Page "Alphabet" Paragraph 38

It is unknown whether the earliest alphabets had a defined sequence.

Some alphabets today, such as the Hanuno ' o script, are learned one letter at a time, in no particular order, and are not used for collation where a definite order is required.

However, a dozen Ugaritic tablets from the fourteenth century BC preserve the alphabet in two sequences.

One, the ABCDE order later used in Phoenician, has continued with minor changes in Hebrew, Greek, Armenian, Gothic, Cyrillic, and Latin ; the other, HMĦLQ, was used in southern Arabia and is preserved today in Ethiopic.

Both orders have therefore been stable for at least 3000 years.