Inventing the Alphabet

Inventing the Alphabet PDF Author: Johanna Drucker
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226815803
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Get Book

Book Description
The first comprehensive intellectual history of alphabet studies. Inventing the Alphabet provides the first account of two-and-a-half millennia of scholarship on the alphabet. Drawing on decades of research, Johanna Drucker dives into sometimes obscure and esoteric references, dispelling myths and identifying a pantheon of little-known scholars who contributed to our modern understandings of the alphabet, one of the most important inventions in human history. Beginning with Biblical tales and accounts from antiquity, Drucker traces the transmission of ancient Greek thinking about the alphabet’s origin and debates about how Moses learned to read. The book moves through the centuries, finishing with contemporary concepts of the letters in alpha-numeric code used for global communication systems. Along the way, we learn about magical and angelic alphabets, antique inscriptions on coins and artifacts, and the comparative tables of scripts that continue through the development of modern fields of archaeology and paleography. This is the first book to chronicle the story of the intellectual history through which the alphabet has been “invented” as an object of scholarship.

Inventing the Alphabet

Inventing the Alphabet PDF Author: Johanna Drucker
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226815803
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

Get Book

Book Description
The first comprehensive intellectual history of alphabet studies. Inventing the Alphabet provides the first account of two-and-a-half millennia of scholarship on the alphabet. Drawing on decades of research, Johanna Drucker dives into sometimes obscure and esoteric references, dispelling myths and identifying a pantheon of little-known scholars who contributed to our modern understandings of the alphabet, one of the most important inventions in human history. Beginning with Biblical tales and accounts from antiquity, Drucker traces the transmission of ancient Greek thinking about the alphabet’s origin and debates about how Moses learned to read. The book moves through the centuries, finishing with contemporary concepts of the letters in alpha-numeric code used for global communication systems. Along the way, we learn about magical and angelic alphabets, antique inscriptions on coins and artifacts, and the comparative tables of scripts that continue through the development of modern fields of archaeology and paleography. This is the first book to chronicle the story of the intellectual history through which the alphabet has been “invented” as an object of scholarship.

The Early Alphabet

The Early Alphabet PDF Author: John F. Healey
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520073098
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 68

Get Book

Book Description
00 In this generously illustrated book, John Healey outlines the basic principles of the early alphabet and describes the first attempts at alphabetic writing in the Semitic languages. In this generously illustrated book, John Healey outlines the basic principles of the early alphabet and describes the first attempts at alphabetic writing in the Semitic languages.

The Early Alphabet

The Early Alphabet PDF Author: John F. Healey
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alphabet
Languages : en
Pages : 72

Get Book

Book Description
In this generously illustrated book, John Healey outlines the basic principles of the early alphabet and describes the first attempts at alphabetic writing in the Semitic languages.

The World's Oldest Alphabet

The World's Oldest Alphabet PDF Author: Douglas Petrovich
Publisher: Hendrickson Academic
ISBN: 9789652208842
Category : Alphabet
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
For about 150 years, scholars have attempted to identify the language of the world's first alphabetic script, and to translate some of the inscriptions that use it. Until now, their attempts have accomplished little more than identifying most of the pictographic letters and translating a few of the Semitic words. With the publication of The World's Oldest Alphabet, a new day has dawned. All of the disputed letters have been resolved, while the language has been identified conclusively as Hebrew, allowing for the translation of 16 inscriptions that date from 1842 to 1446 BC. It is the author's reading that these inscriptions expressly name three biblical figures (Asenath, Ahisamach, and Moses) and greatly illuminate the earliest Israelite history in a way that no other book has achieved, apart from the Bible.

Significance of the Alphabet

Significance of the Alphabet PDF Author: Charles V. Kraitsir
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alphabet
Languages : la
Pages : 72

Get Book

Book Description


Reading the Past

Reading the Past PDF Author: C. B. Walker
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520074316
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book

Book Description
Contains six previously published titles brought together in a single volume.

Early History of the Alphabet

Early History of the Alphabet PDF Author: Joseph Naveh
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781590459539
Category : Alphabet
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Get Book

Book Description


Letter Perfect

Letter Perfect PDF Author: David Sacks
Publisher: Vintage Canada
ISBN: 0307371034
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 415

Get Book

Book Description
Letters are tangible language. Joining together in endless combinations to actually show speech, letters convey our messages and tell our stories. While we encounter these tiny shapes hundreds of times a day, we take for granted the long, fascinating history behind one of the most fundamental of human inventions -- the alphabet. The heart of the book is the 26 fact-filled “biographies” of letters A through Z, each one identifying the letter’s particular significance for modern readers, tracing its development from ancient forms, and discussing its noteworthy role in literature and other media. We learn, for example, why the letter X has a sinister and sexual aura, how B came to signify second best, why the word “mother” in many languages starts with M, and what is the story of O. Packed with information and lavishly illustrated, Letter Perfect is not only accessible and entertaining, but essential to the appreciation of our own language.

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age

Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age PDF Author: Joan Aruz
Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art
ISBN: 0300208081
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 452

Get Book

Book Description
Bringing together the research of internationally renowned scholars, Assyria to Iberia at the Dawn of the Classical Age contributes significantly to our understanding of the epoch-making artistic and cultural exchanges that took place across the Near East and Mediterranean in the early first millennium B.C. This was the world of Odysseus, in which seafaring Phoenician merchants charted new nautical trade routes and established prosperous trading posts and colonies on the shores of three continents; of kings Midas and Croesus, legendary for their wealth; and of the Hebrew Bible, whose stories are brought vividly to life by archaeological discoveries. Objects drawn from collections in the Middle East, Europe, North Africa, and the United States, reproduced here in sumptuous detail, reflect the cultural encounters of diverse populations interacting through trade, travel, and migration as well as war and displacement. Together, they tell a compelling story of the origins and development of Western artistic traditions that trace their roots to the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean world. Among the masterpieces brought together in this volume are stone reliefs that adorned the majestic palaces of ancient Assyria; expertly crafted Phonecian and Syrian bronzes and worked ivories that were stored in the treasuries of Assyria and deposited in tombs and sanctuaries in regions far to the west; and lavish personal adornments and other luxury goods, some imported and others inspired by Near Eastern craftsmanship. Accompanying texts by leading scholars position each object in cultural and historical context, weaving a narrative of crisis and conquest, worship and warfare, and epic and empire that spans both continents and millennia. Writing another chapter in the story begun in Art of the First Cities (2003) and Beyond Babylon (2008), Assyria to Iberia offers a comprehensive overview of art, diplomacy, and cultural exchange in an age of imperial and mercantile expansion in the ancient Near East and across the Mediterranean in the first millennium B.C.—the dawn of the Classical age.

The Mysteries of the Alphabet

The Mysteries of the Alphabet PDF Author: Marc-Alain Ouaknin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Alphabet
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book

Book Description
Traces the origins of the alphabet beginning with the first pictograms of 5,000 years ago, describing the changes the alphabet has gone through in different countries and cultures.