Semitic Writing 1944
From Pictograph to Alphabet
Published on 30. December 1976
Book
Hardback
362 pages
978-0-19-725917-7 (ISBN)
Description
This is the third edition of the late Sir Godfrey Driver's Schweich Lectures, first delivered in 1944. The present edition is based on extensive revisions and additions made by the author himself.
The third edition takes account of research and discoveries in the fields of Semitic epigraphy and the theory of writing. It deals with cuneiform scripts, the origins of alphabetic writing, its development from the earliest records until its transmission to the Greeks, and covers all the more important North-Semitic inscriptions. Theories regarding forms of letters, their names, place in the alphabetical sequence etc. are discussed at length.
The third edition takes account of research and discoveries in the fields of Semitic epigraphy and the theory of writing. It deals with cuneiform scripts, the origins of alphabetic writing, its development from the earliest records until its transmission to the Greeks, and covers all the more important North-Semitic inscriptions. Theories regarding forms of letters, their names, place in the alphabetical sequence etc. are discussed at length.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
66pp plates
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
678 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-725917-7 (9780197259177)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Cuneiform Scripts
1: Historical background
2: Spource and date of the earliest inscribed tablets
3: Clay-tablets
4: Stone and metal, wood and ivory, papyrus and leather
5: Writing implements
6: The formation of pictographic and cuneiform signs
7: The arrangement of the text
8: From picture to symbol
9: From words to syllables
10: Scholars and scribes
11: Archives and libraries
Alphabetic Writing
1: Means and manner of writing
2: Diffusion of writing
3: Undeciphered marks and inscriptions
4: Sinaitic inscriptions
5: Early inscribed objects
6: Cuneiform tablets
7: Phoenician inscriptions
8: Moab and Palestine
9: Aramaean documents
10: Earliest South-Semitic inscriptions
11: Problems of interpretation
Chronological table of Semitic inscriptions
The Origin of the Alphabet
1: Theories regarding the origin of the alphabet
2: The cuneiform scripts and the Phoenician alphabet
3: The Egyptian pseudo-alphabet
4: The Sinaitic script
5: The South-Semitic alphabets
6: The Ugaritic alphabet
7: The evidential value of the names of the letters
8: The relation of the form of the letter to its name
9: The forms and names of the individual letters
10: The Greek alphabet
11: The order of the letters of the alphabet
12: The time and place of the invention of the alphabet
1: Historical background
2: Spource and date of the earliest inscribed tablets
3: Clay-tablets
4: Stone and metal, wood and ivory, papyrus and leather
5: Writing implements
6: The formation of pictographic and cuneiform signs
7: The arrangement of the text
8: From picture to symbol
9: From words to syllables
10: Scholars and scribes
11: Archives and libraries
Alphabetic Writing
1: Means and manner of writing
2: Diffusion of writing
3: Undeciphered marks and inscriptions
4: Sinaitic inscriptions
5: Early inscribed objects
6: Cuneiform tablets
7: Phoenician inscriptions
8: Moab and Palestine
9: Aramaean documents
10: Earliest South-Semitic inscriptions
11: Problems of interpretation
Chronological table of Semitic inscriptions
The Origin of the Alphabet
1: Theories regarding the origin of the alphabet
2: The cuneiform scripts and the Phoenician alphabet
3: The Egyptian pseudo-alphabet
4: The Sinaitic script
5: The South-Semitic alphabets
6: The Ugaritic alphabet
7: The evidential value of the names of the letters
8: The relation of the form of the letter to its name
9: The forms and names of the individual letters
10: The Greek alphabet
11: The order of the letters of the alphabet
12: The time and place of the invention of the alphabet