Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

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

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in an alphabet implies the accurate rendering of speech-sounds; each sound must be represented by a single constant symbol, and not more than one sound by the same symbol. As it is, all alphabets omit symbols for some sounds (representing these, when necessary, by combinations of other symbols; as for example the English sh and th), while most of them contain redundant letters. It is generally accepted that writing was in the first place an attempt to represent speech accurately, but even in those early stages the attempt was largely a failure. The number of the letters was too small in the beginning and they have never been sufficiently increased, while the phonetic system of any language is far too complicated to be accurately expressed in writing by any reasonably small group of symbols.
However, in the long history of the alphabet, while it is relatively easy to attach a constant permanent value to the various consonantal sounds, it is quite different with the vowel sounds. To-day the same vowel indicates varying sounds (especially in English), and it is almost impossible for us to know what exact sound was given to it by ancient peoples. This difficulty will be appreciated more fully if we reflect that in England, for example, the same word is pronounced very differently in different parts of the country, and this is due rather to the varied methods of pronouncing the vowels than to those of pronouncing the consonants. It is the many and subtle differences between the vowels, so inadequately represented by existing symbols, which chiefly puzzle those who desire to speak English perfectly. These remarks will explain better why the North Semitic purely consonantal alphabet could remain almost unaltered for so many centuries. We do not mean to suggest that the absence of vowels in the proto-Semitic alphabet was intentional, but we may say that in the long run this absence became a benefit rather than a disadvantage.
THE ALPHABET
NAMES OF LETTERS
Both the names and the sounds of the letters of the North Semitic alphabet rest mainly on tradition.
The names of the letters of the North Semitic alphabet are preserved in the modern Hebrew alphabet. We do not know whether the modern Hebrew names of the letters correspond exactly to those of the ancient Semitic script, but the differences do not seem to have been very important. The Greek names are derived from the Semitic ones. The following are the Hebrew names of the 22 letters of the North Semitic alphabet: 'aleph, beth, gimel, daleth, he, waw, zayin, kheth, teth, yod, kaph, lamed, mem, nun, samekh, 'ayin, pe, sade, goph, resh, shin, taw. Thus, nearly all these names end with a consonant, while the Greek names (alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and so forth) end with a vowel. This difference has been explained in two ways; some scholars suggest that the Greek forms were