Reflections on the Development of Hebrew Letters

Huck

Ross,

during such a long exchange it's difficult to beware the overview.

But during the development of the text I described the problem of the inventer and also what I intended to allow as his "assbridges".
I described as a possible problem, that the inventer probably was not free to take his desired words. Some words, that he intended to use as "names" in letters, couldn't be used for technical problems, perhaps cause the given letters wasn't used for the specific meanings in the language of his time.

If you will try to repeat his experiment, you'll see that you've "his" difficulties. Try to take 12 following letters (A-L, if you want) of our language, and use the English vocabulary and try to connect 12 body parts to them (the body parts must start with the specific letters and don't forget, somehow they must look sorted, and don't forget, the pupils must have some fun cause your names).
When you'll ready, you'll probably will perceive, that your result doesn't look better as the ABC-Man in the old Phoenecian alphabet.

So: I didn't say, that Lamed means leg in Hebrew language. I thought a little more complicated. I thought of assbridges, possibly lost special-meanings of words etc.. There is a lot of time between 18th/19th century BC, a lot of word-changes might have happen.
 

Huck

..just for Rosanne about the ABC-Man

I thought I bring this old discussion back to the surface. Something in the words of Rosanne in another thread reminded me to it.
 

Rosanne

Huck I send you a cyber hug for re-surfacing this thread- thank you. I have enjoyed the various arguments. What never came up aside from the Abcedarium aspect why an Alphabet (semaphore code of sorts)was needed by the Phoenicians. They were sailors, traders and miners- men of spacial competency, even today they are cut from the same mould. Brief words and strong action! You know what a sailor does when wanting a tow and your words can't be heard over the wind? You raise your right hand first two fingers in V shape and cross your left hand index finger across it- just like Aleph on its side ( a towing A frame/ a plow even). I think the 22 letters were an Almanac based on the rising star of the seasons, linked to how they lived their lives and the Gods that ruled their chaotic lives. Pictograms were to track stores, cuneform expanded into literature- but an abjad was simple code and somehow the energy has come down to us today. I do not believe Tarot was created back then( contrary to what I may paint :D) but the sequence remains and there seems to be a correlation. I am not talking about Hebrew mystic thought. You start your year in Nisanu and Aldebran in Taurus was the rising star- its two months after the Barley cutting and before you plow you settle your accounts on the threshing floor. You use a Lunar calender and 360 degrees and you divide your harvest into that many days to see if you have made a profit or maybe the gods have not been kind and you will be short. Next rising star is Beyt-el- Jooze in what we call Gemini and on and on the year goes. They did not appear to use the Zodiac as we know it today but the rising bright stars of their world. I find the whole Abcedarium whys and wherefores fascinating. Those proto caananites travelled far and wide in their known world taking their code with them and their beloved Goddess of the Moon Bal- el-lat who was their calender, with them. Everything was sacred to them, especially the sky above and the lives of the Gods that lived up there. In their trading and sailing they absorbed the beliefs of the Summerians and Mesopotamians, Babylonians and Hittites and Egyptians. The gods also used everyday items as well- Guess which symbol looks like an Egyptian lock? Thanks again for a previously unseen thread and the chance to ramble on. ~Rosanne
 

Scion

Hey Rosanne...

I am a Phoenician! (i.e. Lebanese which is what we're called now. :)) And your post got me thinking...

My mother would say that they needed an alphabet so that they could keep track of stories and hustle business form a distance. Only thing more powerful and deceptive than the written word is the spoken word, and we still can't really capture that...

But for my part, I'd say it's for records. Not for nothing is the old word for book Byblos... They were people of action, but more significantly they were communicators: storytellers and diplomats and craftsmen and hucksters, as opposed to overtly military folk. IN their case, the pen was literally mightier than the sword. It may be a gross generalization but my grandfather used to say that the reason Lebanon is wartorn is because of its critical crossroads-of-the-world location... BUT he would always grin and add that the locals don't get too angry, because new invaders always mean new customers. :D So too, that position at the crossroads of the ancient world and then the massive traderoutes that sprouted, imagine all of the information that you'd forget if you didn't commit it to writing.

A written language is a way of carrying words around, like cargo. Distilling thought into object. Which is exactly how a Phoenician might see it...

Scion
 

Rosanne

What an iluustrious ancestry scion!! The analogy of an alphabet cargo reallly appeals to me. I have been trying to find out what the Phoenician word 'Tooth' might have been and what star might have been assigned to shin. Algol is a winking star and has a long ancient association with bad Teeth :D It pulses /throbs every two days and twenty hours and I wonder what the Phoenicians called it. Then again there is a star called 'shuala' which is the stinger in the tail of scorpius.... so on I plod trying to be a mental Phoenician/proto cannanite and work this abjad sequence. The Lebanese here in New Zealand are great traders still and add to the richness of a multi-cultural mix and hopefully over the years will mellow out the dourness of my anglo saxon heritage- mind you I think my love of music and poetry is a Bardic/celtic gene. ~Rosanne
 

Rosanne

.....and as I am still awake and pondering I thought I would add the constellation Lyra to the mix -it was called Sheliak or Shiliak and maybe was a Vulture way back. What has this got to do with Tooth? Well like the star Thuban it was once had the pole star within the constellation (Vega)and it pulsates and at a stretch if you join the constellation in a different way you get a W and although it does not apply phonetically to shin, funnily enough it was pronounced Wega not Vega ;) It is the 27th star on the Path of Enlil...well I guess that is enough plodding for the 1st day of 2006 ~Rosanne