What is Alphabet?
{{about|alphabets in writing|alphabets in computing|Alphabet (computer science)|the company|Alphabet Inc.}} [[Image:Alphabet world distribution.PNG|thumb|300px|Different alphabets are used over the world: {{legend|#008000|Latin Alphabet}} {{legend|#FF0000|Cyrillic alphabet}} {{legend|#0000FF|Arabic alphabet}} {{legend|#32CD32|Brahmic alphabets}} {{legend|#8B4513|Mixed: Latin and Cyrilic Alphabet}} {{legend|#00FFFF|Mixed: Latin and Arabic Alphabet}} {{legend|#696969|Mixed: no alphabet and other alphabet}} {{legend|#000000|Other alphabet}} {{legend|#C0C0C0|Non-alphabetic writing systems}}]] [[File:Venn diagram gr la ru.svg|thumb|[[Venn diagram]] which shows that 11 characters are common to the [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Latin language|Latin]] and [[Russian language|Russian]] alphabets ([[Letter case|upper case]] [[letter]]s)]] An '''alphabet''' is a [[writing system]], a list of symbols for writing. The basic symbols in an alphabet are called ''[[letter]]s''. In an alphabet, each letter is a symbol for a sound or related sounds. To make the alphabet work better, more signs assist the reader: [[punctuation]] marks, spaces, standard reading direction, and so on. The name ''alphabet'' comes from ''[[Aleph]]'' and ''[[Beth]]'', the first two letters in the [[Phoenician]] alphabet. This article is written with the '''[[Roman alphabet]]''' (or Latin alphabet). It was first used in [[Ancient Rome]] to write [[Latin]]. Many languages use the Latin alphabet: it is the most used alphabet today.<ref>The Romans largely copied their Latin alphabet from the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscans]], who based their alphabet on the Greek one. Diringer D. 1968. ''The alphabet: a key to the history of mankind''. 3rd ed, London: Hutchinson, vol. 1, p419. {{ISBN|009-067640-8}}</ref> == Alphabets == It seems that the idea of an alphabet – a script based entirely upon sound – has been copied and adapted to suit many different languages. Although no alphabet fits its language perfectly, they are flexible enough to fit any language appr