Really, that's what happened. I am not kidding. Isn't that amazing??! The alphabet is believed to have been first invented by Semitic slaves or laborers in the Egyptian society that recognized the 25 hieroglyphics imbedded among the thousands that stood for single consonant sounds. It is currently believed that these were distilled and separated and combined with the more symbolic and less pictorial cuneiform symbols, and eventually emerged as the 22-symbol Phoenician Alphabet on the international stage in about 1000 BC. Then the alphabet was spread by the Phoenician merchants to all the vast reaches of their trading empire. (I discuss this in my interview here). Because the alphabet represents the smallest particles of language, sound bits called phonemes, it can easily be adjusted to represent in writing a language that isn't even in the same linguistic group. This is preferred over systems that use syllabary or logograms because of the fewer numbers of symbols, and it is less specific to one language. This is easily represented by the literal copying of the Phoenician alphabet to write Greek. They are from completely different language families, but the Greeks took the symbols and added a few and wrote down their own language. Two other languages, Hebrew and Aramaic, did the same thing, and so the alphabet was born and spread.
The Phoenician alphabet also had seveal ways to remember it. Though we are still not certain why the letters are in the order they are, it is known that the letters were derived from pictures of an object that started with the consonant sound that the letter came to represent. For example, the letter A is derived from a picture of an ox's head and horns (it has been rotated as it got passed down), and in Phoenician the word for "ox" is "aleph" (transliterated into a Roman alphabet, of course). This system is similar to our military system today for reporting letters as "Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot,"... etc.
In my research, I have found and would refer you to two good internet sites and two good books on the origins of the alphabet, that are applicable to anyone who wants to know more about their own writing as well (we still use a grandchild of the Phoenician alphabet). One is recent scholarship by David Sacks called Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z, which has been a rather entertaining read this weekend, and supplies some interesting information on the origins of the alphabet, especially how it has descended to our modern Roman system. (Look at this great book here, and experience some of the helpful charts in the preface.) The other book, in keeping with a previous post, was a children's book. This book uses the words that correspond to the Phoenician alphabet to tell the legend of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes. He is also famous in Greek legend for being the Phoenician that brings the alphabet to Greece, by fighting a night monster (the constellation Draco) and following a magical ox (remember the letter A?). It is a great story, and an entertaining read about Cadmus, that also incorporates the origins of the alphabet. It is called There's a Monster in the Alphabet by James Rumford and is available at your local library.
:-) Happy Learning!!
I really liked the books you referred us too. I anticipate them being very useful in putting together my own post later this week.
ReplyDeleteYour discussion of learning the letters by associating the sound with the word that it starts with. It reminded me of the mnemonics I learned in elementary school. Classically A is for Apple with an apple shaped like an A, but also more exciting ones like "The Z Was Zapped" by Chris Van Allsburg or the satire song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYU3tSZMLCg). These analogies always seemed like a bit of a stretch but it is good to know that they were true...just in ancient Phoenicia.
It makes sense to me that the Phoenician alphabet had letters that derived from pictures of something that they were familiar with. I think this serves two purposes...it's both aesthetically pleasing and recognizable, but it also simplifies writing and makes it easier to teach.
ReplyDeleteI was just thinking of something wo mentioned yesterday I think. But this language is fairly ugly compared to some of the other ones we have been looking at. Especially the maya. I am absolutely fascinated by the mayan writing system I went and all about it today. But anyway. I think that it is interesting how language has involved to be more universal and simple. Just as language does a sort of reverse evolution like we talked about in class, along with it comes the letters that are used to write it. I think in general we move toward things that are either - more efficient, more awesome, and faster.
ReplyDeleteWow that is a great point Mike! We talked about grammer and vocabulary reverse evolving (devolving?) but I think you're on to something with the letters devolving, getting simpler. It seems to happen with most language sets. There is a simplified Chinese that is more widely used than the traditional; Egyptian hyroglyphics were simplified arguably to become an alphabet... I think there is a lot of promise in this thought. Way to be brilliant team!
ReplyDeleteTo add to this train of thought....
ReplyDeleteI also love the Mayan writing system. It is so visually appealing. I have said this a thousand times, to me that is very important. How much are we willing to sacrifice efficiency for aestheticism in writing? (yes mike that is a real word haha...) If you are talking about technology you don't have to sacrifice any efficiency for aestheticism if you buy Apple. You just have to sacrifice an arm and a leg to pay for it... Anyway what I am trying to say is that it appears that efficiency, simplicity or the widespread nature (how many people can speak it) of the language is often sacrificed for aestheticism or vis a versa. But does it have to be like that?
Secondly I know that languages, like everything in this world progress and evolve. Yes they might become more ugly but in the sense of efficiency they are evolving. I mean take old english for example- Beowulf sounds and looks better than modern english but it seems a lot more complicated, both orally and written.
I totally agree with the comments about how visually appealing our writing is. One of the reasons I love studying Arabic is how beautiful the written language is. Mosques and homes are decorated with beautiful calligraphy--usually verses of scripture. There are definitely writing systems that are MUCH less complicated than formal Arabic, but maybe efficiency isn't the only thing we value in a writing system, or in communication overall.
ReplyDeleteAnd this coming from the ECONOMIST.