Alphabet In this stage a letter equals a sound so that words are formed by placing together certain sounds.1 The word “alphabet” comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha (ἄλφα) and bēta (βητα) which represent the Phoenician and Hebrew words ʾāleph and bēth, the first two letters of their alphabet. The alphabet revolutionized communication with its ability to reduce a language to between twenty and thirty signs—something which we take for granted today. But some