Title Greek writing from Knossos to Homer : a linguistic interpretation of the origin of the Greek alphabet and the continuity of ancient Greek literacy / Roger D. Woodard

Published New York : Oxford University Press, 1997

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 287 pages) : illustrations, maps Series OUP E-Books Contents 1. Introduction -- 2. The Syllabaries -- 3. Syllable-Dependent Approaches -- 4. Non-Syllable-Dependent Approaches -- 5. The Hierarchy of Orthographic Strength -- 6. The Alphabet -- 7. Cyprus and Beyond -- 8. Conclusions -- Phonetic Glossary Summary Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer examines the origin of the Greek alphabet. Departing from previous accounts, Roger Woodard places the advent of the alphabet within an unbroken continuum of Greek literacy beginning in the Mycenaean era. He argues that the creators of the Greek alphabet, who adapted the Phoenician consonantal script, were scribes accustomed to writing Greek with the syllabic script of Cyprus Certain characteristic features of the Cypriot script - for example, its strategy for representing consonant sequences and elements of Cypriot Greek phonology - were transferred to the new alphabetic script. Proposing a Cypriot origin of the alphabet at the hands of previously literate adapters brings clarity to various problems of the alphabet, such as the Greek use of the Phoenician sibilant letters. The alphabet, rejected by the post-Bronze Age "Mycenaean" culture of Cyprus, was exported west to the Aegean, where it gained a foothold among a then illiterate Greek people emerging from the Dark Age. Woodard's study, a combination of philological and epigraphical investigation with linguistic theory, should be of interest to both scholars and students of classics, linguistics, and Near Eastern studies Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 268-278) and index Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL Print version record digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL Subject Greek language -- Alphabet. Written communication -- Greece -- History Language and culture -- Greece -- History Greek language -- Written Greek. Literacy -- Greece -- History Greek language -- Writing FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY -- Ancient Languages. Greek language -- Alphabet Greek language -- Writing Greek language -- Written Greek Language and culture Literacy Written communication Grieks. Schrift. Alfabetten. Alfabetisme. LÍNGUA GREGA. Greece Genre/Form History Form Electronic book LC no. 96007447 ISBN 0585381445 9780585381442 9786610452729 6610452725

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