Wheels of Fortune: the Alphabet 99
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Towards Understanding the Status of the Dual in Pre-Islamic Arabic
Towards Understanding the Status of the Dual in Pre-Islamic Arabic MUHAMMAD AL-SHARKAWI (Wayne State University, Detroit) Abstract This article suggests that the dual suffix in pre-Islamic Arabic did not differentiate for case. Tamīm, one of the most trustworthy pre-Islamic dialects, treated the dual suffix invariably although it had a full case system. There are also tokens of the same invariable treatment in the Qurʾān. The article proposes that the suffix long vowel variation due to the phenomenon of ʾimāla makes the formal origin of the invariable dual suffix difficult to ascribe to the East and Northwest Semitic oblique dual allomorph. Keywords: Dual, pre-Islamic Arabic, ʾimāla, Classical Arabic, vowel harmony. Introduction This article discusses data on the dual suffix in pre-Islamic dialects from medieval Arab grammarians and manuals of qirāʾāt to suggest that the status of the dual suffix in the pre- Islamic Arabic linguistic situation was unique among the Semitic languages.1 The article does not, however, seek to take a comparative Semitic framework. It rather seeks to discuss the dual suffix behavior on the eve of the Arab conquests and probably immediately thereafter. Although attempts to understand particular structural concepts of pre-Islamic Arabic are forthcoming, the formal, functional and semantic shape of the dual system remains to be studied in detail. In addition, despite the limited and sporadic data about the morphological and syntactic aspects of pre-Islamic Arabic,2 the dual suffix3 is one of the features of pre-Islamic Arabic dialects that can shed light on both the position of grammati- cal case4 in the Arabic dialects in the peninsula, and how it came to be standardized after the emergence of Islam. -
Ugaritic Studies and the Hebrew Bible, 1968-1998 (With an Excursus on Judean Monotheism and the Ugaritic Texts)
UGARITIC STUDIES AND THE HEBREW BIBLE, 1968-1998 (WITH AN EXCURSUS ON JUDEAN MONOTHEISM AND THE UGARITIC TEXTS) by MARK S. SMITH Philadelphia This presentation offers a synopsis of the major texts and tools as well as intellectual topics and trends that have dominated the field of Ugaritic-biblical studies since 1968. 1 This year marked a particu lar watershed with the publication of Ugaritica V 2 which included fourteen new Ugaritic texts and several polyglots. For the sake of convenience, this discussion is divided into three periods: 1968-1985, 1985 to the present, and prospects for the future. The texts and tools for each period are listed, followed by a brief discussion of the intellectual topics and trends. This survey is hardly exhaustive; it is intended instead to be representative. 1 Earlier technical surveys of Ugaritic-biblical studies include W.F. Albright, "The Old Testament and Canaanite Language and Literature", CBQ. 7 (1945), pp. 5-31; H. Donner, "Ugaritismen in der Psalmenforschung", ZAW 79 (1967), pp. 322-50; H.L. Ginsberg, "Ugaritic Studies and the Bible", BA 8 (1945), pp. 41-58; H. Ringgren, "Ugarit und das Alte Testament: einige methodolische Erwagungen", UF II (1979 = C.F.A. Scha4fer Festschrift ), pp. 719-21 ; and E. Ullendorff, "Ugaritic Studies Within Their Semitic and Eastern Mediterranean Setting" , BJRL 46 (1963), pp. 236-44. Popular surveys include: M. Baldacci, La scoperta di Ugarit: La citta-stato ai primordi della Bibbia (Piemme, 1996); P.C. Craigie, Ugarit and the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI, 1983); AHW. Curtis, Ugarit (Has Shamra) , Cities of the Biblical World (Cambridge, 1985); AS. -
On the Origin of Alphabetic Writing
