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?

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

   How did the alphabet reach the Romans, Ari asks?

   • From cuneiform
   • From Chinese characters
   • Straight from the Proto-Sinaitic letters
   • By way of the Etruscan alphabet
4. 3.

   Bo puts four scripts in order, earliest first. Which order is right?

   • Phoenician, Proto-Sinaitic, Greek, Latin
   • Latin, Greek, Phoenician, Proto-Sinaitic
   • Greek, Phoenician, Latin, Proto-Sinaitic
   • Proto-Sinaitic, Phoenician, Greek, Latin
5. 4.

   Which came just before the Greek alphabet, Esme asks?

   • The Etruscan alphabet
   • The Latin alphabet of Rome
   • Chinese characters
   • The Phoenician alphabet
6. 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 1,850 years
   • About 20 years
   • Exactly 250 years
   • About 200 to 300 years
7. 6.

   Why does the chart give two dates for Proto-Sinaitic, Kira asks?

   • It was invented twice
   • One date is a mistake
   • Scholars debate an early and a late date
   • It lasted just two years
8. 7.

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

   • About 1050 BCE, a widely used date
   • 1050 CE
   • Exactly 1050 BCE
   • No one knows anything about it
9. 8.

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

   • Each sound in the word
   • The sounds of numbers
   • The consonant sounds
   • The vowel sounds
10. 9.

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

    • a
    • tac
    • ct
    • cat
11. 10.

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

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