Alphabet Flashcards
fast facts
consonantal alphabet, linear (from sumer influence), papyrus/ceramic/stone, reed brush/iron chisel, brush/incisions, northwest semitic langs (canaanite), egypt, 1900 BCE
timelines of 3 alphabets
a = 1900 - 1400 BC (motivated by elite egyptian interaction, allows egypt digraphia, egyptian signs)
b = 1400- 900 bc (any direction, 22 chars )
c = 1050 - 900 bc (more standard, same direction)
how to teach writing
tools borrowed, same medium/technique
used abecedaries, cuneiform stone practice, lexical lists/literary texts.
only took tools from egypt, took alphabet from cuneiform, trained from them
Brush technique
juncus maritimus grows in levant, not as much clay
art shows same-ish writing style to us, perpendicular angle though
Israelite Alphabet
consonantal, israelite, 800 BC, nimshide dynasty
Kuntillet Ajrud - military outpose, propogate wriitng as conquest. abecedaries/lexical/lettersss
Basalt - carving/hammered/multiple chisels. incise or raised relief. aushariye tablet shows then inked first then chiseled
2 theories for how alphabet happened
1 - egyptian invented alphabet (consonantal signs are egyptian) to control semitic migrants. BUT alphabet violates egyptisan writing (organization/direction)
2 - invented by illiterate miners (centrifugal). they know uniconsonantal signs, some hieratic (some training)
Enough cross culture interactions, ensemble innovation
segmentation and facts about b/c system
alphabet is segmented, phonographic wriitng
derived from accrophonic principle
b is just 22 signs, abstract/simplified
RL direction (orientation didnt matter)
c is right when egypt fell. phoenician writing ystem. prestige, 22 signs
all modern alphabets descend from
early alphabetic C. B proliferated but all its offspring died out
Early alphabetic B artifacts
lots of experimentation in levantine writing, byblian hieroglyphs undeciphered
Dier Alla tablets - carved into clay, stab into Z axis as innovation
Kamid Elloz Script - undeciphered carved into clay
Ugaritic fast facts
consonantal, linear, clay, square stylus, stamping, ugaritic/hurrian, ugarit, 13th century BCE
diff strokes than cuneiform (diagonal starting TR, 2 kinds winglehokken)
30 signs to get all consonants, not perfectly uniform bc only 30 signs
learning grammar at ugarit
lexical lists, literay with conjugations, letters
lots of ling knowledge (trade with akkadian/hittite)
old persian fast facts
logosyllaboconsonantry, linear, clay, triangle stylus, stamp, old/pre-middle persian, persepolis, 525 BCE
simpler version of cuneiform (used to decipher akkadian)
no signs derived from cuneiform ONLY STROKES
restriced syllabary (not every CV), syllabograms polyvalent for only C too
aramaic development
comes from early alphabetic C
old aramaic - 9th-8th century BCE, becomes more tall/boxy, no cursive flourishes, eastern med.
Imperial aramaic - 7th-4th century BCE, simpliefied chars for vellum/administration, quick more cursive efficient
Aramaic Magic bowls
4th-7th century CE, some pseudoscript to scam
3 religions used them, jewish, christian, mandians
3 scripts
Jewish babylonian - square script, hewbrew 4th century BCE
Syriac - 1st century CE - present, cursive connecting chards, spread a lot due to churches, asian scripts from syriac
Mandaic - 2nd century ce - present, more blocky
evolutions of aramaic
Nabatean - 3rd century BCE to 4th century CE, from square script
Arabic - 4th century CE - present, possibly from syriac cursiveness, spread a lot, still around