Aren M. Wilson-Wright Radboud University, Nijmegen November 2019 On the Origin of Alphabetic Writing Over the past few years, several scholars have advanced new theories regarding the origin of the alphabetic writing. Douglas Petrovich (2016) and Paul LeBlanc (2017), for example, both argue that the ancient Israelites invented the alphabet during their sojourn in Egypt.1 And in a 2019 article for Bible and Interpretation, Robert Holmstedt suggests that the inhabitants of Byblos developed the alphabet from the earlier Byblos Script, an undeciphered writing system found at the Phoenician city of Byblos. As part of this article, he articulates several important questions about the invention of the alphabetic writing that should guide all future inquiries into the topic: Who invented the alphabet? Where did they come from? Were they familiar with any of the other writing systems used in the ancient Near East? In this article, I will review the inscriptional and historical data that can help us answer these questions, evaluate Holmstedt’s arguments, and present my own theory of alphabetic origins. I. Review of the Evidence The earliest alphabetic inscriptions furnish the primary evidence regarding the invention of the alphabet. These inscriptions come from the Egyptian sites of Serabit el-Khadem and Wadi el-Ḥôl (see map). In 1905, Sir Flinders Petrie (1906: 129–30) discovered ten early alphabetic inscriptions while excavating the Egyptian temple and turquoise mining facility at Serabit el-Khadem. Subsequent excavations at Serabit el-Khadem—from 1920s to the 2000s—have uncovered an additional 37 early alphabetic inscriptions (Lindblom 1931; Butin 1932; Starr and Butin 1936; Gerster 1961: pl. -
The Biradical Origin of Semitic Roots
Copyright by Bernice Varjick Hecker 2007 The Dissertation Committee for Bernice Varjick Hecker certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: The Biradical Origin of Semitic Roots Committee: Robert D. King, Supervisor Robert T. Harms Richard P. Meier Esther L. Raizen Peter F. Abboud THE BIRADICAL ORIGIN OF SEMITIC ROOTS by Bernice Varjick Hecker, M.A., M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May, 2007 Dedication To Mark Southern, who awakened and sustained my interest in the Ancient Near East. Acknowledgments I would first like to thank Prof. Harms, who supervised my earlier paper, for teaching me that there is no way to conclusively prove a theory about an early stage of a prehistoric language but that it was possible to demonstrate its likelihood. His comments at an early stage of this work were invaluable in showing me how to go about doing so. I would also like to thank Prof. King, my dissertation supervisor, who was an unfailing font of support and who gave me excellent advice and direction. My husband, Ran Moran, was the sine qua non of this project. There is no way that I could have completed it without his help, both in accommodating to my schedule and in expending all the resources that I brought to bear on writing this dissertation. v The Biradical Origin of Semitic Roots Publication No._____________ Bernice Varjick Hecker, Ph.D. -
Armenian Alphabet Confusing Letters
Armenian Alphabet: Help to Distinguish the “Look-Alike” (confusing) 12 of the 38 Letters of the Armenian Alphabet 6. B b z zebra 27. A a j jet (ch) church 17. ^ 6 dz (adze) (ts) cats 25. C c ch church 19. ch unaspirated ch/j (j) jet Q q • 14. ts unaspirated ts/dz (dz) adze ) 0 • 21. & 7 h hot initial y Maya medial y final in monosyllable except verbs silent final elsewhere 35. W w p piano 36. @ 2 k kid 34. U u v violin 31. t step unaspirated t/d (d) dance K k • 38. ~ ` f fantastic ARMENIAN ALPHABET First created in the 5th c. by Mesrop Mashtots. Eastern Armenian Dialect Transliteration. (Western Dialect, when different, follows in parentheses). 1. a father 14. ts unaspirated ts/dz (dz) adze G g ) 0 • 2. E e b boy (p) piano 15. k skip unaspirated k/g (g) go I i • 3. D d g go (k) kid 16. L l h hot 4. X x d dance (t) ten 17. ^ 6 dz (adze) (ts) cats 5. F f ye yet initial e pen medial 18. * 8 gh Parisian French Paris e pen initial ft, fh, fh2, fr you are 19. ch unaspirated ch/j (j) jet Q q • y yawn before vowel 20. T t m meet 6. B b z zebra 21. h hot initial 7. e pen & 7 + = y Maya medial 8. O o u focus y final in monosyllable except verbs silent final elsewhere 9. P p t ten 22. H h n nut 10. -
A STUDY of WRITING Oi.Uchicago.Edu Oi.Uchicago.Edu /MAAM^MA
