But their alphabet was
still encumbered with ancient signs which represented, some a syllable,
others an entire word. Doubtless the Phoenicians had need of a simpler
system for their books of commerce. They rejected all the syllabic signs
and ideographs, preserving only twenty-two letters, each of which marks
a sound (or rather an articulation of the language). The other peoples
imitated this alphabet of twenty-two letters. Some, like the Jews, wrote
from right to left just as the Phoenicians themselves did; others, like
the Greeks, from left to right. All have slightly changed the form of
the letters, but the Phoenician alphabet is found at the basis of all
the alphabets--Hebrew, Lycian, Greek, Italian, Etruscan, Iberian,
perhaps even in the runes of the Norse. It is the Phoenicians that taught
the world how to write.
FOOTNOTES:
[37] Renan ("Mission de Phenicio," p. 818) says, "I noticed at Tripolis
a sarcophagus serving as a public fountain and the sculptured face of it
was turned to the wall. I was told that a governor had placed it thus so
as not to provide distractions for the inhabitants.
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