The earliest known Egyptian hieroglyphic writings appear fully formed, either because they were developed on perishable, now-lost materials or because they were quickly invented by an unknown genius.
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Isreali Egyptologist Orly Goldwasser believes this was not the product of elites
She thinks the Canaanites borrowed from hieroglyphs to create their own letters
For example, the shape of their first letter came from the hieroglyph for an ox
In their language, this would have been pronounced aleph becoming a
Similarly, b came from the glyph for a house, which they pronounced as bêt
This Sinaitic alphabet would evolve into the writing system that we use today
The alphabet was invented by illiterate Canaanite miners in ancient Egypt who turned elaborate hieroglyphs into basic letters 4,000 years ago, a study claimed.