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