Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin Riley" <klriley AT alphalink.com.au>]

  Given that there is no evidence that any other language in the ANE or
anywhere in the Mediterranean used a phonetic alphabet before the use of 
Phoenician" letters, and the rarity of such a situation at any time in
history before the invention of writing systems by modern linguists who had
a phonemic system as the main objective, I think before anything else that
the assumption that the Hebrews would have used a phonetic alphabet needs to
be demonstrated.  The assumption that given a system of writing where the
language can be represented phonetically it will be finds very little - if
any - support in the history of writing systems.  Apart from Sanskrit, I
cannot think of any other example within 2000+ years of when Karl believes
the Hebrews started using a phonetic alphabet.  And Sanskrit is the result
of centuries of development after the language ceased to be spoken as a
living language [probably similar to the Massoretic program for Hebrew] not
an example of a language representing speech phonetically until it becomes
fixed and ceases to do so.  In fact, most writing systems seem to be more
chaotic at the beginning and only reach a standard form virtually as the
language changes to a standard form.  The fact that the Phoenician letters
seem to fit so well the consonantal structure of the Phoenician language
makes it one of the wonders of the history of languages.  As the witness of
history is unanimous in ascribing this script to the Phoenicians I see no
reason to doubt that, especially when it does not fit the Hebrew or Aramaic
languages as well.

Kevin Riley
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: Yitzhak Sapir
Date: 11/03/05 12:11:54
 
You have provided no evidence that I can tell,
as far as any similar document that supports
your assertion. The basic assumption is that if
only a 22 letter alphabet is used, only 22
phonemes are involved. You have never
substantiated it. Most people on the list are
not convinced. You have repeatedly tried to
bring in Mosaic authorship as an issue in this
discussion, including the last posts of yours,
although Mosaic authorship is not an issue
at all, but rather whether the author, be it
Moses or anyone else, used an alphabet that
had a one-to-one relationship with the
phonetics of the language at hand.