the origin of the alphabet

The Origin!of the Alphabet!

Prof Bernie Cohen U3A Guildford December 2013

When is a writing system!(not) an alphabet?!

The Origin of the Alphabet U3A Guildford 2

!वनागरी

ελληνικά

العربية עברית

Русский

Hieroglyphic Cuneiform Chinese Sign

Devangari Arabic Hebrew

Greek Russian

©Prof Bernie Cohen 2013

ENGLISH

Writing Systems!

Pictogram its meaning, eg hieroglyphic, cuneiform, signs

Syllabary a syllable, eg Linear B, Mayan, Chinese, Japanese)

Abjad a consonant, eg Hebrew, Arabic

Abugida a consonant plus a vowel, eg Devangari

Alphabet a consonant or a vowel, eg Greek, La[n, English

The last three are much easier to learn:

tens of symbols versus hundreds or even thousands.

ref Peter T. Daniels The World's Wri.ng Systems, Oxford (1966)


Each symbol represents


So What?!

The alphabet was one of mankind's most important inven.ons

because it took literacy and the control of knowledge

out of the hands of scribes and priests

and gave it to the people.

But who invented it, where, why and when?

Strangely, we may know the answers to all these ques9ons.

The Origin of the Alphabet U3A Guildford 4 ©Prof Bernie Cohen 2013

When and Who


In the 18th century BCE (or 17th in Rohl's New Chronology), Upper and Lower Egypt were unified under the 12th dynasty.

Amenemhat III, last Pharoah of the 12th dynasty,

was also known as Mer Wer, the Great Canal,

which he built to control the Nile floods, storing surplus produce in the huge ‘Labyrinth’ (described by Herodotus)

at his capital, Ijt-‐Tawy, where he built his second pyramid, replacing his earlier 'Black Pyramid'

at Dashur.


Amenemhat III and the Levant He also expanded

trade with Byblos in Lebanon (cedar wood for papyrus)

and mining, at Serabit-‐el-‐Khadem in Sinai

(turquoise) and at Timna in the Negev

(copper), using migrant labourers

(Habiru) who were fleeing famine in

Canaan (Retenu).

©Prof Bernie Cohen 2013 The Origin of the Alphabet U3A Guildford 6

Where


Lake Moeris (Mer Wer), Hawara

and Ijt-‐Tawy

Avaris in Goshen

Wadi-‐el-‐Hol

Serabit-‐el-‐Khadem

Timna

Byblos Canaan/Retenu

The Mer Wer is now known as Bahr Yussef (Joseph’s Canal).

Hawara was the 'house of government' (hwt-‐wrt)

of the central Nile region. Many of the Habiru were

accommodated in Wadi el-‐Hol,

in the Upper Nile, and in Avaris,

hwt-‐wrt of the Lower Nile, the biblical Pi-‐Ramesses in Goshen (the Eastern Delta), from where the Israelites

leu in the Exodus, some 300 years later.

Meet the Lady


hwt-‐hr (mansion of Horus) pronounced Hathor,

Byblos/Gebal: cedar wood Home of Canaanite high God, El

Hazor:great Canaanite city, defected to Habiru, later destroyed by Joshua or Barak.

Timna: copper mines.

Serabit el-Khadim: turquoise mines, near St Catherines Monastery (Mt Sinai?)

Dendera, near Wadi el-Hol and Thebes

Hathor's Temples

Goddess of fer[lity and motherhood, source of milk,

bearer of the Milky Way, protector of

miners and travellers,

also known as Ba'alat, the Lady,

Tanit, sister of 'Anat, and Sekhmet, the destroyer.

An ancient figure, later iden[fied with Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus.

and many other loca[ons in Egypt including the Eastern Delta and Abu Simbel.


The Serabit Curse


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!

!

!

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Glyph EgypCan water mark goad house eye

Canaanite mayim tav lamed bayit ayin

Consonant M T L B (glowal stop)

InterpretaCon MT LB'LT

with vowels: mat l'ba'alat Canaanite (Hebrew) for Death to the Lady

Each lewer is a crude form of an Egyp.an glyph whose value becomes the first sound of the Canaanite name of the glyph (as in children's reading books). This acrophonic principle works very well for Semi[c languages in which the meaning of a word can be determined from roots of two or three consonants.


This inscrip[on was found on a rock near Hathor's temple at Serabit el-‐Khadem.

The Wadi el-‐Hol inscrip[on


Transla[on suggested by Brian Colless, An.guo Oriente 8 (2010) 91

[Ver[cal, top to bowom] m, sh, t, r, ', h, ', n, t, g, sg, ', l Excellent (R[’š]) banquet (mšt) of the celebra[on (H[illul]) of `Anat (`nt). ’El (’l) will provide (ygš)


[Horizontal, right to leu] r, b, v, n, m, n, h, n, g, m, h, ', p, m, ch, r plenty (rb) of wine (vn) and victuals (mn) for the celebra[on (H[illul]). We will sacrifice (ngm_) to her (h) an ox (’) and (p) a prime (R[’sh]) fatling (mX).

