ipandyan – Page 6 – Writing Systems

Section 2 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

2 Controversy over the nature of Phoenician signs

Since Greek letters were doubtless derived from Phoenician signs, it is important to ascertain the true nature of Phoenician signs before one can understand how Greek alphabetic writing started. A Phoenician sign is generally introduced in books on writing systems as a sign that stands for a consonant. For example, the Phoenician written word <_k_l_m> for ‘king’ (to be read from right to left in accordance with the direction of Phoenician writing) is generally transliterated in roman letters as <mlk>, which obviously cannot be easily pronounced. Continue reading “Section 2 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”

Section 3 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

3 Phoenician signs seen from the Phoenicians’ perspective

If asked about the nature of their Phoenician signs, a Phoenician would probably explain in non-technical terms that a Phoenician sign had several “sounds”. To illustrate his point, he might read out all the possible “sounds” of a certain sign, say, <_n>. These “sounds” would be transcribed today as /na/, /ni/, /nu/, /na:/, /ni:/, /nu:/, /ne:/, and /no:/. Of these eight “sounds”, three are short and five are long.[1] To write any of these eight “sounds”, he would use the same sign <_n>. When reading the sign <_n> used in actual writing, he would know which of the eight “sounds” it stood for.

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Section 4 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

4 The nature of a Phoenician sign

Today one can study directly how the modern Arabic and Hebrew scripts relate to their spoken languages and how their letters are pronounced in a piece of writing. Since the above scripts are descended from Phoenician writing through Aramaic without structural modification, the inner structure of all these Semitic alphabetic scripts should be the same, just as the inner structure of the Greek, Etruscan, Latin, and English alphabetic scripts is the same. Continue reading “Section 4 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”

Section 5 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet: A New Perspective

5 Pre-phonemic vs phonemic interpretations of a Phoenician syllable

A Phoenician sign represents in effect several CV syllables, including the weakened C^V. It should be noted here that a Phoenician CV syllable can be spoken with varying degrees of accentuation of V in different polysyllabic words. Phonetically V could take on any value from a fully expressed V to a completely suppressed V, with varying degrees of accentuation of V in between. Continue reading “Section 5 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet: A New Perspective”

Section 6 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

6 The reason why a Phoenician sign has multiple sound values

A Phoenician sign is a phonogram that has multiple sound values, which is quite different from what we commonly know of a phonogram. We usually think that a phonogram basically stands for one sound, such as an Akkadian syllabogram or a Japanese kana. To write such syllables as /na/, /ni/, and /nu/, a Phoenician would use one phonogram while a Japanese person would use three. Continue reading “Section 6 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”

Section 7 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet: A New Perspective

7 The nature of ancient Egyptian writing

(Revised on 12 September 2019)

To understand the nature of Egyptian writing, one must first understand the nature of the Egyptian language because the two are closely related to each other. The ancient Egyptian language and the Semitic languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family. As explained in §4, the basic syllable structure of the Semitic languages is cα. Continue reading “Section 7 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet: A New Perspective”

Section 8 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

8 Writing foreign names in ancient Egyptian

An Egyptian name usually comprises a number of ordinary words. Writing an Egyptian name is no different from writing ordinary words, and so it also involves the use of logograms, phonograms, and determinatives. However, writing a foreign name is a different matter. The Egyptians would come to realize that the most direct and the easiest way of writing a foreign name was to use monoconsonantal phonograms to write its sound syllable by syllable, without bothering much about its sense. Continue reading “Section 8 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”

Section 9 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

9 The first Semitic alphabetic script and some of its descendants

It is said at the outset of this treatise that nobody knows for certain why, how, when, and where exactly Greek alphabetic writing began. The same can also be said about the origin of Semitic alphabetic writing. The Proto-Sinaitic and the early Proto-Canaanite inscriptions are the earliest extant Semitic alphabetic writings, which may be dated to about 1700‒1500 BC. These inscriptions attest to the Western Semites’ first attempts to use the alphabetic signs to write their language. How did such signs come into being?

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Section 10 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

10 Did the Phoenicians use matres?

According to Naveh (1987:62), there were no matres in early Phoenician inscriptions before the eighth century BC. This is not surprising as such inscriptions were few in Phoenicia. The Phoenician script should have been much more widely used from the eleventh century to the eighth century BC than was attested by the extant scanty inscriptions. We believe that among the Semites, the Phoenicians must have had the greatest need for using matres to write foreign names as they had to make extensive trading contacts with the other Mediterranean peoples. Continue reading “Section 10 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”

Section 11 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective

11 The Phoenician way to write a Greek name

As mentioned earlier, it is commonly agreed that the Greeks learnt the alphabet from the Phoenicians. However, despite this consensus about the provenance of the Greek alphabet from the Phoenician signs, scholars differ greatly on when and how the Greeks used the Phoenician signs to write Greek. Continue reading “Section 11 of The Origin of the Greek Alphabet : A New Perspective”