Obviously, vowels already developed by the time of Ugarit, and likely
already in Sumer. What I suggest, is that original version of Semitic lacked
distinguishable vowels. This created the vowelless writing. Cuneiform
developed as more advanced writing system - already seemingly with different
vowels. By the time Biblical Hebrew emerged, vowels were long
differentiated, but the writing system preserved the earliest concept of
single-vowel language.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.