From: John Clews (10646er@sesame.demon.co.uk)
Date: Fri Aug 08 2003 - 08:16:52 EDT
In message <p06001a09bb5880d7bab9@[195.218.110.234]> Michael Everson writes:
Re: Colourful scripts and Aramaic
This is nearly off topic, but I'd be glad of any clarifications, or
references that anybody has.
In message <p06001a03bb5869c752e1@[195.218.110.234]> Michael Everson
wrote in response to Peter Kirk, with a clarification I agree with
mainly:
> People. It [Aramaic] is the widespread offshoot used throughout the
> Middle East that spawned Brahmic and Uighur and other scripts. It
> isn't necessarily the thing you think is confined to three scraps of
> papyrus or whatever.
I'd always been under the impression that the Brahmic script family
and their offshoots, and the Phoenician script family and their
offshoots, developed independently of each other, and although links
between the two families had been suggested by some scholars, many
other scholars disagreed with this suggestion.
Are there some articles which show these links reasonably well, and
if so, which family predated the other?
Also Uighur script (as in Old Uighur, as in Sogdian) has, as a
cursive script, a superficial resemblence to Arabic script (an
offshoot from the Phoenician family) and I imagine that links are
more easy to show. I've never seen a description of the Sogdian
alphabet (i.e. I have never come across one): is there a good article
or URL which illustrates such links?
Best wishes
John
-- John Clews, Keytempo Limited (Information Management), 8 Avenue Rd, Harrogate, HG2 7PG Tel: +44 1423 888 432 mobile: +44 7766 711 395 Email: 10646er@sesame.demon.co.uk Web: http://www.keytempo.com
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