>*The* alphabet was invented once. It has many descendants, which are
>scripts. Most of these are still alphabetic, and some have evolved to
>have other properties.
>
>Hm. Waitaminnit. The Koreans invented an alphabet independently....

---------
it's not entirely clear that the koreans invented their alphabet
"independently", since they were acquainted with hPhags-pa, which can be
classified as an alphabet. so this may be considered a case of "stimulus
diffusion": the koreans invented their own alphabetic symbols, but they may
have got the idea from somewhere else. this is a bit like the case of the
yiddish alphabet, where the vowel symbols were derived from hebrew
tradition, but the idea of using them alphabetically came from the stimulus
of germanic, slavic or whatever.

the role of hPhags-pa in the development of the korean alphabet is very
controversial, and in korea it arouses passions. the view traditionally
held by koreans, and by some western scholars who are sympathetic to korean
tradition, is that the korean alphabet was invented "ex nihilo"; but other
western scholars consider it obvious that hPhags-pa at least had an
influence.

there's an excellent discussion of this controversy by prof young-key
kim-renaud in "my" journal *written language & linguistics* 4:2, which will
hit the news-stands any day now. i will send a xerox copy of the revised
proofs to anyone who requests them from me by email. cheers; bill

--
William Bright
Professor Emeritus of Linguistics & Anthropology, UCLA
Professor Adjoint of Linguistics, University of Colorado, Boulder
Editor, Written Language and Literacy
Editor, Native American Placenames of the United States
1625 Mariposa Avenue, Boulder, CO 80302
Tel. 303-444-4274
FAX 303-413-0017
Email william.bright@..., williamobright@...

William Bright's website: http://www.ncidc.org/bright