European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 5, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                By John Noble Wilford new York times ome of the most Learned scholars arc having problems Willha abcs. Just when  though they had figured Oul How and when the alphabet entered Western civilization new interpretations  mings Ara challenging old assumptions. / the sea Tating phoenicians carried the alphabet from its Birthplace in the my Dis East to the greeks. But when. % most evidence had seemed to Point to the ninth Century . As the time of this. Momentous cultural Transfer a step that Laid the foundations or modern written languages throughout much of the world. Bui recent analysis of inscriptions on artefacts found in the Middle East and the Mediterranean Region have led a growing. Number of experts to suspect that thru. Greeks May have begun borrowing he phoenician alphabet As Early As the 12th  " at a symposium conducted by Tho Institute of semitic studies Al Princeton  scholars described writing on. Monumental stones and ceramics irom tie eighth Century . In which Sorris characters in the greek alphabet vary irom their usual shapes of thai period and Bear a greater resemblance to those of semite. Scripts of the12th Century . They cited Oftis As Strong evidence for an earlier Date Lor the spread of the alphabet. Although no greek inscriptions before the eighth Century have been found the patterns of certain writing of that period appear to experts to be archaic and thus suggest an earlier introduction of the alphabet to he West. The writing in an expression of the Day ran As the of plows " from left to right on one line then right to left on the next and so Orch.  this was a practice of semitic scripts of the 13th and 12th centuries . But by the Idith Century ., phoenician writing regularly ran from right to left. We re recognizing Lor the first time that the problem of when the greeks borrowed Hie alphabet from the phoenicians is More complicated than we thought said p. Kyle Mccarter or. Professor of biblical and ancient near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University. It s the Mast important Issue in the Field right now. We want to fix this Date because of Alt the technologies. That came from the near East to the West the alphabet is the most  arched girls and linguists speak of the alphabet As a technology because they see it As a Tod that simplified written language making it More accessible to Ordinary people and More useful in Commerce and the communication of ideas Cyrus h. Gordon director of the Center for Ebla research at new York University ranks the invention 9 writing with the control of fire As a transcendental development in human culture.,. With witling 5,000 years ago we developed a Way to preserve memories and thoughts ram generation to generation a said. And the most remarkable Fonn o writing the most useful and most. Widespread is lha alphabet our  an alphabet the word comes irom the first two greek letters a Cha and Tola which in phoenician and hebrew Ware Alet and Beth is a system of writing where Tor each sound in the language there is one and Only one Symbol although at limes two symbols such As arts h have been combined to represent a new sound. The earliest known writing in. Mesopotamia and Egypt had its origin in simple pictures thai evolved into a. Tog syllabic system in which signs expressed whole words and syllables. Writing derived from such systems involved hundreds of characters and was mastered Only by priests and professional scribes after Long years of study. Ancient egyptians began using symbols for sounds and most of the shapes adopted later Lor lha phoenician and then Sliv Yak Tuthi greek alphabets evolved torn hieroglyphics Bui tha egyptians mixed idea pictures and words spelled Ojel with sound Symby and Rover made the jump to an alphabet said Ephraim Isaac life for of the Trull to of semitic studies. Thai transition occurred sometime in it second millennium . Digging in skill 1 1905, British Archeo Tobista discovered a templs wit ii ins Cit Tigris n Vihlen Cuchet graph symbolized not the depleted word but of its initial sound ,. Another disco Hwy. In 1929 Al the Ancle seaport of Garit on by Cost of Syria seemed to conf Iron the alphabet making activities of this Lime and place. Gay tablets from tha 15th or 14th centuries b. Contained an alphabet of 30 Lettera in the cuneiform style of the Mesopotamia  doubt that they Wal Ever determine the exact origins of the Alphat but Martin serial a professor at corr�0 uni Vorsila who is an authority on the diffusion of the semitic alphabet said i one thing that cannot a denied by any scholars is that the alphabet came irom i semitic speaking levant.". It is Alao Gerie Rany agreed that the phoenicians were the agents Fri spreading alphabet., the greeks adopted and passed ii on the romans As the latin alphabet and to the slavs As the Cyric both the arabic and hebrew alphabets originated with in phoenicians. Chinese and japanese ate major exceptions because they still Rety i a logo syllabic system instead of a True alphabet reflecting sounds " ". Tha phoenician were the people w called there serves canaanites and lived the coast of what is now Lebanon end Syria primarily in the two great and enl ports of to and Sidon. They became shipbuilders and traders who. After the 1 Century ., increasingly made the enter Mediterranean their Maifea. Gordon has proposed that the phoenicians perfected a Alphaba for practical reasons with the phoenicians the operational unit was not a Palace by smal boat he explained. They needed keep written records of their trades. Tiff did t have room for professional scribes so they probably picked an into Ligon Pago the stars and stripes monday dec