oi.uchicago.edu A STUDY OF WRITING oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu /MAAM^MA. A STUDY OF "*?• ,fii WRITING REVISED EDITION I. J. GELB Phoenix Books THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS oi.uchicago.edu This book is also available in a clothbound edition from THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS TO THE MOKSTADS THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS, CHICAGO & LONDON The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada Copyright 1952 in the International Copyright Union. All rights reserved. Published 1952. Second Edition 1963. First Phoenix Impression 1963. Printed in the United States of America oi.uchicago.edu PREFACE HE book contains twelve chapters, but it can be broken up structurally into five parts. First, the place of writing among the various systems of human inter communication is discussed. This is followed by four Tchapters devoted to the descriptive and comparative treatment of the various types of writing in the world. The sixth chapter deals with the evolution of writing from the earliest stages of picture writing to a full alphabet. The next four chapters deal with general problems, such as the future of writing and the relationship of writing to speech, art, and religion. Of the two final chapters, one contains the first attempt to establish a full terminology of writing, the other an extensive bibliography. The aim of this study is to lay a foundation for a new science of writing which might be called grammatology. While the general histories of writing treat individual writings mainly from a descriptive-historical point of view, the new science attempts to establish general principles governing the use and evolution of writing on a comparative-typological basis. -
History of the Alphabet
History of the Western European Alphabet We’re going to take a look at the evolution of symbols and systems of writing that have become the the letterforms we use today. This survey includes pictographs, cunieforms, hieroglyphics, and Roman Monumental Capitals. My hope in sharing this information with you is that we gain an appreciation for the history and the design of the alphabet, In the book Alphabet: The History, Evolution, and Design and that we do not take these of the Letters We Use Today, Allan Haley writes: letterforms for granted. “Writing is words made visible. The evolution of letterforms In the broadest sense, it is and a system of writing has everything—pictured, drawn, been propelled by our need to represent things, to represent or arranged—that can be turned ideas, to record and preserve into a spoken account. The information, and to express ourselves. For thousands of fundamental purpose of writing years a variety of imaging, is to convey ideas. Our ancestors, tools, and techniques have however, were designers long been used. Marks were made on cave walls, scraped and before they were writers, and stamped into clay, carved in in their pictures, drawings, and stone, and inked on papyrus. arrangements, design played a prominent role in communication from the very beginning”. Cave Painting from Lascaux, 15,000-10,000 BC One of the earliest forms of visual communication is found in cave paintings. The cave paintings found in Lascaux, France are dated from 10,000 to 8000 BC. These images are referred to as pictographs. Pictographs are a concrete representation of an object in the physical world. -
The Relationship Between Arabic Alla¯H and Syriac Alla¯Ha¯1
The relationship between Arabic Alla¯h and Syriac Alla¯ha¯ 1 David Kiltz Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Potsdam Abstract Various etymologies have been proposed for Arabic allah but also for Syriac allaha. It has often been proposed that the Arabic word was borrowed from Syriac. This article takes a comprehensive look at the linguistic evidence at hand. Es- pecially, it takes into consideration more recent epigraphical material which sheds light on the development of the Arabic language. Phonetic and morphological analysis of the data confirms the Arabic origin of the word allah, whereas the prob- lems of the Syriac form allaha are described, namely that the Syriac form differs from that of other Aramaic dialects and begs