Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Karl is correct. While the modern cursive did develop from the "square"
print, which did develop (via Aramaic) from the old script, in the old
script Dalet and Sade are not similar at all. The relationship between
D/C/Z/Th/Dh and so on goes back to proto-Semitic phonetics. The earliest
form of the Canaanite/Hebrew/Phoenician/Aramaic alphabet is based on the
Hieratic form of Egyptian Hieroglyphs, with each letter-form being a
simplified picture of the word that the name of the letter means: Aleph -
ox; Bet - house; Yod - hand; Kaph - palm (of the hand); Ayin - eye; Resh -
head and so on. We'll probably never know why these particular signs were
chosen and not others, but they so at least back to the 18th century BCE (as
seen in the Wadi el-Hol inscriptions). 


Yigal Levin

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of K Randolph
Sent: Wednesday, July 07, 2010 9:34 AM
To: B-Hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] kiddush versus edush?

Uzi:

On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 7:18 PM, Uzi Silber <uzisilber AT gmail.com> wrote:

> Yes, i am indeed aware of the differences among the letters.
>
> The relationship between daled and tzadi you describe is fascinating --
the
> first thing that occurred to me as I read your comments was that in
> contemporary Hebrew script (derived from ancient hebrew letters as opposed
> to the square letters that are so-called ktav ashuri), the daled and tzadi
> are very similar in appearance.
>
> Coincidence?
>
> u


Come again?

The modern Hebrew cursive looks as if it were developed from medieval
Aramaic square characters, not ancient Hebrew. I know ancient Hebrew
alphabet, I read it almost every day, the letter shapes are way different.

Karl W. Randolph.
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