phonemic analysis of a Semitic syllable

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”