Chapter 2 – Alphabets

Introduction, 22

Cretan pictographs, 22

The North Semitic alphabet, 23

The Aramaic alphabet and its descendants, 24

The Greek alphabet, 25

The Latin alphabet, 29

The Korean alphabet, 32

Key Terms (in order of appearance; the first page number of their appearance is listed)

  1. Alphabet, page 22
  2. Minoan civilization, page 22, (see Fig. 2-1)
  3. Crete, page 22
  4. Phaistos disk, page 22, (Fig. 2-2)
  5. Principle of movable type, page 22
  6. Substrate, page 22
  7. North Semitic writing, page 23
  8. Phoenicia, page 23
  9. Phoenicians, page 23
  10. Sui generis, page 23
  11. Byblos, page 23
  12. Sinaitic script, page 23
  13. Achrophonic, page 23
  14. Ras Shamra script, page 23, (Fig. 2-3)
  15. Alphabetical order, page 23
  16. Phoenician alphabet, page 23
  17. Aramaic alphabet, page 24,(Fig. 2-4)
  18. Square Hebrew alphabet, page 24,(Fig. 2-5)
  19. Arabic writing, page 24
  20. Kufic, page 24, (Fig. 2-6)
  21. Naskhi, page 25, (Fig. 2-7)
  22. Qur’an or Koran, page 25
  23. Calligraphy, page 25
  24. Greek alphabet, page 24, (Fig. 2-9, and see Fig. 2-1)
  25. Votive stela, page 27, (Fig. 2-11)
  26. Boustrophedon, page 27
  27. Uncials, page 27, (Fig. 2-12)
  28. Latin alphabet, page 29,(see Fig. 2-1)
  29. Etruscans, page 29, (Fig. 2-16)
  30. Capitalis monumentalis, page 31, (Figs. 2-17)
  31. Serifs, page 31
  32. Capitalis quadrata, page 31,(Fig. 2-18)
  33. Capitalis rustica, page 31, (Fig. 2-19)
  34. Vellum, page 31
  35. Codex, page 31
  36. Scroll, page 29
  37. Signature, page 29
  38. Hangul, page 32, (Figs. 2-21 through 2-23)

Key People and their Major Contributions (in order of appearance; the first page number of their appearance is listed)

  1. Phoenicians, page 23
  2. Cadmus of Miletus (dates unknown), page 25
  3. Etruscans, page 29, (Fig. 2-16)
  4. Spurius Carvilius (c. 250BCE), page 29
  5. Ptolemy V of Alexandria (ruled c. 205–181BCE), page 31
  6. King Eumenes II of Pergamum (d. 160/159 BCE), page 31
  7. Sejong (1397–1450 CE), page 32

