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From: deb5@midway.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Re: Are all alphabets co-derivative?
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Date: Fri, 7 Jun 1996 13:44:40 GMT
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In article <4p86mk$dmp@cantuc.canterbury.ac.nz>,
Bill Taylor <mathwft@math.canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
>This has *got* to be a FAQ, or at least a FDQ.    But anyway.
>
>Is it true that all the alphabetic written languages in the world are
>descended from one starter, (presumably Phoenician) ?

	I presume you mean "alphabetic scripts."  Only fundamentalists
are convinced that all languages have a common origin.

>Or are there some (Indian?) that are totally independent?

Devanagari and related scripts (e.g. Tamil, Sinhalese, Burmese, etc.)
are all ultimately derived from the same North Semitic original as
the Latin and Greek scripts.  Korean Hankul/Han'geul springs 
immediately to mind as an alphabet with no definite predecessor.  All
the other independent scripts that I can think of off the top of my
head (like Cherokee, Cree/Inuit, and Hmong) are syllabaries rather
than alphabets.  What about Hieratic?  Is it a true alphabet?  And
Buginese?  Is it derived from another Southeast Asian script?



-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
