----- Original Message -----From: Harald HammarstromSent: Monday, July 07, 2003 5:58 PMSubject: Re: [Nostratica] Abujidas (was: Origin of the Sumerian language)
>>But to classify them according to this difference is arbitrary as far
as I can tell. To say that e.g fully vowellized Arabic or Hebrew or
devanagari for Sanskrit are different from alphabets because you have
to read the signs in a snake-like direction is like saying boustrophedon
Greek is not alphabetic writing because suddenly you have read in
another direction? >>
Dear Harold,What you write is most interesting. Here's something I've discovered:Boustrophedon (from Greek for ox-turning) is writing that proceeds in one direction in one line (such as from left to right) and then in the reverse direction in the next line (such as from right to left). Some ancient languages, including one form of ancient Greek (650 BC), were written this way. The term derives from the way one would plow land with an ox, turning the ox back in the other direction at the end of a row. (It could be argued that boustrophedon is a more efficient way to both write and read, especially if your lines are very long.)Some types of printers and their software print in this fashion (although the results, of course, are lines that are read in only one direction).
Apparently many "languages" such as Greek proceed in one direction and then shift to another path. Is this what Islamic and Hebrew actually do? IOW, are they both the same language on represented in different script?
Gerry