Textualization and Phonetization in Early Near Eastern and Aegean Writing

Bibliographic Data

ID10286294
AuthorsAlice Koller (0009-0001-4065-6747, Department of Near Eastern and Biblical Studies, Yeshiva University https://dx.doi.org/2007 New York, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume78
Issue2
Pages187-203
Publication date2025-03-17
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueMnemosyne (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-7074 • E-ISSN: 1568-525X
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/1568525x-bja10313
OpenAlexW4408546056
LanguageEN
References cited16

Writing systems relate to language in a variety of different ways. While modern writers often expect writing to closely match the sounds of language, early writing operated on a different set of assumptions. Early cuneiform was divorced from the sounds and grammar of its underlying language. In the second millennium BCE , phonetic scripts developed in regions around the eastern Mediterranean. Part of this move towards phonetization was the earliest alphabet, which recorded only consonants. The alphabet was not stable, and it soon evolved the use of letters for vowels, a process finished by the Greeks. Representing the sounds of a language is not “better,” as it comes at a cost: writing that relates solely to the sounds does not relate to the meanings of the words represented, which makes reading more difficult. The internal history of writing systems is a back-and-forth between the pulls of phonetics and semantics

Ancient history · Art · Literature · Ancient Near East History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · History · Linguistics and language evolution

Tools

Open DOI