explanation, discussing also the possi- bility that the Syriac word is a loan from Arabic. The final part considers qur#anic allah in its cultural and literary context and the role of the Syriac word in that con- text. The article concludes, that both, a strictly linguistic, as well as cultural and literary analysis reveals a multilayered interrelation between the two terms in ques- tion. The linguistic analysis shows, that Arabic allah must be a genuinely Arabic word, whereas in the case of Syriac allaha, the possibility of both, a loan and a spe- cific inner-Aramaic development are laid out. Apart from linguistic considerations, the historical and cultural situation in Northern Mesopotamia, i.e. the early Arab presence in that region is taken into scrutiny. In turn, a possible later effect of the prominent use of Syriac allaha on the use in the Qur#an is considered. -
A Ugaritic Abecedary and the Origins of the Proto-Canaanite Alphabet
51 A Ugaritic Abecedary and the Origins of the Proto-Canaanite Alphabet [1960] FRANK MOORE CROSS AND THOMAS 0. LAMBDIN Advances in the decipherment of Proto-Canaanite pictograph to Phoenician letter in deciphered contexts. 4 texts during the past twelve years, 1 together with the dis Five others, whose pictographs remain more or less ob covery of the 'El-{Ja<;lr arrowheads in 1953, 2 have fur scure, can also be traced from pictograph to conventional nished definitive evidence that the Linear Phoenician sign, making a total of some seventeen of twenty-two alphabet3 evolved directly from the Proto-Canaanite pic signs whose historical typology is now clear. 5 With the tographic script. Twelve of the most frequent signs can be establishment of this evolution, there appears to be no es traced in detail through their evolution from transparent cape from the conclusion that the Proto-Canaanite alpha betic system has its beginnings in an acrophonically 1. See W. F. Albright, "The Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from Si devised script under direct or indirect Egyptian influence, nai and their Decipherment," BASOR 110 ( 1948): 6-22; and especially somewhere in Syria-Palestine. Further, it was reasonable, The Proto-Sinaitic Inscriptions and Their Decipherment (HTS 22; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1966). See also F. M. if not necessary, to argue on the basis of these data that the Cross, "The Evolution of the Proto-Canaanite Alphabet," BASOR 134 names of the individual signs, and probably the order of (1954): 15-24 [Paper 50 above]. the signs as well, went back in principle to the time of the 2. -
Semitics (SEMITIC) 1
Semitics (SEMITIC) 1 SEMITIC 101 Syriac 4 Units Semitics (SEMITIC) Terms offered: Fall 2021 This introductory course will cover both the study of the classical Syriac Courses language and a more general introduction to Syriac literature in all its diversity, with particular emphasis on East Syriac. Syriac is both an Expand all course descriptions [+]Collapse all course descriptions [-] ancient tongue that can help us access older Christian histories as well SEMITIC 100A Aramaic 3 Units as a living language within the liturgy of current Christian communities, Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2013 such as the Assyrians. For some communities, Syriac is close to the Biblical and Ancient Aramaic, including study of the Aramaic parts of living vernacular language. Undergraduate students will read Christian Daniel and Ezra and the inscriptions and papyri from Syria, Egypt, narratives developed in the Middle East from as far back as 1600 years Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire. Sequence begins Fall. ago. Aramaic: Read More [+] Syriac: Read More [+] Rules & Requirements Hours & Format Prerequisites: Hebrew 100A-100B Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week Repeat rules: Course may be repeated for credit without restriction. Additional Details Hours & Format Subject/Course Level: Semitics/Undergraduate Fall and/or spring: 15 weeks - 3 hours of lecture per week Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam required. Additional Details Syriac: Read Less [-] Subject/Course Level: Semitics/Undergraduate SEMITIC 205A Ugaritic 3 Units Terms offered: Fall 2014, Fall 2009, Fall 2006 Grading/Final exam status: Letter grade. Final exam not required. Ugarit language and literature with stress on comparative morphology Aramaic: Read Less [-] and lexicography. -
