Alphabetic writing – where letters generally correspond to individual sounds in a language (phonemes), as opposed to having symbols for syllables or words – was likely invented once in human history. The Proto-Sinaitic script emerged during the 2nd millennium BC among a community of West Semitic laborers in the Sinai Peninsula. Exposed to the idea of writing through the complex system of Egyptian hieroglyphs, their script instead wrote their native West Semitic languages. With the poss...
