The Early History of the Alphabet and The Semitic Writing System (Super)Family

General Overviews
• Wikipedia has what is probably the best online overview of the history of the Semitic (proto-Sinaitic) Writing System Family - for the majority of writing systems we covered (in class) in this family, this page can direct you to Wikipedia entires on each of the separate writing systems.

• The sites Omniglot.com and AncientScripts.com provide good examples and descriptions of the majority of the writing systems in this superfamily - any of the writing systems I have not included below can be found on these sites and on the Wikipedia 'family tree' of this writing system superfamily.

• Diringer, David The Alphabet: The Key to the History of Mankind. South Asia Books, 1968, 1996. Amazon.com link

• Diringer, David History of the Alphabet. Newbury Books, 1983. Amazon.com link

• An analysis of how phoneticism has shaped culture: Logan, Robert The Alphabet Effect: A Media Ecology Understanding of the Making of Western Civilization. Hampton Press, 1994. Amazon.com link

• Ouaknin, Marc-Alain Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing. Abbeville Press, 1999. *An interesting anaysis/proposal by Ouaknin - he attempts to relate the evolution of Semitic scripts to contextual/historical events; interesting, but not all scholars agree with some of his proposals. Amazon.com link

• Sacks, David Letter Perfect: The Marvelous History of Our Alphabet From A to Z. Broadway Books, 2004. Amazon.com link


Egyptian Hieroglyphic Writing
• An Archaeology.org article on the earliest Egyptian (proto-)writing fround at Abydos (3,400 - 3,200 BC).

• Collier, Mark and Bill Manley How To Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself. Univ of California Press, 2003. Amazon.com link

• Gardiner, Sir Alan Henderson Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs. Griffith Institue of Egyptology, 1957. Amazon.com link

• Kamrin, Janice Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Practical Guide. Harry N. Abrams Publ, 2004. Amazon.com link


Wadi el-Hol and Sinaitic Scripts - the Earliest Alphabets (Abjads).
• Kuijt, Ian, Charlotte Whiting, et al. "Results of the 2001 Kerak Plateau Early Bronze Age Survey II: Two Early Alphabetic Inscriptions from the Wadi El-Hol" in The American Schools of Oriental Research Annual 59, 2006. Amazon.com link

• A New York Times online article about the discovery of the Wadi el-Hol script.

• A nice online overview of proto-Siniatic script from AncientScripts.com.

• Wikipedia offers a good overview of the proto-Canaanite alphabet (abjad).


Ancient Semitic Scripts
• A nice online gallery of ancient Semitic inscriptions.

The Brahmi Script Family (from Aramaic to South and Central Asian Scripts)
• An impressive online resource for the Brahmic Family of scripts (South and Central Asia).

• A good online resource/overview of the writing systems and languages of India.

Family Tree (download)
Here's a downloadable 'family tree' of this writing system superfamily - this tree only represents a small fraction of the writing systems that constitute this superfamily. Click on the image to enlarge, then right-click to download.