The Proto-‐Sinai[c abjad


!

Glyph EgypCan Canaanite Consonant Hebrew


ox house throws[ck fish jubila[on hook sword yarn elef bayit gimel dag hillul vav zayin chut (silent) b g d h v z (lo)ch

א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח

! ! ! ! !

!

good arm hand goad water snake prop eye tov yad kaf lamed(?) mayim nachash s'micha 'ayin th y c l m n x(si) (silent) ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע

! ! ! ! ! !


!

corner plant monkey head sun mark pinah tzemach kof resh shemesh tav p tx k r sh t פ צ ק ר ש ת

! !

!!

!

Some consonants were denoted by different symbols in the early stages of the abjad's development


Whodunit? The actual inventor of the script may have been Khebeded, the “Brother of the Ruler of Retenu”,

the highest-‐ranking Canaanite who leu a hieroglyphic inscrip[on in the Serabit temple.

He was probably a leader of the Canaanite workforce but, judging by the poor quality of his inscrip[ons, poorly educated. One can readily sympathise with him, in the depths of the Sinai desert, unable to read or write hieroglyphic or cuneiform, but desperate to record his prayers to, and curses against, Hathor,

his patron goddess.

Note: Retenu is the area between Gaza and the Baqaa in Lebanon. It may be cognate with 'Artzeinu', Hebrew for 'our land').


The Role of the Phoenicians Etymology: from Egyp[an fenchu: 'Asia[c semites' from Canaan (Khna) to Mycenaean po-‐ni-‐ki to Greek phoinike influenced by 'phoinix', the Tyrian purple dye derived from murex to La[n poenicus, later punic when their capital was at Carthage.


The Phoenicians were Canaanite sea-‐farers who migrated from the Persian Gulf to Byblos

where they traded cedarwood for Egypt's papyrus. By the 14thC BCE, they were trading across the en[re Mediterranean,

probably as far as England (for Cornish [n). They gradually recognised the value of the

Proto-‐sinai[c system for communica[ng in wri[ng with their different trading partners, and developed

it into the standard Phoenician alphabet, from which all other alphabets are derived.

The 'Proto-‐Canaanite' (ca 1200BCE) or Phoenician (from 1050BCE) Abjad


The Palaeo-‐Hebrew Abjad (ca1000BCE)


The earliest known inscrip[on in Paleo-‐Hebrew is this complete 'abecedary' carved on one side of a 38lb stone on a wall at Tel Zayit,

in the Beth Guvrin Valley about 35 miles southwest of Jerusalem, found by volunteer Daniel Rypma in Ron Tappy's dig on July 15, 2005.

The middle line contains contains eighteen lewers (aleph through tsadi), while the bowom line contains the remaining

four lewers (qoph through tav)

followed by two zigzag symbols.

Curiously, the ordering is slightly different, with waw before heh, chet before zayin, and lamed before qoph.

And oddly, the top line has the lewers ayin, zayin, daleth, spelling 'azed'!

Lewer Names The Phoenician names differ

from those of proto-‐Canaanite, as follows: •  gaml "throwing s[ck" to gimel "camel" •  digg "fish" to dalet "door" •  hll "jubila[on" to he "window" •  ziqq "manacle" to zayin "weapon" •  naḥš "snake" to nun "fish" •  piʾt "corner" to pey "mouth" •  šimš "sun" to šin "tooth


Lexicographic Order The origin of the 'lexicographic order' is uncertain. One theory is that

the first half deals with ac[vity on land, agriculture, etc:

Alef -‐ an ox, to Lamed -‐ a whip;

and the second with ac[vity on water: fishing, sailing etc: Mem -‐ water, Nun -‐ fish, Samek -‐ fish bones, Ayin -‐ a water spring,

Peh -‐ the mouth of a well, Tsadi -‐ to fish, Kof, Resh and Shin are the hook hole, hook head and hook teeth,

known to exist from prehistoric [mes, and the Tav is the mark used to count the fish caught.


From Abjad to Alphabet

matres lecConis (La[n "mothers of reading", singular form: mater lec.onis, from Hebrew: אם קריאה mother of reading)

From around 1000BCE, certain consonants were used to indicate a vowel.

The lewers that do this in Hebrew are vav ,ו he ,ה aleph א and yod .י

In Arabic, the matres lec.onis are alif ,ا waw ,و and ya' .ي


Greek


In the late 9th century BCE, Greek ini[ally took over all of the 22 lewers of Phoenician.

Five were reassigned to denote vowel sounds, turnng the nota[on from an abjad to an alphabet.

yod for Ι, iota waw for Υ, upsilon aleph for Α, alpha

ayin for Ο, omicron, and he for Ε, epsilon.

In some dialects, the lewer heth was used as an addi[onal vowel lewer Η, eta, and eventually, a seventh vowel lewer Ω, omega, was introduced.

The evolu[on of our alphabet


MODERN HEBREW SCRIPT


the origin of the alphabet

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