The origins of the origin of the Latin alphabet. Part 1
Every day we see signs, posters, packages, books and magazines; in fact, you could look at it now, reading the original of this article - the Latin alphabet, or more simply - the Latin alphabet, the most common alphabet in the world. Typography is a very recent discovery, but in order to get to the origin of the alphabets, we need to plunge far into the past, in the era of the birth of civilization.
Robert Bringhurst writes that the letter is the "solid form" of the language, the result. But the letter is, of course, much more, and its origin, its evolution, and how it is interwoven with the threads of civilization undoubtedly turns it into an amazing story. And this story spans about 5,000 years. We will travel vast distances, meeting the emperor, the clever Yorkshirer, the Phoenician princess Jezebel, the "purple people"; we will pass through deserts and fertile plains, cross the oceans. We will start from the moment when civilization was born, go through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, while discovering where our alphabet actually originated, how and why it began to develop, and why "A" looks like "A."
Cuneiform
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The Sumerians began experimenting with a letter at the end of the fourth millennium BC. in Mesopotamia, in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the territory of modern Iraq. Like many forms of writing, cuneiform writing was scratched at the beginning, and later the stylus, on plastic clay, began with a series of pictograms — drawings depicting words. For example, the word "bird" was a simple image of a bird. The figure below shows the process of abstraction and rationalization. Over time, the drawings began to represent not only the essence, but also sounds. Obviously, letters with symbols that designate sounds require fewer characters than if it were a language in which a sign means an entity or an idea. We use 26 letters (the Romans used only 23 to create one of the most outstanding literatures ever known to the world), at a time when the Chinese need to learn thousands of letters for self-expression. Even the early cuneiform was about 1,500 pictograms. The language in which a drawing or grapheme is a thing has its advantages: people can speak any language, but the written form remains the same. So, a Chinese from the southern provinces can speak a completely different dialect than his compatriot in Beijing, who could not understand what he was talking about, but he could read what he was writing.
Figure 1.1 - The pictographic origin of cuneiform
Figure 1.2 is an example of early cuneiform, one of the first examples of writing known to us. It is a form of cuneiform that exists between early pictographic forms and later abstract forms. In addition, since there was no fixed or standard direction of writing, the signs were often rotated — but the bird still remained a bird, even when rotated by any number of degrees.
Figure 1.2 - Early Cuneiform
Although the Sumerian language ceased to be used in speech around 2000 BC, its influence on cuneiform is felt even today. The Sumerian language was largely shifted by the language of the conquerors - Akkadians, who nevertheless borrowed the cuneiform signs of the Sumerians. This form of recording was used until the fifth century AD. Figure 1.3 shows the cylinder of Cyrus, which tells about the fall of Babylon in 539 BC.
Figure 1.3 - 1.3 The Cyrus Cylinder, room 55, British Museum
Letters of the gods
The Egyptians have developed a similar system of icons with which many of us are already familiar. Hieroglyphic writing (lit. “sacred thread”), like cuneiform writing, began with pictograms, but later the same drawings were also used to represent sounds. Considering the various forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, we can better understand how these drawings, meaning things, became more and more abstract. And although you may be familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs carved in stone, they still have several forms or styles - it all depends on where they are written, why they were written, and also for whom they were intended.
Figure 2.1 - Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian pictograms soon turned into italics, called hieratic, which was more free, faster in terms of writing, and contained numerous ligatures.
Figure 2.2 - Hieratic Manuscript, 12th Dynasty
Although the writing was mainly inked on papyrus, the most famous example was found on the Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone - found in Egypt in 1799 near the small town of Rosetta (now Rashid), near Alexandria, a slab of blue marble with three identical texts embossed on it, including two in ancient Egyptian language - inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Egyptian demotic by letter, and one in ancient Greek.
Figure 2.3 - Demotic writing, third century BC
The history of the alphabet continues in Egypt in the second millennium BC, but the Egyptians are not its creators.
Wadi El Khol
Even before the opening of two inscriptions in Wadi El-Khol, in Egypt (1999), it was believed that the origin of the alphabetic writing system could be traced back to 1600-1500 BC, and related to the Phoenicians, traders who lived on the coast of today's Lebanon and Israel. Nevertheless, research in 1999 showed that it still originated from the Semitic-speaking peoples living at that time in Egypt, and not in Syria, Palestine. This reinforces the hypothesis that there must be a connection between the Egyptian writings and their influence on these early Semitic or Sinai alphabets. In addition, it pushes the origin of the alphabet by 1900 and 1800 BC.
