The Greek Alphabet B. Powell / D. R. Olson Monday: Oral - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The Greek Alphabet

Clst 181SK Ancient Greece and the Origins of Western Culture

• B. Powell / D. R. Olson

Monday: Oral Presentation Early Writing Systems in the East

• Cf. Olson, p. 79: “A logographic script such as Chinese,

while cumbersome to Western eyes, is no longer thought

• f as primitive or limited as it was even two decades ago.”

Monday: Oral Presentation Early Writing Systems in the East

• Cf. Olson, p. 79: “A logographic script such as Chinese,

while cumbersome to Western eyes, is no longer thought

• f as primitive or limited as it was even two decades ago.”

Two volunteers needed!

Powell, chapter17: The Greek Alphabet: A Writing that Changed the World

Powell, chapter17: The Greek Alphabet: A Writing that Changed the World Core argument #1: “the adaptor’s achievement”

Powell, chapter17: The Greek Alphabet: A Writing that Changed the World Core argument #2: “the poetic inspiration”

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

• 1. Writing is not the representation of speech. Instead, it

provides a conceptual model for that speech.

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

• 2. The history of scripts is not that of failed attempts and

partial successes towards the invention of the alphabet. It is not, in short, evolutionary. Rather, the development of scripts is the by-product of attempt to use a script for a language to which it is ill-suited.

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

• 2. The history of scripts is not that of failed attempts and

partial successes towards the invention of the alphabet. It is not, in short, evolutionary. Rather, the development of scripts is the by-product of attempt to use a script for a language to which it is ill-suited.

Phoenician does not have contrasts in the basic word that involve vowels: KTB = katab, “he wrote,,” koteb, “writing”, katebu “they wrote” etc.

• But Greek, like English, does: bed vs. bad for instance

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

• 3. Scripts provide models for understanding language, that

is, they assist in helping us think about the nature of

• language. In that sense, “writing is in principle

metalinguistics.”

Olson, chapter 4: What writing represents: A revisionist history of writing

• 1. Writing is not the representation of speech. Instead, it

provides a conceptual model for that speech.

• 2. The history of scripts is not that of failed attempts and

partial successes towards the invention of the alphabet. It is not, in short, evolutionary. Rather, the development of scripts is the by-product of attempt to use a script for a language to which it is ill-suited.

• 3. Scripts provide models for understanding language, that

is, they assist in helping us think about the nature of

• language. In that sense, “writing is in principle

metalinguistics.”

Key Terms and Ideas

• Cuneiform & its progression from Sumerian to Akkadian
• Linear A
• Linear B (=Mycenaean)
• Logographic scripts
• Syllabary: system of writing in which symbols/signs stand for syllables
• Cuneiform: in what sense “logosyllabic”?
• Western Semitic proto-alphabets (Phoenician, for example): in what essential ways these

differ from the Greek alphabet

• Alphabet: graphic system whose signs come in a certain order and represent phonemes - in

what respect do the Semitic scripts not agree with this definition?

• Phoneme: a sound that makes a difference in meaning; “pieces of sound” that make up all

possible combinations of human speech. “The smallest contrastive linguistic unit which may bring about a change of meaning” Give an example

• Speech as a continuous wave: why is this important for understanding the nature of writing

systems?

• Brahmi script - what is it and why is it (potentially) important?
• Brief Essay
• Be prepared to discuss the differences between Powell and Olson on how the alphabet came

to be

• Be prepared to describe and discuss in some detail Olson’s notion that writing systems serve

as “models for speech”

• Be prepared to describe with examples the “evolution” of writing systems from emblem to

logographic (addition of syntax) to syllabic (or logosyllabic) to proto-alphabet to alphabet