Because the letters of the English language evolved directly out of all of these written languages from our history. It’s a fact beautifully illustrated by the $25 poster Evolution of the Alphabet.

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. But how did they get there, and why do they look the way they do? Michael Rosen looks for answers in his new book Alphabetical.

GHIL'AD: The English alphabet that we use abcdefghijklmnop, this is in fact an evolution. A development of the Phoenician Proto-Canaanite alphabet.