HISTORY OF GENESIS OF THE ALPHABET
Origins of the alphabet

Stratis Hatgivlastis ©
 

Introduction:
This book attempts to establish and prove the origins of the Greek alphabet as being ultimately derived from the ancient Greeks, and not from the Phoenicians as is widely accepted. Following extensive research, it is my opinion that the complexity of a language, is the result of the building blocks of individual characters or symbols forming the words, those symbols, which have evolved to become the alphabet. Each individual symbol must be able to be interpreted and ‘read’ as individual stand alone characters, the combination and order of which tell a story. Every character or symbol is an icon of an image, a tool, a human activity, or a weather condition. This will be examined and presented in detail throughout, and can be further supported through the modern Greek letters, H, Y, I, which phonetically sound as the English letter E, but as symbols have very different meanings. Through examining the letters and their symbolism, and most crucially the order in which they are presented, and as a result deciphering a meaning, reveals the origin of what has evolved to become a language. With this brief outline, it will become apparent that some of the same symbols within the Phoenician language representing different and groundless meanings than the ancient Greek symbols, when creating words have the outcome of an indiscernible result. Countries of western civilisations using the alphabet without any knowledge the meaning of them, the Greek symbols were created specifically only for the Greek language

THE GREEK ALPHABET

Αα Ββ Γγ Δδ Εε Ζζ Ηη Θθ Ιι Κκ Λλ Μμ Νν Ξξ Οο Ππ Ρρ Σσ Ττ Υυ Φφ Χχ Ψψ Ωω

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

Aegean islands (Cyclades) were joint, stretching from the Greek mainland to almost joining Turkey leaving a lake in the north Aegean

Paleolithic 700.000 - 9.000 B.C. Mesolithic 9.000 - 7.000 B.C. Neolithic 7.000 - 3.500 B.C.

Unfortunately today we don't realize the rapid geological metabolic changes of the environment as it happened at that time. We know today that before 18.000 years ago the coastal waters of Greece have been suffered of continues floods and earthquakes causing the sea level to rise 150 meters, and the land gradually to sink below their feet, the need to communicate by crossing the waters made the people skilled seamen

[New Information on the Petralona Skull Controversy]

 Ancient Origins has recently presented the debate about the skull found in Petralona, Greece. This debate has been continuing in the scientific community for more than half a century. While the Greek government has tried to supress information regarding the skull and disallow Dr Aris Poulianos and his collaborators from carrying out further research, many scientists have spoken out in support. Read the background to the discovery of a human skull in Petralona, that has since been referred to as ‘Petralona Man’.
In a recent letter to the Ministry of Culture in Greece, dated 13th August 2013, Dr. Kyung Sik Woo, the South Korean President of the International Union of Speleology, a UNESCO-recognized organization that represents cave scientists and cavers in over 60 countries, wrote:
   Petralona Cave, in Chalkidiki, Greece, is an internationally significant archaeological and paleontological site. Over the years there have been disputes about the age of the hominin skeletons recovered from the cave. More recently I've heard concerns about the condition and security of those materials, and that research scientists, notably the primary scientists who studied the material and the cave, Drs Aris and Nikolas Poulianos, are being refused access to the materials and cave for further research. I am writing on behalf of the Union Internationale de Speleology (UIS) to state and request the following be done openly and transparently: Demonstrate that the materials are safe from harm and establish a policy to assure their continued long-term security; use documents and other information to prove the authenticity and provenance of the materials; carefully and accurately document the physical condition of the materials and any damage to establish a baseline from which their future condition and the effects of any handling should be secured and future study can be precisely compared and measured; and develop a policy that includes the procedures, conditions, and limitations under which any qualified scientist can access the materials for further study.
Professor Macie Henneberg, Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, has also reiterated the importance of the discovery:
   There is no doubt that all aspects of the origins of humans and of their present-day life are of interest to all mankind and that no effort should be spared in investigating them… The cave of Petralona and related sites stand out as one of the foremost documents of man's origins. Some disputes are still going on, but it is becoming ever clearer that the exact age of the Petralona skull is very important concerning the investigation of human evolution for many reasons.
It is a totally different consideration whether the diversification of our subspecies (anthropological types, phylae, or the commonly called races) took place thousands of years ago or almost one million years ago. Until determining the age of the Petralona skull at ~700,000 years, all human fossils before around 400,000 years were considered as belonging to one species of Homo erectus, for example, ‘Beijing man’ (500,000 years), Java man (900,000 years), or other African exemplars (around 1.1 million years). Recapitulating the facts and the surrounding framework concerning the Petralona skull, initially it was considered by P. Kokkoros and A. Kanellis, Professors of Thessaloniki University, that it represented an unstratified female Neanderthal of ~50,000-70,000 years ago. The same age was given in 1964 by two German researchers, O. Sickenberg in Paleontology and E. Breitinger in Anthropology, the latter declaring that Petralona man is “the first African out of Africa”.
   When Dr Aris Poulianos had the opportunity to study the skull, he immediately highlighted the European traits of the male Petralona man. In 1968, and again from 1975 to 1983, he excavated the Petralona cave, proving that the human skull belonged to a well evident stratigraphic sequence (corresponding to the 11th layer), of 700,000 years old, presenting its own Paleolithic culture, not to mention the oldest traces of fire ever kindled by a human being. The above mentioned professor, O. Sickenberg, with the help of his pupil G. Shutt, indirectly agreed with Dr Aris Poulianos concerning the date of 700,000 years before passing away by the end of 1970. The initial international reaction was that no humans could exist at that age out of Africa in Europe. Therefore, Dr Aris Poulianos’ theory was seen as exaggerated. However, during the next decades due also to Petralona excavating data, other European Palaeo-anthropological sites were proven to be of an analogous age (700,000 years), such as Mauer (Germany), Isernia (Italy) or Boxgrove (England). The scientific “wind” started slowly to “blow” in favour of Poulianos. Discoveries such as in Atapuerca (Spain), Ceprano (Italy) or Dmanissi (Caucasus) reconfirmed the initial idea that in Europe the existence of humans could be of 2 million years ago, if not even more. However, in Greece, it seems that this news never arrived and that things became worse. That is why Professor Macie Henneberg wrote in a letter to “Current Anthropology” (v. 29, 1988):
   By the entrance to the (Petralona Anthropological) museum there is a marble plaque describing the purpose of the museum and stating that it was erected through Dr. Poulianos efforts. His name has been crudely chiselled off (though parts of it are still legible). There is no competent anthropologist supervising the site and the museum at the moment… I do think that it is unethical to erase facts with a chisel and to prevent competent researchers from continuing their work at the site.
It is important herewith to point out that after Dmanissi, a new “exodus like theory” emerged. First, Homo habilis escaped (via deserts of Sinai) from Africa to Eurasia, where finally it became extinct. On the contrary, in Africa, Homo habilis evolved into Homo erectus, who in its turn spread to the rest of the world, but finally disappeared there too. In Africa, however it evolved into Homo heidelbergensis (an archaic form of Homo sapiens), defused all over the world, but where it also disappeared. In Africa, Homo heidelbergensis evolved into Homo sapiens where it supposedly spread out of Africa 200,000 years ago.
http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology-opinion-guest-authors/new-information-petralona-skull-controversy-001380#!bs7h3O

