ALPHA VARIANTS IN INSCRIPTIONS

#greek inscriptions #epigraphy #Alpha #uppercase

ALPHA VARIANTS IN INSCRIPTIONS 

 

This closeup of an inscription shows an interesting variation of ALPHA used on stone. 

Note the A as 2 triangles joined Dar?reias Onomastou Iereeteusas 

More examples coming in next posts !

ALPHA VARIANTS - ONE

 ALPHA VARIANTS

#alpha #letterA #historyofalphabet #alphabet 

The letter A has come a long way from being an Egyptian hieroglyph and a Canaanite pictograph to the modern vowel symbol it is today.

 

 

One of its greatest leaps was the shift from representing the glottal stop to being a vowel in Greek.

However its form had several variants differing in various polises and whether it was written in papyrus or  engraved on stone . The bull kept its horns for a few centuries !

Don't forget to click and scroll back and forward to see more posts on A and Alpha! 

Alpha Doodle

Just a little sketch I did using Medibang on my mobile earlier today 

Scroll back to the previous post for the start of the sequence 

The Hieroglyph A Myth / Meme

 #heiroglyphs #A #letterA #meme #myth 

The Hieroglyph A Myth !!!

A statement I frequently see repeated is that A comes from an "Egyptian heiroglyph"

Well Yes and No 

That kinda over simplifies the process of how the letter form evolved.

Now #Alp is akkadian for cattle and Hebrew has #aleph and Arabic #alif 

however the actual Egyptian hieroglyph that is a bovine head was probably pronounced /k3/ 

I'm using the 3 to symbolize the "A" sound which was actually a GLOTTAL STOP Consonant and written as a vulture symbol however the vulture symbol seems to have had an Allophonic function being used to represent vowels as well as consonants?  Allo + phone other sound !

Now the cow or bull head symbol is actually an abbreviation for a glyph showing a whole bovine.

An abbreviation or short cut ? 

Berfore the Phoenicians adopted an alphabetic system of allotting one symbol to one consonant sound they had a pictographic symbol. Their system and the Sinai alphabet and related Canaanite systems used forms strongly influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs and it seems from various inscriptions before hieratic evolved people across the Near East were using a kind of shorthand based on Egyptian hieroglyphs. 

Protocanannite had a symbol for aleph of two or three strokes but hwy a cows head with a different sound.

I suspect someone was teaching symbols to beginners speaking West Semitic languages saying something like :

"Just as a herd of cows have a lead bull or cow so these signs for sounds have a leading letter!"

Greek however did not have a glottal stop sound so Greek speakers changed this to A

Our alpha but thats a topic for a whole separate  post next time !

The Hand that writes - part two

 The hand that writes - part two

Lets consider this work and what it tells us about writing in Florence.

The Madonna is usually not shown writing and of course she certainly would have not been writing the Magnificat in Latin. If she could read and write it would have been in Aramaic or Hebrew. I her family judging from her cousin Elizabeths marriage was from a priestly levite background it is more likely she was literate? 

Now let us consider why a Florentine painter like Botticelli would show the Madonna or any woman writing?

What do we have reasonable cause to believe about this work .

It seems to have been commissioned as a private devotional and probably been in a monastery or private studio for centuries until put on market and acquired by a museum. It was not part of an altarpiece the rondo format being further proof of this?

The model may have been a Florentine aristocrat?

Now at the time Botticelli painted this while printing still existed in Florence illuminators and copyists wee still working by hand to make devotional books which would have included the Magnificat which brings me to an interesting possibility.

Botticelli could have seen copyists at work?

Were there female copyists / scribes in Florence?

Is it possible some upper class woman had the funds to purchase a book of bound blank pages and a husband of other relative allowed Botticelli to use her as a model? 

Lets look at the close up from my last post again.

What do you think if you have used a plume / quill for writing?

Is this realistic or contrived? Is Botticelli given general levels of literacy in the 15th century in Florence emphasizing how special the Virgin was or are we wrong and he is proudly showing us how literate and skilled Florentine women were ? 

 

The Hand that writes ...

 While I was looking for Christmas art I came across this 

Can you guess what painting this is a closeup from showing more detail? 

Hint 15th century Florence Influenced many British "PreRaphaelites"

I also chose it because it shows us the process of writing an an actual pen being dipped into an old style ink pot so its relevant to this blogs themes!

You'll have to wait to the next post for a full view of the painting and some more details !

Join me!