Michael Everson scripsit:
> At 08:53 -0400 2004-05-27, John Cowan wrote:
> >Does the line of scripts leading to Mongolian and Manchu, which descend
> >from an abjad but which have become fully alphabetic, constitute an
> >independent invention of the alphabetic principle, or was stimulus
> >diffusion from Greek operating?
>
> Was there Greek stimulus in Mongolia and Manchuria?
Probably not, but there surely was in Sogdiana, which was conquered and
settled by Greeks in Alexander's time. Alphabetic writing doesn't have
to appear all at once; it can be a gradual evolution from increasingly
plene styles of abjad writing. (Yiddish alphabeticity surely was,
with further stimulus diffusion from Latin script.)
I mentioned Mongolian and Manchu as the modern members of this particular
script family.
--
John Cowan www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com
jcowan@...
In might the Feanorians / that swore the unforgotten oath
brought war into Arvernien / with burning and with broken troth.
and Elwing from her fastness dim / then cast her in the waters wide,
but like a mew was swiftly borne, / uplifted o'er the roaring tide.
--the Earendillinwe