The civilization that developed alphabetic writing is believed to have been the Semitic peoples who lived in Egypt. They somehow managed to transform the hieroglyphs used by the Egyptians into a primal and rudimentary form of Hebrew.
This would occur about 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament itself places the Jews living in Egypt. However, it is not easy to determine exactly which people or civilization was the creator or developer of alphabetic writing.
The first vestiges of the invention, development and use of a truly functional alphabet appear in a vast region that covers a good part of the Mediterranean, North Africa (Middle East) and part of Asia, placing them as far back in time as the period between 3,000 and 2,700 BC
However, as a result of relatively recent research and archaeological findings, it has been possible to shed some light on this question.
An unexpected finding and a controversial hypothesis
It has long been assumed that the creators of formal alphabetic writing were the Phoenicians, by virtue of the ancient Greeks and Romans' belief in this.
However, recent studies on stone slabs located at various archaeological sites in Egypt with alphabetic inscriptions on them, suggest that these characters are an early version of Hebrew.
The Semites who lived in Egypt somehow managed to transform the hieroglyphs used by the Egyptians into a primal and rudimentary form of Hebrew, 3,800 years ago, at a time when the Old Testament itself places the Jews living in Egypt.
This form of writing was born from the need for the Hebrews to communicate in writing with other Egyptian Jews, for which they took the complicated hieroglyphic writing system used by the pharaohs and created an alphabet that consisted of 22 characters or letters.
In this regard, archaeologist and epigraph Douglas Petrovich, researcher and professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, assures that the connection that exists between ancient Egyptian texts and the alphabets found by him and preserved in archaeological sites is undeniable.
However, such claims made in light of the findings of the archaeologist D. Petrovich have created a very heated discussion between the scholars of the Bible and ancient civilizations.
Many argue that the Israelites did not live in Egypt as early as Petrovich claims, despite what even the Old Testament claims, which questions the veracity of the biblical dates on the stay of the Israelites in Egypt.
Scholars have long held that writing such as that on the stone slabs found by Petrovich could originate from any of a variety of very ancient Semitic languages of which not much or at least enough is known to be able to determine a language or dialect specifically.
As stated at the beginning, the origins of alphabetic writing have created a great controversy among academic circles devoted to archeology, anthropology and the study of ancient languages and writings.
This controversy is due not only to practical or religious differences, but also to the large number of speculations and speculations without foundation or convincing scientific evidence.
In fact, the lack of evidence led many prestigious academics to make serious mistakes, such as the case of a renowned German researcher from the 1920s, who in his eagerness to publicize his research and work without sufficient verification He rashly asserted that ancient Egyptian writing was Hebrew.
However, finding no similarity with many of the characters in that alphabet, he made very poor quality translations that were immediately rejected by experts and scholars, leaving the reputation of this scientist buried in oblivion.
References
- Bower, B. (November 19, 2016). " Oldest alphabet identified as Hebrew ". Recovered from sciencenews.org .
- Boardley, J. (August 7, 2010). "The Origins of abc. Where does our alphabet come from? ”. Recovered from ilovetypography.com.
- Wikipedia. (S / F). "History of the Alphabet". Recovered from es.wikipedia.org
- Quitian H., P. (May 25, 2008). "Alphabetic writing." Recovered from origendelaescritura.blogspot.com
- Mrdomingo.com. (August 19, 2010). "The origin of our alphabet." Recovered from mrdomingo.com.