Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing [Paperback]

Marc-Alain Ouaknin (Author), Josephine Bacon (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

An illuminating yet lighthearted voyage back to the origins of our alphabet, based on the pictograms of 3,500 years ago. 248 two-color illustrations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Abbeville Press (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0789205211
• ISBN-13: 978-0789205216
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very illuminating and informative, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing (Paperback)

This is a very interesting and aha!-producing discussion of how the alphabet was invented and the history and development of each letter, from the very first hebrew-adapted egyptian hieroglyphics, through the Canaanite/Phoenecian to the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans down to current letter sounds and shapes. I found this book exceptionally interesting.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the price tag., October 31, 2000

By 

Beth L. or Brian S. (Athens, GA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mysteries of the Alphabet: The Origins of Writing (Paperback)

This book could probably be shortened to 100 pages max.

There are TOO many pictures/tables in the book that have nothing to do with the text and the pictures/tables aren't even explained.

This book lacks organization.

Was not what I expected. Only a handful of sentences helped me understand how we arrived at the modern alphabet from pictograms (pictures that represent words)

If you want a book that explains the evolution of written language from pre-history, this is NOT the book for you!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad at all for casual reading (and the illustrations are beautiful), October 11, 2005

By 

G. Feng "gary" (durham, nc) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mysteries of the Alphabet (Hardcover)

This is a wonderfully illustrated book on the evolution of the alphabetic writing, translated from French. The author is a professor in comparative literature at Bar-Ilan U in Tel Aviv and director of the Aleph Center for Jewish Studies in Paris, an author of academic, fictional, and children's literature. The book is not as rigorous as I had hoped, but the superior artistic style of the illustrations and the very accessible writing (consider it's a translation, and from French!) more than make up the disappointment I initially had.

The book focused on the proto-Saini script, a critical transition from the Egypitian cuniforms to phonographic writing. Being a Jewish scholar, the author took full advantage of the Semitic languages these earlest forms of alphabetic writing intented to transcribe. Connections between various forms of alphebet and their kinships were clearly laid out, supported with illustrations and pictures of artifacts. The author was successful in striking a balance between readability and making references to original research work. References were given at the end of each chapter with incredibly small print, although researchers' names were prominately cited in the main text, which is in a comfortably large font.

The first part of the book is a historic review of the orgin of the alphebetic writing, with interesting personal remarks on various topics. The section on Chinese (p. 31-36, with several pages of illustrations in between) was simplistic and outdated, reflecting popular writings on Chinese from 20+ years ago. I hope this is not an indication of the quality of other parts of the book, though, because the author appears to be an expert on Hebrew and other languages/cultures of the region in which alphabetic writing rose.

About 2/3 of the pages were devoted to an A-Z dictionary of letters. The author kept to his focus on the early transition from cuniforms to proto-Saini to other scripts. Again, various froms of the letters are illustrated with pictures, tables, and occasionally caligraphies. An interesting touch is the summary table at the end of each letter chapter, summarizing the historic changes, and the Hebrew roots of words starting with the letter. It's informative, but I don't know how useful they are to other languages.

Part III of the book, titled "The Archeographic Revolution", should probably be renamed to "fun ways to teach you and your kids proto-Saini writing". The author gave some interesting ideas and examples of how to write one's name with the pictoric-phonographic alphabet. It's neither a revolution of the study of old scripts nor a ground-breaking way to teach reading (by using dead pictograms?). It's nonetheless a cute idea and reflects the author's interests in children's literature.

Overall the book is an engaging introduction to the evolution of alphabetic writing, particularly the early transition from ideographic writing. The rich illustrations in the book are of high artistic styles. Oh, did I mention it's printed on heavier paper? It sure feels good in hand. I'd recommend the book as for enjoyment and casual reference (illustrations and tables). Readers looking for scholarly rigior probably wants to read sources he referred to in the book. (Other books of Ouaknin himself, conviniently listed at the top the copyright page).