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 |
297 | |
Acknowledgements | 303 |
305 | |
Autres éditions - Tout afficher
Expressions et termes fréquents
adapted alphabet ancient Asiatics Assyria authority became become called century Chinese clay complexity create culture cuneiform determinative early east Egypt Egyptian emerged empire English Etruscan evidence exist fact final followed four give Greek hand happened hard head Hebrew hieroglyphic Homer human hundred idea inscriptions invention Israelites Italy king known land language later letters literacy lived look meaning meme mind nature never once origins papyrus perhaps Phoenician possible record remains Roman roots rule scholars scribe script seems Semitic sense signs society sound spread started story suggested syllables symbols tablets tell thing thousand tion tombs took trade tradition translation turned Ugarit University vowels whole writing written wrote