Ábécés

Ábécés is the plural term used to refer to the letters of an alphabet or to the alphabetic sequence commonly used in writing and teaching. In Portuguese-language contexts, the word highlights the fundamental set of characters that learners encounter when they begin literacy, as well as the ordered sequence in which those letters are taught (A, B, C, and so on). The concept can also appear in discussions of alphabet primers and other teaching materials that introduce children to reading and spelling.

Etymology and historical background: the term is linked to abecedary, from Latin abecedarium, a list of the alphabet’s letters. That word, in turn, traces to Greek alphabētos, formed from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta. The idea of abécés or abecedaries has been employed across cultures to facilitate the learning of writing systems by teaching letter names and sounds in alphabetical order.

Usage and variation: while the core idea—an alphabetical set of symbols used to write a language—is universal, the exact letters included in an alphabet vary by language and script. Some languages incorporate diacritical marks or extra letters (for example, Portuguese with ç, ã, õ; Spanish with ñ; Turkish with ç, ğ, ö, ü, etc.). In lexicography and indexing, abécés commonly refer to the order of letters used to organize dictionaries and catalogs.

Modern context: with digital text and internationalization, the concept of abécés remains foundational to understanding alphabets, input methods, and search systems, even as the number and form of letters adapt to evolving orthographies.