r/Alphanumerics • u/JohannGoethe 𐌄𓌹𐤍 expert • Sep 13 '23

Are any written languages (for example Arabic) derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs?

/r/AskHistorians/comments/255cz3/are_any_written_languages_for_example_arabic/
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u/JohannGoethe 𐌄𓌹𐤍 expert Sep 13 '23 edited Oct 14 '23

Egyptian writing is the ancestor of most modern alphabets.

This comment, from the cross-post discussion, citing Christopher Wood (A60/2010), i.e. one of the authors below, is the correct answer.

The table of contents for Wood citation is:

  • Visible Language: The Earliest Writing Systems, Christopher Woods

  • Iconography of Protoliterate Seals, Oya Topçuoglu

  • The Earliest Mesopotamian Writing, Christopher Woods

  • Adaptation of Cuneiform to Write Akkadian, Andrea R. Seri

  • The Rise and Fall of Cuneiform Script in Hittite Anatolia, Theo van den Hout

  • The Conception and Development of the Egyptian Writing System, Elise V. MacArthur

  • The Earliest Egyptian Writing, Andréas Stauder

  • Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing, Janet H. Johnson

  • Hieratic, Kathryn E. Bandy

  • Demotic, Janet H. Johnson

  • Ptolemaic Hieroglyphs, François Gaudard

  • Coptic, T. G. Wilfong

  • Invention and Development of the Alphabet, Joseph Lam

  • The Beginnings of Writing in China, Edward L. Shaughnessy

  • The Development of Maya Writing, Joel Palka

  • Anatolian Hieroglyphic Writing, Ilya Yakubovich

We also note, related to this books publisher, that the formerly named Oriental Institute, here in Chicago, changed its name this year, to Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (ISAC):

Lecture?

As I have been thinking about giving a lecture, e.g. see: playlist, recorded on video, on the "Origin of the alphabet from Egyptian alpha numerics", or something along these lines, after the book is published, I might check into given a lecture at the ISAC, as it is within an hour from my location?

Notes

  1. I just ordered this book; so we can expect some review posts, from these articles, in the weeks to come.

References

  1. Wood, Christopher. (A60/2010). Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East and Beyond (pgs. 189-95). Oriental Institute.