The Origins of the West Semitic Alphabet in Egyptian Scripts

Book excerpt: A useful work for all interested in the history of the alphabet. Hamilton shows a direct correspondence between the West Semitic alphabet and its proposed Egyptian counterparts. Following an examination of the various Egyptian prototypes, each grapheme of the various "Canaanite" scripts is shown and described in exhaustive detail in terms of feature and stance. Subsequently, each individual unit is augmented with a survey of the development of the names of letters and their vocalization, with the author pointing to acrophony, rhyming, and "clipping" as factors in their nomenclature. Hamilton also provides summary charts of the ancient Egyptian models and West Semitic derivatives.