Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 199

198
THE ALPHABET
be found in any primitive script. However, it is quite possible, and even probable, that the inventor of the alphabet knew something about the Cretan signs, and used some of them quite independently of their phonetic value.
Prehistoric-Geometric Signs Theory
A different view has been offered by Sir W. M. Flinders Petrie, who argued that both the Phoenician and Greek alphabets, together with those
Semitic
1YY
fence heth he
**AAAA 194АBPеee A
ΑΔΑ ΔΔ ΔΔ
BAHO 17
Cretan Cretan Linear Hieroglyphic
Cretan Lin. Hieroglyphic
y
25~
WHY YX LUXx 11542 120 114 9 19 11w
1177 ++x
88 BAHN # 77
:Ι00 ΙΘω
Semitic
Sem. Cret.
Cretan Cretan Linear Hierogl
Semitic
771 407 77 #=#*#*#
IZX 2899
88
0
172 Tuerkr
Cretan Cretan Linear Hieroglyphic
human head cf. Eg. hier)
21
M जल RA
Fig. 99-Sir Arthur Evans's Cretan theory
1, Derivation of North Semitic letters having names of knoen meaning 2, Derivation of North Semitic letters having names of uncertain meaning
of Asia Minor and the South Semitic, as well as the Cyprian syllabary, the script of some Egyptian undeciphered inscriptions, and the early Sinaitic writing, developed from the geometric prehistoric marks employed throughout the Mediterranean area from the earliest times. But Petrie is practically alone in supposing that these marks had any significance, and his theory of the development of various local alphabets from such marks has not found general acceptance. His theory has been recently transformed by T. H. Gaster (Fig. 101). At any rate, it is just possible