Fonts for Latin Paleography
FONTS FOR LATIN PALEOGRAPHY Capitalis elegans, capitalis rustica, uncialis, semiuncialis, antiqua cursiva romana, merovingia, insularis majuscula, insularis minuscula, visigothica, beneventana, carolina minuscula, gothica rotunda, gothica textura prescissa, gothica textura quadrata, gothica cursiva, gothica bastarda, humanistica. User's manual 5th edition 2 January 2017 Juan-José Marcos [email protected] Professor of Classics. Plasencia. (Cáceres). Spain. Designer of fonts for ancient scripts and linguistics ALPHABETUM Unicode font http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/jmag0042/alphabet.html PALEOGRAPHIC fonts http://guindo.pntic.mec.es/jmag0042/palefont.html TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER Page Table of contents 2 Introduction 3 Epigraphy and Paleography 3 The Roman majuscule book-hand 4 Square Capitals ( capitalis elegans ) 5 Rustic Capitals ( capitalis rustica ) 8 Uncial script ( uncialis ) 10 Old Roman cursive ( antiqua cursiva romana ) 13 New Roman cursive ( nova cursiva romana ) 16 Half-uncial or Semi-uncial (semiuncialis ) 19 Post-Roman scripts or national hands 22 Germanic script ( scriptura germanica ) 23 Merovingian minuscule ( merovingia , luxoviensis minuscula ) 24 Visigothic minuscule ( visigothica ) 27 Lombardic and Beneventan scripts ( beneventana ) 30 Insular scripts 33 Insular Half-uncial or Insular majuscule ( insularis majuscula ) 33 Insular minuscule or pointed hand ( insularis minuscula ) 38 Caroline minuscule ( carolingia minuscula ) 45 Gothic script ( gothica prescissa , quadrata , rotunda , cursiva , bastarda ) 51 Humanist writing ( humanistica antiqua ) 77 Epilogue 80 Bibliography and resources in the internet 81 Price of the paleographic set of fonts 82 Paleographic fonts for Latin script 2 Juan-José Marcos: [email protected] INTRODUCTION The following pages will give you short descriptions and visual examples of Latin lettering which can be imitated through my package of "Paleographic fonts", closely based on historical models, and specifically designed to reproduce digitally the main Latin handwritings used from the 3 rd to the 15 th century. -
Weak" Phonetic Change and the Hebrew Sin
.. WEAK" PHONETIC CHANGE AND THE HEBREW SIN By JOSHUA BLAU Hebrew University of Jerusalem 0. Introduction THIS ARTICLE originally arose out of the author's attempt to restate the current, "conservative" view on the existence of a third unvoiced non emphatic sibilant in Hebrew, and, of course, in Proto-Semitic, viz. the Sin, against suggestions raised recently. Yet it soon became clear that the analysis of alleged exceptional sound correspondences of the Hebrew sibilants, claimed by some scholars, has to be based on the examination of the problem of exceptional sound correspondences in the Semitic languages in general, i.e., on what we shall in this paper dub "weak phonetic change." Since, it seems, the notion of "weak phonetic change" and its cautious handling is of great importance not only for the elucida tion of the status of the Hebrew s in particular, but for comparative Semitic studies in general, I eventually decided to begin this article with a somewhat long exposition on weak phonetic change, and to deal with the special problem of the Hebrew (and Proto-Semitic) s later. I. "Weak Phonetic Change" As is well known, occasional deviations from regular sound cor respondences are well attested in Semitic languages in general and in 67 68 JOSHUA BLAU Hebrew in particular. This gives rise to two problems: a theoretical one, concerning the origins of these deviations, and a practical one, concern ing how far they authorize scholars to jump to conclusions and apply ex ceptional sound correspondences for the etymological interpretation of difficult words, thus elucidating abstruse passages.