THE TRIUMPH OF THE ALPHABET

by Alfred C. Moorhouse ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A well known philologist and professor of classics at the University of Wales presents a scholarly and fully rounded history of the alphabet and its ancestors. From picture writing like the paleolithic cave wall paintings emerged the more symbolic pictograms and from there, writing changed in purpose and began to represent not objects and events but sounds. Syllibaries, Babylonian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics and the work of their decipherment, are all interestingly scrutinized in chapters preceding material on the directly pre-alphabetic scripts, theories of origin of the Semitic Alphabet, its extension, our debt to Roman civilization for modern forms and a brief survey of writing's influence on society and literacy in the world today. A book to stand up with other works in the field and a substantial addition to Schuman's Life of Science series.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Schuman

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1953

Categories: NONFICTION