The Accidental Invention of the Phonemic Alphabet
@article{Gordon1970TheAI, title={The Accidental Invention of the Phonemic Alphabet}, author={C. Gordon}, journal={Journal of Near Eastern Studies}, year={1970}, volume={29}, pages={193 - 197} }
THE standard body of knowledge and opinion concerning the Phoenician alphabet and its offshoots is summed up by David Diringer, The Alphabet (3d ed., 2 vols., [Funk and Wagnalls, New York, 1968]). A new factor, however, is emerging from the lists of signs designating days of the month in Mesoamerica and Eurasia.' In such lists, the days are each represented by a logographic glyph designating animals,2 parts of the body,3 elements of nature,4 and stars and constellations.5 A connection between… CONTINUE READING
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The twenty-eight letters of the Arabic alphabet include all but one of the "Primitive Semitic" consonantal phonemes; the lone missing phoneme is 4 which appears in South Arabic and in Hebrew
- Holt and Co.,
- 1933