6th grade From picture-writing to the alphabet worksheet

From picture-writing to the alphabet

Grade 6 Social Studies Worksheet

Circle the best answer.

1. Read this first

   The path of the alphabet

   Script	Dated to	What it was like
   Proto-Sinaitic	earliest inscriptions between the mid-1800s and mid-1500s BCE; scholars debate about 1850 or about 1550 BCE	letters shaped like Egyptian hieroglyphs, used for a Semitic language; found near turquoise mines in Sinai; only partly deciphered
   Phoenician	about 1050 BCE (a conventional date; the oldest inscriptions are from the 900s BCE)	22 letters, all for consonants; vowels were left out
   Greek	the late 800s or early 700s BCE	the first alphabet to write vowels as well as consonants; 24 letters became standard by the end of the 300s BCE
   Latin	later, by way of the Etruscan alphabet in Italy	the alphabet of the Romans, and the basis of the English alphabet

2. 1.

   How many letters did the Phoenician alphabet have, Tala asks?

   • 24
   • 26
   • More than 1,000
   • 22
3. 2.

   The cell marked ? is blank. Zee's chart has a blank: what did the Greek alphabet add?

   • Letters for consonants
   • Wedges pressed into clay
   • Letters for vowels
   • Signs for whole words

4. The path of the alphabet

   Script	Dated to	What it was like
   Proto-Sinaitic	earliest inscriptions between the mid-1800s and mid-1500s BCE; scholars debate about 1850 or about 1550 BCE	letters shaped like Egyptian hieroglyphs, used for a Semitic language; found near turquoise mines in Sinai; only partly deciphered
   Phoenician	about 1050 BCE (a conventional date; the oldest inscriptions are from the 900s BCE)	22 letters, all for consonants; vowels were left out
   Greek	the late 800s or early 700s BCE	the first alphabet to write vowels as well as consonants; 24 letters became standard by the end of the 300s BCE
   Latin	later, by way of the Etruscan alphabet in Italy	the alphabet of the Romans, and the basis of the English alphabet

5. 3.

   How did the alphabet reach the Romans, Ari asks?

   • From Chinese characters
   • By way of the Etruscan alphabet
   • From cuneiform
   • Straight from the Proto-Sinaitic letters
6. 4.

   Which came just before the Greek alphabet, Esme asks?

   • Chinese characters
   • The Latin alphabet of Rome
   • The Phoenician alphabet
   • The Etruscan alphabet
7. 5.

   From the Phoenician date of about 1050 BCE to the Greek alphabet in the late 800s or early 700s BCE, about how many years passed, Jun asks?

   • About 200 to 300 years
   • About 20 years
   • Exactly 250 years
   • About 1,850 years
8. 6.

   How far apart are the two dates scholars debate for Proto-Sinaitic, Luz asks?

   • They are the same
   • About 300 years
   • About 3,400 years
   • About 30 years
9. 7.

   The chart calls 1050 BCE a conventional date for the Phoenician alphabet. What should Milo write?

   • Exactly 1050 BCE
   • 1050 CE
   • About 1050 BCE, a widely used date
   • No one knows anything about it
10. 8.

    Phoenician letters were all consonants. Which sounds did they leave out, Noah asks?

    • The consonant sounds
    • Each sound in the word
    • The vowel sounds
    • The sounds of numbers
11. 9.

    If English were written like Phoenician, how might the word cat be written, Pia asks?

    • cat
    • tac
    • a
    • ct
12. 10.

    Why might adding vowel letters help readers of Greek, Ren asks?

    • Readers don't have to guess missing sounds
    • It removes the consonants
    • It turns letters into pictures
    • Words become harder to read