ALPHABETS
Presentation
- goals
- the logo
- to subscribe
- press review
Activities
- publishing
- lectures
- exhibitions
- resource centre
- bulletin
About
us
- contact us
- map
- to buy our items
Supports
- supportive institutions
- our favourite websites
Exhibitions
(sets of signs)
Des
Signes pictographiques à l'alphabet
(From pictographic signs to alphabet)
The great civilisations of Mesopotamia and Egypt had elaborated very complex writing systems : cuneiform and hieroglyphs. The writing knowledge was thus reserved for an elite of scribes and priests. But, between 1500 and 1000 BC, several alphabetic systems appeared in the Middle East, which allowed easier, faster communication.
The exhibition tells the story of this invention, born in an area of Semitic languages. There remain marks of it in the noun "alphabet", derived from aleph + beth, the first two letters. However, it has now become a communication tool in use for the majority of the languages in the world.
The contacts between several peoples aroused the necessity to invent a limited system of phonetic signs :
- Proto-Sinaitic alphabet : about 30 signs which look like hieroglyphs. In the Sinai desert, around 1500 BC, Semite miners working in Egypt were using these alphabetic signs called "proto-Sinaitic".
- Ugaritic alphabet : 30 cuneiform signs. In the kingdom of Ugarit, around 1400 BC, this system was used by several peoples living near one another, trading with one another. The abecedary found in Ras Shamra testifies that the order of the letters is very old.
- Phoenician alphabet : 22 consonantal signs. It is the ancestor of all alphabets, and was in use around 1000 BC. It was used to write the dedicace on the sarcophagus of Ahiram, king of Byblos.
The simplest, most world-wide writing system then comes from the ancient Middle East area, i.e. the Phoenician alphabet, in use amongst several peoples of the ancient Middle East (Hebrews, Arameans, Ammonites, Moabites, Edomites and Philistines). Then, it was transmitted to the West through the Greeks who adopted it and added vowels to it. Later, through the Etruscan, it made way for the Latin alphabet.
Les
Calendriers du monde
(Calendars of the world)