From: E. Keown (k_isoetc@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu May 06 2004 - 15:16:46 CDT
Elaine Keown --- Tucson
Hi,
>> Peter Kirk wrote,
>>> This is based on a historically unproven assumption that this script
>>> originated with the Phoenicians. I don't think it's even true that the
>>> oldest surviving texts in this script are Phoenician.
>> Would the oldest surviving texts in the Phoenician script be
>> in a script other than Phoenician?
>This misses the point. The question is whether the oldest surviving texts
>in the "Phoenician" script were written by Phoenicians.
Elaine Keown wrote:
Phoenician actually does *not* start at the dawn of time.....Before Phoenician there was Proto-Canaanite, and before Proto-Canaanite there was Proto-Northwest Semitic.....and before Proto-Northwest Semitic there was Proto-Semitic. Now we're getting closer to the dawn of time.....
The further back in time one goes, the less certain one is about which Northwest Semitic language is being written.
There are at least 3 writing systems between the Sinaitic/Wadi el-Hol earliest alphabetic stuff, 1600-1800 B.C.E. and 'Phoenician.'---Elaine
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