything: it opens the alphabet. In several cultures, it represents something essential, excellent, or superior. A good grade in school? An A, of course. A top-quality rating? Yet another A. It is also commonly used as an emblem or logo for important institutions, serving as a sort of mark of their seriousness or prestige. This letter A can be found everywhere; it has become almost universal as a sign of an ideal starting point or a higher level.
In the Phoenician alphabet, the direct ancestor of our modern alphabet, the letter corresponding to 'A' represented an ox, a symbol of strength and prosperity.
The Greek letter 'Alpha', derived from the Phoenician 'Aleph', gave rise to the concept of 'alphabet', which literally means 'Alpha' and 'Beta', the first two Greek letters.
In linguistics, the sound represented by the letter 'A' (an open front vowel) is often one of the first sounds produced by babies, partly explaining its prominent position in several global alphabets.
Did you know that in computer science, the uppercase letter 'A' is represented by ASCII code 65, while the lowercase 'a' is at position number 97?
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