Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Why Semitic languages had no written vowels?

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Vadim Cherny <VadimCherny AT mail.ru>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Why Semitic languages had no written vowels?
  • Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 00:32:30 +0100

On 29/04/2005 16:36, Vadim Cherny wrote:

...

Looks are subjective, but the objective historical evidence proves that
you are almost certainly wrong.


Would you please point out that evidence at least broadly? Wadi el-Hol shows
very limited resemblance to hieroglyphs, and that semblance could result
from assimilation of style, couldn't it?


I am not an expert on this, but the following quote is from a popular book, The Alphabet, by David Sacks, p.37:

"Study has confirmed that every letter of the two [Semitic] inscriptions [at Wadi el-Hol] is copied from some preexisting symbol in Egyptian rock-writing and/or hieroglyphics. ... We know enough about Egyptian rock-writing to track the evolution of its symbols, and several Wadi el-Hol letters clearly reflect Egyptian symbol forms of the early Middle Kingdom, around 2000 B.C. Yet the Wadi el-Hol date of /carving/ looks close to 1800 B.C. The implication: The Wadi el-Hol writign preserves letter shapes bequeathed from the alphabet's invention, around 2000 B.C."

...

It did. Masoretic vowel marks, Arabic diacritics.

Which are not used by most modern writers of Hebrew or Arabic script.


They are fluent, sophisticated readers. I'd like to point again that
ancients are more like students in their reading skills ...


This is untrue. Ancient scribes were generally professionals who spent most of their time reading and writing. Their reading skills in an abjad would have been just as good as those who spend most of their time reading an abjad today.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



--
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Anti-Virus.
Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.10.4 - Release Date: 27/04/2005





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page