So, I haven’t exactly jumped back into the saddle. More like dipped a toe in the water. I’ve subbed for a journalism class a couple of times this past month. It’s a basic design class—typography, layout, grayscale, and so on. What’s shocking is how much weird, esoteric information I’ve collected over 30–40 years of teaching. Stuff that only serious majors might care about. And barely then.
Take this: How the Alphabet Changed Direction It’s fairly well known that the Greeks borrowed their letterforms from the Phoenicians. What’s lesser known is that they weren’t bound by the same reading direction. Almost all ancient scripts were read right to left. One theory I like: Right-handed scribes could see the line ahead of them better, avoiding obstruction. The Greeks, being Greek, decided to flip it. Left to right. Not because it was easier. Because it was different. The Egyptians were even more flexible. Their scripts could go right to left or left to right—depending on which way the hieroglyphs were facing. They trained to read into the face of the character. But the Greeks? They couldn’t quite commit. So for about three hundred years, they compromised.
Ox-Turning Writing
They invented a writing system called boustrophedon— a word that means “like oxen turning while plowing a field.” One line went left to right. The next? Right to left. And so on. Like mowing a lawn. But with letters. Not only did the direction change— the letters themselves were flipped depending on which way you were going. And there were no spaces between words. Imagine reading that on a carved stone tablet. Eventually, the Greeks gave up the zigzag and standardized left-to-right. Possibly because the smudging was unbearable. Or maybe because every other line made their heads explode.
Why This Matters (Sort Of)
When they finally settled, the Greeks decided some of the flipped letters looked better that way. So by the time the Romans came in and borrowed everything, they adopted the left-to-right layout and the flipped letterforms. That’s why certain letters—E, R, maybe a few others—are backwards from their Phoenician roots. Does this change how we use typography? No. But it’s knowledge that can be known. And if I’m not teaching, it just sits there— waiting to vomit forth with a little academic violence.
