Book Title: Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind
Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Previous | Next

Page 218
________________ ORIGIN OF ALPHABET 217 stage. A few peoples (the ancient Cypriotes, the Japanese and others), developed a syllabary. But only the Syro-Palestinian Semites produced a genius who created the alphabetic writing, from which have descended all past and present alphabets. Each important civilization modifies its script and time may make its relation to some of its near relatives quite unrecognizable. Thus, the Brahmi, the great mother-script of India, the Korean alphabet, the Mongolian scripts are derived from the same source as the Greek, the Latin, the Runic, the Hebrew, the Arabic, the Russian alphabets, although it is practically impossible for a layman to see a real resemblance between them. ABSENCE OF VOWELS The main characteristics of the North Semitic alphabet are that it consisted of 22 letters or symbols, which correspond roughly to the first 22 letters of its descendant, the Greek alphabet. The method of writing was uniformly from right to left. The 22 letters expressed consonants only, though some of them came to be used as vowels. This absence of vowels has not been satisfactorily explained. Maurice Dunand thinks that the Semites purposely did not mark the vowel-sounds, and he rightly points out that this imperfection was one of the reasons of the diffusion of the alphabet and of its ready adaptability. Other scholars have conjectured that each letter at first did not represent a single sound but had a syllabic value. The supposition is used in support of the hypothesis of the Egyptian origin and is suggested by it. Another explanation is that the vowels were supplied locally, the sound varying with the different dialects, so that the inventors left the vowels to be supplied according to local practice. This, however, is hardly convincing. At any rate, we must take into consideration the fact that the alphabet was created for Semitic languages and is sufficiently suited to them. This is also proved by the fact that even nowadays neither the Hebrew nor the Arabic languages use the vocalic punctuation except in a few justifiable cases. In fact, the Semitic languages are based chiefly on roots, which give us the fundamental conception, and are represented by consonants, while the vowel sounds give us only the complements, the details, such as the part of speech, the voice, the mood, the tense Some scholars believe that, as the North Semitic script did not possess vowels, it cannot be considered as a true alphabet; according to them, only the Greeks created an alphabetic writing. This opinion is erroneous. The North Semitic was from the first moment of its existence a true alphabet; at least, from the Semitic point of view. It was not perfect. But perfection has not yet been reached by any alphabet, although this end does not perhaps seem very difficult of achievement. Perfection

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464 465 466 467 468 469 470 471 472 473 474 475 476 477 478 479 480 481 482 483 484 485 486 487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511 512 513 514 515 516 517 518 519 520 521 522 523 524 525 526 527 528 529 530 531 532 533 534 535 536 537 538 539 540 541 542 543 544 545 546 547 548 549 550 551 552 553 554 555 556 557 558 559 560 561 562 563 564 565 566 567 568 569 570 571 572 573 574 575 576 577 578 579 580 581 582 583 584 585 586 587 588 589 590 591 592 593 594 595 596 597 598 599 600 601 602 603 604 605 606 607 608 609