h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi!

I was just wondering... You write that the Phoenicians developed an alphabet which didn't include vowels. How do they express the vowels then? In some of the older Mongolian scripts as well as in the Tibetan script every consonant has an inherent a which can be altered to different vowels by a added symbol on top or below the basic letter. Is it the same with the Phoenicians? Then their script would be a sylable script, right?

Or did they simply not express the vowels and the reader had to add them by knowledge of the word in question? Isn't that how the Arabic script works?

If you are interested in learning more about Mongolian scripts, you could pay a visit to my homepage. You can find the link on my page on h2g2. I know, the pictures of the alphabets are not working but if you'd be interested I could mail them to you or something.

Oh, ad before I forget it - this is an impressive entry since I know much work working about scripts is.

Methos

Hi Methos! Sorry it took me so long to reply; I've only just noticed your question.

The Phoenician alphabet only contained consonants. The vowels were not written down or indicated in any way. My own limited experience of Semitic languages, such as Arabic, suggests that vowels are not considered important. For example, I couldn't get three Egyptian women to agree on what vowel is in the (Arabic) name for Egypt. Their three versions were Misr, Mesr and Masr. They didn't seem to notice or care that the others used a different vowel, and that's for the name of their own country.

I presume a skilled reader could work out the vowels from a knowledge of the language and the alphabet.

Oh, that's interesting. I thought, that the vowel was clear in Arabic if not written down...

Did you ask those women if they would understand the word if pronounced in a different way? I mean, would the woman saying Misr understand Masr as meaning Egypt?

Methos