Youtube and more . . .

Have been looking at Youtube videos round this topic and found some related to the early history of the alphabet, including Hebrew and Ugaritic characters. These were searched from 'History of Alphabet' and 'History of Writing'. I can attach them within the Blog Post but wanted to attach them on the panel on the right hand side. Haven't worked out how to do that yet.

One of those videos is titled 'The History of Alphabet' from http://teachertube.com. (The sound is weak but the overview it gives is useful, even just from images.) See below:




Have also been looking through the Swinburne catalogue and found a couple of relevant items, based on 'The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the World's Ancient Languages' but which looked at individual languages, for example, Ugaritic, Phoenician and Hebrew. These focussed on spoken language but they also covered how the language was written and how that evolved in different parts of the world.

There is a video production on Youtube titled 'The History of Hebrew' which is made up of a number of parts. Parts 7, 8 and 9 are relevant. Parts 8 and 9 are below. In Part 9 it is the first 2 minutes which are most relevant and then the content is more specific to Hebrew.









Part 7 of this production is titled 'Old Hebrew to Greek and Aramaic'. This is interesting for showing the change over time of the first 5 letters of the Old Hebrew alphabet to those of Ancient Greek to Modern Greek and to English today (which is based on the Roman alphabet, which in turn was based on Greek).






Another reference (Gnanadesikan 2009) covered much of the same territory but, in parts, was written in a less technical, more readable style. Gnanadesikan (2009) likened the development of the Proto-Sinaitic script by Semitic mercenaries and labourers living in Egypt to the development of a ''For Dummies' version of writing, pared down to something an illiterate soldier could learn in a few sessions'. She also considered the order almost as useful as the alphabet itself and speculated that it was 'possibly transmitted through a song or rhyme that helped the semi-literate remember', rather like children learn the alphabet today.

Here's a Sesame Street version for learning alphabet order:




Her 'For Dummies' version comment and her speculation about how it might have been learnt, presented a much more human image of it's development compared to some other fairly technical and dry references.

She also refers to the development of the Ugaritic alphabet being like a 'cul de sac' in the development of the alphabet in that it was based on cuneiform symbols, and other civilisations didn't take it on or use it to develop their own alphabet as they did with the Phoenician alphabet.

The following video from YouTube gives examples of writing using the Ugaritic alphabet. These pieces were found at Ugarit in north-western Syria. The video's claim to be the first alphabet is disputed, although it definitely was a very early alphabet. Although Ugaritic writing and Phoenician writing were different, the standard letter order of their alphabets shows strong similarities suggesting they weren't wholly independent inventions.



References:

Gnanadeskikan, A 2009, The Writing Revolution John Wiley & Sons, EBooks Corporation, viewed 26 April 2010
Woodard, R (ed) 2008, The Ancient Languages of Syria-Palestine and Arabia Cambridge University Press, EBooks Corporation, viewed 28 April 2010
eHow, History Questions: Who invented the alphabet? 22 May 2009, viewed 26 April 2010,
ancienthebreworg, A History of Hebrew Part 8: The Proto-Sinaitic Alphabet, 19 July 2009, viewed 26 April 2010,
DjArnousSyr, The first alphabet in history was found in Ugarit, Syria, 27 October 2008, viewed 26 April 2010,
teachertubeWriting, The History of Alphabet, 29 September 2009, viewed 26 April 2010,
ancienthebreworg, A History of Hebrew Part 7: Old Hebrew to Greek and Aramaic, 17 July 2009, viewed 26 April 2010,
Sesame Street, Sesame Street: The Alphabet with Elmo, 21 May 2009, viewed 16 May 2010,