The evolution of writing systems of the Aramaic languages is discussed, stressing the importance of looking beyond simple character forms as they occur in space and time to the interaction of scripts with languages, and the interactions of writing systems with minds and civilizations. First, the invention of the alphabet is discussed from a…

This book seeks to point out the difficulties which remain in phonetic theory because of a legacy from prephonemic days when phonetics and phonemics were one. Sounds were shown to have been chosen for description because of their use in speech rather than because of their articulatory or acoustic nature; many sounds were ignored because they were…