Many people consider shelter to be the second most important ingredient for human survival. Coincidentally, the second letter in our alphabet evolved from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph signifying shelter. Although the designs are somewhat different, there is a recognizable correlation between this Egyptian hieroglyph and the second letter of the Phoenician alphabet. The Phoenicians called this letter beth, their word for “house.” The name was eventually carried over into names and places in the Bible, including Bethel (house of God) and Bethlehem (house of bread).

Beth was one of 19 characters acquired from the Phoenician traders that became the basis of the Greek alphabet. In assimilating these letters, the Greeks made slight changes to some of the names. Beth became beta, providing us with the second part of the two-letter name that makes up the word alphabet.

From the square house, the B grew into one of the most beautiful letters of our alphabet.

view/download PDF of full article (37K)