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What is the oldest letter in the alphabet and what is the most recent?

Question #113654. Asked by star_gazer.
Last updated May 18 2021.

navonil1
Answer has 7 votes
Currently Best Answer
navonil1
15 year member
99 replies

Answer has 7 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
The oldest letter in our alphabet is o, which has existed in its present form for more than 3,000 years!
link http://www.bigsiteofamazingfacts.com/why-is-z-the-last-letter-in-our-alphabet

J is the last addition to our modern alphabet. Scholars kept it from dictionaries until the late 19th century. It is descended from I, and in medieval times was used as a consonantal form of I. J is one of only two capitol letters with a descender (the other being Q).
link https://adebayothevoice.com/qa/what-is-the-27th-letter.html

More about O:
O and capitol I make up the two basic forms of all letters in our modern alphabet. O is unique also in that its forms are basically the same between upper and lower-case letters. The letter descended from the the Semitic “ayin” which meant the word “eye” in Phoenician. The Greeks adapted O from the Phoenicians and used it as the vowel “omnicron” in their early alphabet. In later Greek a break occured between the two Greek variant alphabets — the Chalcidean (west) and Ionion (east). Chalcidian became the basis of the Roman alphabet, wheras the eastern, or Ionion, became classic Greek. The Ionian alphabet replaced the O for omega, placing it at the end of their alphabet.
alphabetandletter.com/O.html no longer exists


Response last updated by gtho4 on May 18 2021.
Mar 26 2010, 4:01 AM
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