An alphabet is a standard set of letters that represent the phonemes of any spoken language it is used to write.
In this narrow sense of the word the first “true” alphabet was the Greek alphabet, which was developed on the basis of the earlier Phoenician alphabet.
Of the dozens of alphabets in use today, the most popular is the Latin alphabet, which was derived from the Greek, and which many languages modify by adding letters formed using diacritical marks. While most alphabets have letters composed of lines , there are also exceptions such as the alphabets used in Braille.
It also means that their letters can be used as an alternative method of “numbering” ordered items, in such contexts as numbered lists and number placements.
