Greek writing from Knossos to Homer : a linguistic interpretation of the origin of the Greek alphabet and the continuity of ancient Greek literacy / Roger D. Woodard.

By:

Woodard, Roger D

Material type: Text

TextLanguage: English Summary language: Greek, Ancient (to 1453), Semitic (Other) Series: OUP E-BooksPublication details: New York : Oxford University Press, 1997.Description: 1 online resource (xiv, 287 pages) : illustrations, mapsContent type:

text

Media type:

computer

Carrier type:

online resource

ISBN:

0585381445
9780585381442
9786610452729
6610452725

Subject(s): Genre/Form:

Additional physical formats: Print version:: Greek writing from Knossos to Homer.DDC classification:

481/.1 20

LOC classification:

PA273 .W66 1997eb

Other classification:

18.42

Online resources:

Click here to access online

Contents:

1. Introduction -- 2. The Syllabaries -- 3. Syllable-Dependent Approaches -- 4. Non-Syllable-Dependent Approaches -- 5. The Hierarchy of Orthographic Strength -- 6. The Alphabet -- 7. Cyprus and Beyond -- 8. Conclusions -- Phonetic Glossary.

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Summary: Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer examines the origin of the Greek alphabet. Departing from previous accounts, Roger Woodard places the advent of the alphabet within an unbroken continuum of Greek literacy beginning in the Mycenaean era. He argues that the creators of the Greek alphabet, who adapted the Phoenician consonantal script, were scribes accustomed to writing Greek with the syllabic script of Cyprus.Summary: Certain characteristic features of the Cypriot script - for example, its strategy for representing consonant sequences and elements of Cypriot Greek phonology - were transferred to the new alphabetic script. Proposing a Cypriot origin of the alphabet at the hands of previously literate adapters brings clarity to various problems of the alphabet, such as the Greek use of the Phoenician sibilant letters. The alphabet, rejected by the post-Bronze Age "Mycenaean" culture of Cyprus, was exported west to the Aegean, where it gained a foothold among a then illiterate Greek people emerging from the Dark Age. Woodard's study, a combination of philological and epigraphical investigation with linguistic theory, should be of interest to both scholars and students of classics, linguistics, and Near Eastern studies.

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Electronic-Books	OPJGU Sonepat- Campus	E-Books EBSCO			Available

Includes bibliographical references (pages 268-278) and index.

Print version record.

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Greek Writing from Knossos to Homer examines the origin of the Greek alphabet. Departing from previous accounts, Roger Woodard places the advent of the alphabet within an unbroken continuum of Greek literacy beginning in the Mycenaean era. He argues that the creators of the Greek alphabet, who adapted the Phoenician consonantal script, were scribes accustomed to writing Greek with the syllabic script of Cyprus.

Certain characteristic features of the Cypriot script - for example, its strategy for representing consonant sequences and elements of Cypriot Greek phonology - were transferred to the new alphabetic script. Proposing a Cypriot origin of the alphabet at the hands of previously literate adapters brings clarity to various problems of the alphabet, such as the Greek use of the Phoenician sibilant letters. The alphabet, rejected by the post-Bronze Age "Mycenaean" culture of Cyprus, was exported west to the Aegean, where it gained a foothold among a then illiterate Greek people emerging from the Dark Age. Woodard's study, a combination of philological and epigraphical investigation with linguistic theory, should be of interest to both scholars and students of classics, linguistics, and Near Eastern studies.

Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2010. MiAaHDL

Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. MiAaHDL