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Updated: May 11, 2025
At the same time we find that for the expression of proper names which could not be otherwise conveyed, phonetic symbols were employed; and though it is alleged that the Egyptians never actually achieved complete alphabetic writing, yet it can scarcely be doubted that these phonetic symbols occasionally used in aid of their ideographic ones, were the germs out of which alphabetic writing grew.
It has been said that her children only learn to write, not to read, but it is to be supposed that they can read what they write, and therefore can read other material. If we agree not to begin until six years old, the next question is the method. The alphabetic, whereby children were taught the letter names and then memorised the spelling of each single word, has no supporters.
Young's specific discoveries were these: That many of the pictures of the hieroglyphics stand for the names of the objects actually delineated; that other pictures are sometimes only symbolic; that plural numbers are represented by repetition; that numerals are represented by dashes; that hieroglyphics may read either from the right or from the left, but always from the direction in which the animal and human figures face; that proper names are surrounded by a graven oval ring, making what he called a cartouche; that the cartouches of the preserved portion of the Rosetta Stone stand for the name of Ptolemy alone; that the presence of a female figure after such cartouches in other inscriptions always denotes the female sex; that within the cartouches the hieroglyphic symbols have a positively phonetic value, either alphabetic or syllabic; and that several different characters may have the same phonetic value.
Captain Thompson took the book in his hand after I had got through, and gazed upon it attentively. "Well," said he, "this beats cock fighting! The man keeps a good log; works out his case like a sailing master; and proves it by alphabetic signs and logarithms, as clear as a problem in plain sailing. This is a great book; a tremendous book!
Every word was at once written down, spelled phonetically and arranged in alphabetic order, and a note appended as to the circumstances in which it was used.
But what, perhaps, is even more remarkable than this, is that, when we examine in detail the linear script of these Mycenæan documents, it is impossible not to recognize that we have here a system of writing, syllabic and perhaps partly alphabetic, which stands on a distinctly higher level of development than the hieroglyphs of Egypt, or the cuneiform script of contemporary Syria and Babylonia.
Intellectual contents of these people may be likened to waterfalls and cataracts, rather than seas and oceans. No other people is richer in ideas than they; but no people would give up their valuable ideas as quickly as they do.... The Chinese language is by all means the counterpart of the alphabetic stock.
Instead of building with the arrow-head a multitude of syllabic characters, including many homophones, as had been and continued to be the custom with the Assyrians, the Persians selected a few of these characters and ascribed to them phonetic values that were almost purely alphabetic.
The powerful impression produced by the acquisition of the treasure of letters on those who received them, and the vividness with which they realized the power that slumbered in those humble signs, are illustrated by a remarkable vase from a sepulchral chamber of Caere built before the invention of the arch, which exhibits the old Greek model alphabet as it came to Etruria, and also an Etruscan syllabarium formed from it, which may be compared to that of Palamedes evidently a sacred relic of the introduction and acclimatization of alphabetic writing in Etruria.
This work contains many literal citations of and references to words, sounds, and alphabetic symbols drawn from many languages, including Gothic and Phoenician, but chiefly Latin and Greek.
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