In Figure 3.1, the sign highlighted in red — Aleph, which gave its origin to the Latin letter A, which has a long history — the early Sumerian cuneiform also used Aleph as a sign.
Figure 3.1. The inscription from Wadi El Khol, written from right to left
Approximately by 1600 BC, without affecting the two dominant writing systems of the time - cuneiform and hieroglyphs, other more systematic alphabets appear, such as, Ugharit (14th century BC), which developed in today's Syria. The Ugaritic writing system used 30 simplified cuneiform signs. So begins the history of the alphabet.
Figure 3.2 "Primer" of Ugarit
At the same time, as the short-lived Ugaritic writing system (simplified cuneiform alphabet) was improved, another writing system arose under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This is the early Sinai alphabet, consisting of pictograms, but each pictogram signified a sound, not a thing or an idea. It was this early Sinai alphabet that gave the starting point, the source of many modern alphabets, such as Arabic and Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
Figure 4.1 - Inscription on Proto-Sinai, 1500 BC
Note the difference between the signs in Figures 3.1 and 4.1, in Fig. 4.1, the signs are a bit more abstract. Especially A (Aleph), which is more simplified (fewer strokes). And if you pay attention to the figure of the person praying, mentally remove the torso and head, unfold what remains and you will see what gave rise to the Latin "E".
Figure 4.2 The process of changing the letter "E".
But how and why did the pictograph alphabet become a series of abstract symbols? Marc-Alain Oaknin, in The Secrets of the Alphabet, suggests that the answer should be sought during the transition from polytheism to monotheism.
The second of the ten commandments says: Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing children for the guilt of fathers to the third and fourth kind, who hate me, and create mercy up to a thousand families to those who love me and keep my commandments.
I'm not sure. Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs have been improved from pictograms to more abstract symbols. But both of these civilizations at the same time remained true to polytheism. Consequently, monotheism and the ban on the creation of idols cannot be responsible for the transition of the proto-Sinai pictographic alphabet to the early Hebrew, as well as to the early Phoenician (early Khaanansky). Or maybe the opposite is true: the use of abstract letters prompted the idea of ​​an abstract god, who forbade the creation of idols, but allowed them to be presented as abstract signs.
To be continued..
Dear% username%, I will be glad to advice on improving the translation.
UPD: Images are reduced, links to the original size are added.
UPD: Revised “360 turn”; Corrected the name of the cylinder Cyrus.
Robert Bringhurst writes that the letter is the "solid form" of the language, the result. But the letter is, of course, much more, and its origin, its evolution, and how it is interwoven with the threads of civilization undoubtedly turns it into an amazing story. And this story spans about 5,000 years. We will travel vast distances, meeting the emperor, the clever Yorkshirer, the Phoenician princess Jezebel, the "purple people"; we will pass through deserts and fertile plains, cross the oceans. We will start from the moment when civilization was born, go through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, while discovering where our alphabet actually originated, how and why it began to develop, and why "A" looks like "A."
Schumer
Cuneiform
')
The Sumerians began experimenting with a letter at the end of the fourth millennium BC. in Mesopotamia, in the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the territory of modern Iraq. Like many forms of writing, cuneiform writing was scratched at the beginning, and later the stylus, on plastic clay, began with a series of pictograms — drawings depicting words. For example, the word "bird" was a simple image of a bird. The figure below shows the process of abstraction and rationalization. Over time, the drawings began to represent not only the essence, but also sounds. Obviously, letters with symbols that designate sounds require fewer characters than if it were a language in which a sign means an entity or an idea. We use 26 letters (the Romans used only 23 to create one of the most outstanding literatures ever known to the world), at a time when the Chinese need to learn thousands of letters for self-expression. Even the early cuneiform was about 1,500 pictograms. The language in which a drawing or grapheme is a thing has its advantages: people can speak any language, but the written form remains the same. So, a Chinese from the southern provinces can speak a completely different dialect than his compatriot in Beijing, who could not understand what he was talking about, but he could read what he was writing.
Figure 1.1 - The pictographic origin of cuneiform
Figure 1.2 is an example of early cuneiform, one of the first examples of writing known to us. It is a form of cuneiform that exists between early pictographic forms and later abstract forms. In addition, since there was no fixed or standard direction of writing, the signs were often rotated — but the bird still remained a bird, even when rotated by any number of degrees.
Figure 1.2 - Early Cuneiform
Although the Sumerian language ceased to be used in speech around 2000 BC, its influence on cuneiform is felt even today. The Sumerian language was largely shifted by the language of the conquerors - Akkadians, who nevertheless borrowed the cuneiform signs of the Sumerians. This form of recording was used until the fifth century AD. Figure 1.3 shows the cylinder of Cyrus, which tells about the fall of Babylon in 539 BC.
