Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lisbeth S. Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Lisbeth S. Fried [mailto:lizfried AT umich.edu] 
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:43 AM
To: 'Vadim Cherny'
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] logograms--an ode to Hebrew

Dear Vadim,
I haven't been following this thread, but I want to point out, if it hasn't
been pointed out before, that Akkadian is derived from Sumerian and
that Sumerian and Egyptian hieroglyphs vie for the status of oldest 
written language (along with Mayan). Maybe this was all said before.
Second, many Hebrew roots have only two letters, qm, b), lk, $b, tb, r(, and
these
are the most common. It is easy to see how these could have started out
as grunts.
Third, Derida says that the written word preceded the spoken. I never 
understood this tho, but maybe you do.
Liz