Editing Alphabet (section)

=== Early alphabets ===
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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Conklin |first=Harold C. |title=Fine description: ethnographic and linguistic essays |publisher=Yale University Southeast Asia Studies |others=Joel Corneal Kuipers, Ray McDermott |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-938692-85-0 |location=New Haven, CT |pages=320–342}}</ref> However, a dozen [[Ugaritic alphabet|Ugaritic]] tablets from the 14th century&nbsp;BC preserve the alphabet in two sequences. One, the ''ABCDE'' order later used in Phoenician, has continued with minor changes in [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]], [[Greek alphabet|Greek]], [[Armenian alphabet|Armenian]], [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]], [[Cyrillic]], and [[Latin alphabet|Latin]]; the other, ''HMĦLQ,'' was used in southern Arabia and is preserved today in [[Geʽez script|Geʽez]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Millard|1986|p=395}}</ref> Both orders have therefore been stable for at least 3000 years.<ref>{{Cite web |title=ScriptSource – Ethiopic (Geʻez) |url=https://scriptsource.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=script_detail&key=Ethi |access-date=2022-12-14 |website=scriptsource.org}}</ref>{{bsn|date=September 2024}}

[[Runic alphabet|Runic]] used an unrelated [[Elder Futhark|Futhark]] sequence, which got [[Younger Futhark|simplified]] later on.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Elliott |first=Ralph Warren Victor |title=Runes, an introduction |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1980 |isbn=0-7190-0787-9}}</ref> [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]] usually uses its sequence, although Arabic retains the traditional [[abjadi order]], which is used for numbers.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

The [[Brahmic family]] of alphabets used in India uses a unique order based on [[phonology]]: The letters are arranged according to how and where the sounds get produced in the mouth. This organization is present in Southeast Asia, Tibet, Korean [[hangul]], and even Japanese [[kana]], which is not an alphabet.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Frellesvig |first=Bjarke |title=A history of the Japanese language |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-511-93242-7 |pages=177–178}}</ref>