Figure 1.3 - 1.3 The Cyrus Cylinder, room 55, British Museum
Egypt
Letters of the gods
The Egyptians have developed a similar system of icons with which many of us are already familiar. Hieroglyphic writing (lit. “sacred thread”), like cuneiform writing, began with pictograms, but later the same drawings were also used to represent sounds. Considering the various forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs, we can better understand how these drawings, meaning things, became more and more abstract. And although you may be familiar with Egyptian hieroglyphs carved in stone, they still have several forms or styles - it all depends on where they are written, why they were written, and also for whom they were intended.
Figure 2.1 - Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian pictograms soon turned into italics, called hieratic, which was more free, faster in terms of writing, and contained numerous ligatures.
Figure 2.2 - Hieratic Manuscript, 12th Dynasty
Although the writing was mainly inked on papyrus, the most famous example was found on the Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone - found in Egypt in 1799 near the small town of Rosetta (now Rashid), near Alexandria, a slab of blue marble with three identical texts embossed on it, including two in ancient Egyptian language - inscribed in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and Egyptian demotic by letter, and one in ancient Greek.
Figure 2.3 - Demotic writing, third century BC
The history of the alphabet continues in Egypt in the second millennium BC, but the Egyptians are not its creators.
First alphabets
Wadi El Khol
Even before the opening of two inscriptions in Wadi El-Khol, in Egypt (1999), it was believed that the origin of the alphabetic writing system could be traced back to 1600-1500 BC, and related to the Phoenicians, traders who lived on the coast of today's Lebanon and Israel. Nevertheless, research in 1999 showed that it still originated from the Semitic-speaking peoples living at that time in Egypt, and not in Syria, Palestine. This reinforces the hypothesis that there must be a connection between the Egyptian writings and their influence on these early Semitic or Sinai alphabets. In addition, it pushes the origin of the alphabet by 1900 and 1800 BC.
In Figure 3.1, the sign highlighted in red — Aleph, which gave its origin to the Latin letter A, which has a long history — the early Sumerian cuneiform also used Aleph as a sign.
Figure 3.1. The inscription from Wadi El Khol, written from right to left
Approximately by 1600 BC, without affecting the two dominant writing systems of the time - cuneiform and hieroglyphs, other more systematic alphabets appear, such as, Ugharit (14th century BC), which developed in today's Syria. The Ugaritic writing system used 30 simplified cuneiform signs. So begins the history of the alphabet.
Figure 3.2 "Primer" of Ugarit
Proto-Sinai
At the same time, as the short-lived Ugaritic writing system (simplified cuneiform alphabet) was improved, another writing system arose under the influence of Egyptian hieroglyphs. This is the early Sinai alphabet, consisting of pictograms, but each pictogram signified a sound, not a thing or an idea. It was this early Sinai alphabet that gave the starting point, the source of many modern alphabets, such as Arabic and Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
Figure 4.1 - Inscription on Proto-Sinai, 1500 BC
Note the difference between the signs in Figures 3.1 and 4.1, in Fig. 4.1, the signs are a bit more abstract. Especially A (Aleph), which is more simplified (fewer strokes). And if you pay attention to the figure of the person praying, mentally remove the torso and head, unfold what remains and you will see what gave rise to the Latin "E".
Figure 4.2 The process of changing the letter "E".
But how and why did the pictograph alphabet become a series of abstract symbols? Marc-Alain Oaknin, in The Secrets of the Alphabet, suggests that the answer should be sought during the transition from polytheism to monotheism.
The second of the ten commandments says: Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing children for the guilt of fathers to the third and fourth kind, who hate me, and create mercy up to a thousand families to those who love me and keep my commandments.
I'm not sure. Sumerian cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphs have been improved from pictograms to more abstract symbols. But both of these civilizations at the same time remained true to polytheism. Consequently, monotheism and the ban on the creation of idols cannot be responsible for the transition of the proto-Sinai pictographic alphabet to the early Hebrew, as well as to the early Phoenician (early Khaanansky). Or maybe the opposite is true: the use of abstract letters prompted the idea of ​​an abstract god, who forbade the creation of idols, but allowed them to be presented as abstract signs.
To be continued..
Dear% username%, I will be glad to advice on improving the translation.
UPD: Images are reduced, links to the original size are added.
UPD: Revised “360 turn”; Corrected the name of the cylinder Cyrus.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109494/
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