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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