On Sat, 1 Mar 2008 22:55:52 +0100, "fournet.arnaud"
<
fournet.arnaud@...> wrote:
>===========
>
>Which Greek alphabet
>displays
>
>L M N ts? O P Q R
>
>as proved by Etruscan Oldest
>Alphabet ?
>
>Arnaud
>
>===============
From ELL2, by yours truly:
In the North-West Semitic alphabet, the letters had a
specific order. The Phoenician alphabet eliminated
certain letters from the original model (see Ugaritic),
but the basic order was otherwise left intact (see
Table 3). Greek follows the Phoenician order with
little or no change. In the earliest Euboian abecedaria
(found in Italy, and to become the model for the
Etruscan alphabet), the two sibilants {Xi}
_
_
_
(written
_
|+|
-
)
and sán (M), which were not used in Euboian writing
itself, are included in the spots for Phoenician *samk
and *c.adE:. This has understandably led to the
supposition that the letter sán somehow continues
Semitic <c.ade:>. However, neither the shape (rotated
*s^e:n), nor the sound-value (/s/), nor the name of sán
(most likely from *samk) give any support to this
thesis. Neither does the spot that sán occupies in the
Corinthian alphabet, where it is in the place for
sígma, as expected. It is therefore more likely that
the Euboian and Corinthian abecedaria simply reflect
that the existence of letters at places 15 and/or 18 in
the Phoenician model was known to the Greeks, but
that the actual names, sound-values, and shapes were
confused in different ways. The Euboians borrowed
the Corinthian shape of sígma (= sán) to fill one of
the slots, the Corinthians filled the hole left by *c.adE:
with the shape of *samk (pronounced like *s^e:n). The
Ionians simply forgot about the shape, sound-value, and
alphabetical slot of *c.adE: altogether, and when a
letter with a similar sound-value /ts/ was adopted at
Miletos, sámpi was appended at the end of the alphabet
(and, indeed, sámpi has no relationship to *c.adE:).
===
Additional notes. The Phoenician alphabet had the following
"sibilants":
name sound shape
(7) (d)zE:n dz ~ z "Z"
(15) (t)samk ts ~ s "{Greek XI}"
(18) c.adE: ts' "{like script p}"
(21) s^e:n s^ "W"
Greek has:
zdE:ta. Has the shape, sound value (dz > zd in Greek) and
position of Phoen. (d)zE:n. The name should have given Grk.
*<zdE:>, which was augmented with -ta from adjacent e:ta,
the:ta.
(Corinthian) san. The shape (M) is a rotated Phoen. s^e:n.
The sound value is that of Phoen. samk /s/. The position is
that of s^e:N (that of ts'adE: in the Euboian model
alphabet). The name is that of Phoen. samk (> sam > san).
sigma. The shape ({Greek sigma}) is a rotated Phoen. s^e:n.
The sound value is that of Phoen. samk /s/. The position is
that of s^e:n. The name is that of Phoen. samk (> semka >
segma > sigma).
xei (=/kse:/) (> xi). The shape ({Greek Xi}) is that of
Phoen. samk. The sound value is a Greek innovation. The
position is that of samk (that of ts'adE: in Corinth). The
name is that of Phoen. s^e:n.
(Ionian) sámpi (/|\). The shape, sound-value and position
(last), as well as the name, are Greek (Ionian) innovations.
The Euboian model alphabets were found at the
Euboian/Chalkidian colony of Kyme:, in Italy.
=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
miguelc@...