Chapter 2 – Study Questions

Multiple Choice

  1. Early visual language systems were complex and required knowledge of hundreds of signs and symbols, whereas an alphabet, a set of visual symbols or characters that represent the elementary ______of a spoken language, require only twenty or thirty easily learned signs.
  2. vowels
  3. sounds
  4. consonants
  5. concepts
  6. Unearthed in Crete in 1908, the ______contains pictographic and seemingly alphabetic forms imprinted on both sides in spiral bands.
  7. Greek signature seal
  8. Greek allotment token
  9. Phaistos Disk
  10. Etruscan Bucchero vase
  11. During the second millennium BCE, the ______became seafaring merchants whose ships linked settlements throughout the Mediterranean region. Influences and ideas were absorbed from other areas, such as cuneiform from Mesopotamia in the west and Egyptian hieroglyphics and scripts from the south.
  12. Greeks
  13. Etruscans
  14. Romans
  15. Phoenicians
  16. Around 1500 BCE, Semitic workers in Egyptian turquoise mines in the Sinai desert developed an acrophonic adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphics called Sinaitic script. In an acrophonic system, pictorial symbols or hieroglyphs are used to represent ______.
  17. the most important words in a sentence
  18. the most important vowel sound in a word
  19. the initial sound of the object depicted
  20. an abstract idea
  21. The Phoenician alphabet was adopted by the ancient Greeks and spread through their city-states around 1000 BCE The Greeks changed five consonants to vowels and, most importantly, they modified the Phoenician characters by making them ______.
  22. resemble animal forms in nature
  23. more geometrically structured
  24. resemble cuneiform characters
  25. calligraphic and gestural
  26. When the Greeks adopted Phoenician writing, they developed a writing method called boustrophedon, which means ______.
  27. alternating left to right and right to left
  28. left to right
  29. right to left
  30. bottom to top
  31. Writing tools and substrates influenced written forms. For example, as early as the second century CE, Greek scribes made their pens from hard reeds cut into nibs and split at the tip to aid ink flow. These pens gave their writing style a different character than writing by Egyptian scribes, who used soft reeds to brush ink onto the substrate. The Greeks developed a more rounded writing style called ______, which could be written more quickly because the rounded letters were formed with fewer strokes.
  32. uncials
  33. Capitalis Monumentalis
  34. Capitalis Rustica
  35. Capitalis Quadrata
  36. In the fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great expanded Greek culture throughout the ancient world, including Egypt, Mesopotamia, and India. Reading and writing had become more important by this time because ______.
  37. Alexander the Great wished to build vast libraries in distant countries
  38. military leaders required a means of transferring information across geographic areas
  39. an oral culture no longer had the capacity to contain and document knowledge and information
  40. demand rose for Greek philosophical and dramatic works
  41. The Greek alphabet fathered three of the following alphabets. Which one does NOT belong? ______
  42. Latin
  43. Cyrillic
  44. Phoenician
  45. Etruscan
  46. The Latin alphabet came to the Romans from Greece by way of the______, who dominated the Italian peninsula in the first millennium BCE.
  47. Ionians
  48. Spartans
  49. Etruscans
  50. Corinthians
  51. Around the first century BCE, the Roman alphabet—the forerunner of the contemporary English alphabet—contained twenty-three letters. The letters J, V, and W were added ______. The J is an outgrowth of the I, which was lengthened to indicate use with consonantal force, particularly as the first letter of some words. Both U and W are variants of V, which was used for two different sounds in England.
  52. after the advent of the printing press
  53. during the Middle Ages
  54. by seventeenth-century Greek scholars
  55. when they were rediscovered in the first century CE
  56. The ______, a revolutionary design format, came to be used increasingly in Rome and Greece beginning about the time of Christ. The durability and permanence of this format appealed to Christians because their writings were considered sacred. The Christians also sought this format as a means to distance themselves from pagan formats.
  57. codex
  58. rotulus
  59. scroll
  60. disk
  61. The Roman letter ______was designed by Spurius Carvilius around 250 BCE to replace the Greek zeta, which at the time was of little value to the Romans. After this addition, the Latin alphabet contained twenty-one letters.
  62. W
  63. G
  64. J
  65. Y
  66. The Aramaic alphabet is a major early derivation from the North Semitic script. It is the predecessor of hundreds of scripts, including modern Hebrew and Arabic. ______, a bold inscriptional Arabic lettering with extended, thick characters, was widely used on coins, manuscripts, and inscriptions on metal and stone. It is still used for titles and decorative elements.
  67. Sinaitic
  68. Naskhi
  69. Ras Shamra
  70. Kufic
  71. King Eumenes II of Pergamum developed the process of making ______to overcome an embargo placed by Ptolemy V during a fierce rivalry.
  72. paper
  73. codices
  74. parchment
  75. papyrus
  76. The Hangul alphabet, which was introduced by the Korean monarch Sejong by royal decree in 1446CE, consists of fourteen consonants represented by ______.
  77. abstract depictions of the mouth and tongue
  78. acrophonic symbols
  79. dots placed next to horizontal or vertical lines
  80. letters similar to those of the early Phoenicians

Matching

Match the key words with the correct definitions.

  1. vellum ____
  2. serifs ____
  3. signature ____
  4. Capitalis Quadrata ____
  5. Capitalis Monumentalis ____
  6. parchment ____
  7. Capitalis Rustica ____
  1. Rome took great pride in its imperial accomplishments and conquests, and created these letterforms for architectural inscriptions celebrating military leaders and their victories.
  2. The most important form of the Roman written hand, this style, which was written carefully and slowly with a flat pen, was widely used from the second century CE until the fifth century.
  3. Small lines extending from the ends of the major strokes of Roman letterforms
  4. Another form of the Roman written hand, these condensed letterforms, which were written quickly and saved space, were widely used from the second century CE until the fifth century.
  5. A writing surface made from the skins of domestic animals, particularly calves, sheep, and goats
  6. The finest of writing surfaces, made from the smooth skins of newborn calves
  7. Two, four, or eight sheets gathered then folded, stitched, and bound

True/False

  1. The invention of the alphabet and the subsequent spread of literacy had a leveling effect on society; it eventually diminished the power of priest/scribes found in earlier societies. _____
  2. The Hangul writing system—the Korean alphabet—is based on the Chinese writing system but is more complex. _____
  3. Around 2000 bce, the Phoenicians developed an early alphabetic writing system called sui generis, which was a script devoid of any pictorial meaning. _____
  4. Capitalis Quadrata were capitals of the Roman Latin alphabet created for architectural inscriptions celebrating military leaders and their victories. _____
  5. The modern book format, which replaced the scroll in Rome and Greece beginning at the time of Christ, was made by gathering parchment into signatures and binding them to form codices. _____

Image Identification

I. Identify the title and the date of the following images.

  1. Fig. 2-2 ______
  2. Fig. 2-11 ______
  3. Fig. 2-12 ______
  4. Fig. 2-16 ______

II. Match each of the images shown with the correct writing style.

  1. Fig. 2-17 ____
  2. Fig. 2-18 ____
  3. Fig. 2-19 ____
  1. Capitalis Quadrata
  2. Capitalis Monumentalis
  3. Capitalis Rustica

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