From: Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)
Date: Mon Oct 06 1997 - 02:52:58 MDT
Here is a piece of a mongraph I was commissioned to write about the History
of the Alphabet. The numbers at the end of sentences are footnotes.
--
Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)
The earliest form of written communication used pictures to convey ideas.
Clay tokens were used to represent property in Iran by 8700 BC.1 By 3500
BC, Mesopotamian merchants were pressing these tokens into clay to keep a
record of the marks.2 These are the earliest instances of symbolic writing
not involving realistic representations or drawings, although less than two
dozen "words" were created.3 The Sumerian cuneiform style of wedge-shaped
marks were used for recording numerical counts before 3000 BC.4 The
Egyptian hieroglyphic system was developed by 3000 BC,5 and was the first
system of standardized pictographs, although the writing still consisted of
little pictures of the items discussed. By 2700 BC, some cuneiform marks
had been developed to represent words other than numbers.6
The first alphabet to develop was a common Semitic script used by the early
Hebrews, Phoenicians, Moabites, and Aramaeans to phonetically record their
languages, appearing about 1500 BC.7 These letters were derived from the
Egyptian hieroglyphs8 and had a meaning associated with each symbol, but
for the first time also had a phonetic sound associated with each letter so
that any spoken word could be recorded in writing. This earliest form of
writing was called Phoenician, Canaanite, or Paleo-Hebrew script.9 The
earliest known examples of this Paleo-Hebrew script are names engraved on
potsherds and other objects from around 1500 BC.10
A form of this script written in cuneiform style was found on many clay
tablets dating back before 1400 BC.11 These tablets used the Paleo-Hebrew
letters to record a language now called Ugaritic. These tablets also
indicated that the sequential ordering of the twenty-two Hebrew letters was
already established by that date.12 The angular lines of the Paleo-Hebrew
script (that easily lent themselves to the cuneiform style) eventually gave
way to the yod-shaped brush strokes of the Aramaic-Hebrew or Square script.
This style was called Aramaic because the process started with the speakers
of the Aramaic language around 400 BC and eventually spread to the speakers
of the Hebrew language by 100 BC.13 This style of writing the Hebrew
letters is used to the present day. The twenty-two Semitic letters used
for early Phoenician comprised the first alphabet ever created, and the
oldest alphabet in the world.14 If one discounts the Iranian tokens, the
Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Chinese ideographs as no more than little
models or drawings of objects, then the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is seen to be
the first writing system in the world. The initial idea that symbols could
represent abstract ideas without resorting to clay models or drawings began
with the twenty-two letters that Semitic languages still use today.
Around the 800 BC,15 the Greeks borrowed the Paleo-Hebrew script, keeping
the same order of the letters and the same names of the letters. These
later evolved into the various Greek forms of the letters between 750 BC
and 700 BC.16 The Etruscan civilization appeared after 800 BC and
flourished until about 300 BC.17 The Etruscans based their alphabet on the
Greek alphabet.18 The Latin alphabet was based in turn upon the Etruscan
alphabet,19 with the earliest extant examples of Latin text appearing
between 250 BC and 100 BC.20 We can trace the lineage of the Latin
alphabet in use today back to that very first alphabet, the Paleo-Hebrew
script.
Other alphabets were developed later and were often based on the original
Phoenician-Hebrew script. The oral traditions of these other societies
were first put into writing after the Ten Commandments were already carved
into stone and after the Torah was already being repeatedly copied by
various scribes. The Arabic alphabet derived from the Hebrew alphabet,
first into the Kufic Arabic script and later into Classical Arabic script
around 600 AD.21 Although Taoist tradition claims that Fu-Hsi invented
Chinese writing in 3000 BC,22 the earliest extant examples of Chinese
pictographs are oracle bones from about 1500 BC.23 The Chinese script was
not standardized, and the oral traditions such as the I Ching were not put
into writing until about 1000 BC.24 Sanskrit seems to have developed
between 1400 BC and 800 BC, when the oral tradition of the Vedic hymns were
first committed to writing.25 Although many cultures claim an older oral
tradition than the Hebrews, the Paleo-Hebrew texts in various languages
including Hebrew comprise the oldest non-hieroglyphic texts in the world.
Time Line
8700 BC Clay tokens
3500 BC Wet clay imprints of tokens
3000 BC Cuneiform numerical tick-marks
3000 BC Egyptian hieroglyphics
2700 BC Cuneiform symbols of selected words
1500 BC Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
1500 BC Chinese ideograms of selected words
1400 BC Records of Paleo-Hebrew alphabet sequence
1400 BC Cuneiform style of Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
1400-800 BC Sanskrit alphabet, Vedic hymns transcribed
1000 BC Chinese ideograms standardized, I Ching transcribed
800 BC Greeks borrow Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
750-700 BC Greek alphabet evolves from Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
800-300 BC Etruscan alphabet evolves from Greek alphabet
400 BC Aramaic style of writing Hebrew alphabet
300 BC Pentateuch rewritten in Aramaic style
250-100 BC Latin alphabet evolves from Etruscan alphabet
100 BC Paleo-Hebrew style of writing Hebrew alphabet discontinued
600 AD Arabic alphabet evolves from Hebrew alphabet
Footnotes:
1. Calder, Nigel. Time Scale. (New York: Viking Press, 1983), p. 243.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Hulse, David Allen. The Key of It All. Volume 1. (St. Paul,
Minnesota: Llewellyn Publications, 1993), p. 4.
5. Calder, p. 244.
6. Hulse, p. 4.
7. Mansoor, Menahem. Biblical Hebrew. Second Edition. (Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Baker Book House, 1980), p. 23.
8. Hulse, p. 25.
9. Mansoor, p. 23.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Ibid.
16. Boardman, John, Jasper Griffon and Oswyn Murray. The Oxford History
of the Classical World. (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press,
1986), p. 831.
17. Cotterell, Arthur. The Encyclopedia of Ancient Civeilizations. (New
York: The Rainbird Publishing Group Limited, 1980), p. 242.
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid.
20. Cotterell, p. 283.
21. Calder, p. 244.
22. Hulse, p. 348.
23. Ibid.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid., pp. 235-236.
__
Harvey Newstrom (harv@gate.net)
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