GRST 321 Lecture Notes - Lecture 33: Phoenician Alphabet, Mycenaean Greece, Syllabary

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Greek and Roman Studies
• Course: GRST 321
• Professor: Lesley Bolton

Document Summary

The alphabet for the mediterranean world seems to be influenced by the alphabet for phoenicia/levant area: binary (1940ce) Semantic trade and north semitic alphabet: phoenicians seem to have been influenced by a north semitic alphabet. The semite region extends from southwest asia, the levant area, egypt and parts of arabia. It"s u(cid:374)(cid:272)lear (cid:271)ut this is (cid:449)hat the e(cid:448)ide(cid:374)(cid:272)e suggests. North semitic alphabet that develops sometime around 1000bce, could have been earlier but not much later: the phoenician alphabet seems to have influenced the greek alphabets (possibly around the 8th. Letters look similar, order of the alphabet is similar, etc. In classical greece we are down to something that approaches the greek alphabet we know today. The biggest difference between an alphabet that has symbols for syllables instead of symbols for sounds means that we can reduce the number of symbols we need.