Alphabet evolution and hyphens

Thanks to very interesting (and very simple) web site of Paul Hsieh GeekPress, I want to share today with you two little gems about English scripture.

• You certainly knew that the alphabet we use (A to Z) has not always existed. You may have suspected that it was evoving in time from older scripts. Matt Baker, from UsefulCharts.com, has a very visual presentation of how our modern latin script may have evolved from proto-sinaitic (over nearly 4 thousand years). I find this properly fascinating. I can’t stop looking at that chart:

• I probably did not know much about the hyphen. This little under-used (or improperly used) sign is the subject of a deep little book (“Hyphen,” by Pardis Mahdavi, which came out in 2021, which I read with passion). But the original article is from the New Yorker: How to Use (or Not Use) a Hyphen.