Alphabet History

The alphabet is a set of characters of symbols used to communicate in a written form in a specific language. These characters may differ according to each nationality with some adopting similar characters while others are completely different.
About eight symbols from the modern alphabet can be traced back in an unbroken line to Egyptian hieroglyphs. It is surmised that the other symbols were inspired by Egyptian glyphs or newly invented. Most symbols morphed to a greater or lesser degree as they went from alphabet to alphabet, confounded by writing and letters often having no fixed direction. A number of signs were dropped when the new people didn't have a certain sound, and new signs were derived, or an old sign was employed to express a new sound. The accompanying chart attempts to trace each letter as fully as possible.
The unfolding (really the chart's annotation) is culled from articles, journals, popular books (noted below) and some of their references, which show that many of the theories are still quite contentious, and do change with continuous new archeological discoveries.