Alpha Beta: How 26 Letters Shaped the Western WorldJohn Wiley & Sons, 25 mars 2002 - 320 pages Praise for Alpha Beta "This book comes at the perfect moment as we rediscover the importance in early reading of cracking the alphabetic code. The story of how that code came into being is a fascinating one, and Man is the ideal writer to tell it." Times Educational Supplement "A richly absorbing exploration, from B.C. to PCs, of the evolution of the most fundamental characters of our cultural history, the alphabet we so much take for granted. John Man writes with a compellingly restless curiosity and immediacy. The ever surprising, exotically detailed narrative in his informative book makes it as undryly enjoyable as a successful archaelogical dig of one of Alan Moorehead s colorful histories of African exploration." David Grambs, author of The Describer s Dictionary and The Endangered English Dictionary "Text that is crisp, taut, and as clear as a bell.... A fascinating story with many a beguiling subplot along the way." New Scientist "Letter perfect the best histories and mysteries of our ABC s!" Jeff McQuain, author of Never Enough Words and Power Language |
Table des matières
Foreword | 1 |
Introduction Of Giants and Genius | 5 |
1 The Trouble with Pictures | 17 |
2 The Bearable Burden of Syllables | 33 |
3 Letters in the Wilderness | 67 |
4 The Search for the Perfect Alphabet | 91 |
5 Into Sinai | 119 |
6 The Land of Purple | 155 |
8 The Great Leap Forward | 195 |
9 Why We Dont Write Etruscan | 237 |
10 The Limits to Growth | 265 |
Appendix 1 | 285 |
Appendix 2 | 289 |
Bibliography | 297 |
Acknowledgements | 303 |
305 | |
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Expressions et termes fréquents
acrophony adapted Akkadian alpha alphabet ancient archaeologists Asiatics bards became Bible Byblos Byzantium Canaan Canaanite century BC China Chinese clay tablets complexity culture cuneiform Darnell desert disc dynasty east Egypt Egyptian emerged empire English epics Etruria Etruscan Euboea evidence evolution German Greece Greek Greek alphabet Hangul Hebrew hieratic hieroglyphic Hittites Homer Hyksos idea inscriptions invention Israelites king known land language later Latin letters literacy lived London look meaning Mediterranean meme Mesopotamia millennium Minoan Mongols Moravia oral origins papyrus perhaps pharaoh Phoenician Phoenician alphabet phonetic poetry pottery Proto-Sinaitic record Roman Rome roots ruler scholars scribe script seems seized Sejong Semitic signs Sinai Slavonic society sound stele story suggested Sumerian syllables symbols temple thing tion tombs took trade translation tribes turned Ugarit vowels Wadi el-Hol Wen-Amon words writing system written wrote Yahweh Zagreb Mummy Zakar-Baal