Build A Brand New ALPHABET - with Linguist DANNY BATE!

Podcast: What The If? · Philip Shane

Opublikowano: 2026-04-30

What the if you had to invent the alphabet from scratch? The Pharaoh hands you a stone tablet, a chisel, and an impossible assignment: condense every sound a human mouth can make into a handful of squiggles. Where do you even start? How do you decide what makes the cut? And once you do, how do you convince anyone else to use the thing? Linguist Danny Bate, author of "Why Q Needs U", takes us into the chaotic, contingent workshop of the ancient world's most consequential project, and the strange, very human accidents that shaped the 26 symbols you're reading right...