Linguistics & Language · Writing Systems & Decipherment
A topic within Writing Systems & Decipherment, itself one of 9 topics in that field and part of Linguistics & Language.
2 works
Isaac Taylor
Traces the major alphabets of the world back to a single Semitic ancestor, arguing that alphabetic writing was invented only once and then adapted repeatedly rather than reinvented.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Alan H. Gardiner
Argues from the Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions that the Semitic alphabet was invented by borrowing a small set of Egyptian hieroglyphic signs for their sounds alone, discarding their original pictorial meaning.