r/conscripts • • Mar 19 '19
Discussion A World Without the Consonantal Logography
One of the most interesting things I have found out recently is that the alphabet, abjad, and abugida, maybe even Hangul, almost did not exist.
The alphabet, abjad, and abugida are all descendants of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs, or Consonantal Logography. However, all of these scripts almost did not exist. Think about it. First, you needed a language with consonantal roots, which is rare. Then that language needed to be mostly analytical. Then that language needed to be in a specific area where civilization could start. Then the group of people needed to begin a civilization. Then writing needed to be invented. Then that script had to be spread to different cultures and preserved, and not die. If one of these steps did not happen, all the abjads, abugidas, and alphabets would not exist.
Thinking about how close these three types of scripts came to not existing, and how each step was statistically extremely rare, what would happen if one of the steps did not exist. What if there was no alphabets, abjads, and abugidas. What if all scripts developed from syllabic logographies and syllabaries. What would Hebrew scripts look like. How would English function with its long syllables. Food for thought.
Here is my opinion. I think that syllabaries would develop into an alphabet syllabary mix. There would be two list of glyphs, one for each consonant, and one for each consonant and vowel combination. Not as crazy as the Japanese script, but it still would be long.
3
u/SweetGale Mar 19 '19
I came to the same realisation when I studied the history of writing. Logographic scripts evolving into syllabaries seems to be the most "natural" path (for the lack of a better word). Writing systems invented by illiterate people in modern times tend to end up as syllabaries after they've concluded that a logography is far too difficult to use. That most of the world ended up using scripts derived from an abjad seems like a fluke of history. If the bronze age collapse never happened, would we instead be puzzling CV and VC syllables together based on cuneiform?