The evolution of the human race and the need to communicate

The evolution of the human race and the need to communicate, resembles the story of the Babel tower of the book of genesis in the bible, people not able to understand each other from one group of people to another and the need to establish a common language was essential. Nowadays we find in caves and in other carvings animal and human images describing the intelligence of prehistoric people leaving their marks of the past, this marks of carvings became symbols progressively those symbols became plentiful and complex linear A and linear B for example.

Greek prehistoric carvings

The creation of symbols

Any human drawing, or carving, to create an image, have some logical meaning and understanding, therefore it is obvious that every symbol of the alphabet is a description of something, over the past of thousands of years hundreds and more symbols, have been created but finally we end up with the ones we use today. Humans used symbols to communicate, but different regions different symbols, Egyptians, Babylonians, Persians, Assyrians, and more. The only symbols uniting people of the nations are the Greek symbols.

Symbols evolved accidentally some times and unscheduled but finally they became useful.  (giving to a 5 year old child pencil and paper asking him to draw something, eventually he will come up with a result, -then we ask the child what did he draw? And the child will come with the answer!
-This is daddy, surprisingly the child has created an alphabetic symbol) =A = human
 

Then the child draws a hammer that becomes symbol T ,with this hammer symbol T they created words Τέχνη = technical, technology, τοίχος= wall using the hammer.

It is difficult to give an exact chronological time of creation, but I strongly believe that began as early as the stone age.

According to this listing The Greek symbols Existed between the 10.000 -15,000 b. c

Archaeological findings of Greek writing in northern Greece have been discovered,
estimating an age of 11.000 years old.

[Linear A & Linear B symbols]

Michael Ventris

British linguist, known for his translation of previously undecipherable scripts and the theory that Linear B was an archaic form of the Greek language.
Although born in Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire, he grew up in Switzerland and was therefore able to speak French and German as well as English. From his Polish mother he acquired Polish and he was known to have a talent for learning languages, including the ancient Greek and Latin he studied at school. He had no formal linguistics training and started out as an architecture student.
As a schoolboy, Ventris attended a lecture by Sir Arthur Evans on undeciphered Minoan scripts and he became fascinated by their decipherment and the study of similar ancient texts. The script in question, called Linear B, was found on tablets dating from the middle of the 2nd millennium bc that were discovered by Evans in 1900 in Crete.
While Evans ruled out any possibility that Linear B could have been connected with Greek, Ventris noticed some possible similarities in the word endings and, pursuing this clue, he began to outline the structure of the
language, which he believed seemed similar to Greek.
He was able to decipher much of the text and show that it was Mycenaean. In doing so he upended Evans`s theory that the scripts (and civilization in Crete at the time they were written) were Minoan.
The Arcado-Cyprian dialect, about which very little is known, is the descendant of a form spoken in Mycenaean times in at least the Peloponnese and some of the southern islands. The deciphering (1952) of the so-called Linear B script (by British linguist Michael Ventris), examples of which were found on tablets during the excavations made in Crete and on the mainland of Greece after 1900, revealed it as an ancestor (1500-1400 bc) of Arcado-Cyprian.
These researches indicate that the Greeks were a literate people many hundreds of years before the period of the first Greek poet, Homer (probably the 9th century bc). Most scholars of today accept Ventris theory that Linear B was related to the Greek language.
Ventris`s life was cut short when he died in a car accident, shortly before a collaboration with John Chadwick, Documents in Mycenaean Greek (1956), was published.
 

[THE MINOAN-MYCENAEAN LINEAR B SCRIPT]

The Linear B script was already identified by A. Evans, who found the majority of the tablets in the palace at Knossos but jealously guarded the right of publication for himself, it was only in 1951, after the discovery in the meantime of other texts in mainland Greece, mainly at Pylos, that it became possible to study them. They were finally deciphered by M. Ventris and J. Chadwick. The Linear B script was used in Minoan and Mycenaean palaces during the LM II, LM III and LH III periods (1450-1200 BC). About 5,500 tablets and other objects inscribed with this script come from six palaces and palace centres: about 4,000 tablets or fragments of tablets come from the palace at Knossos, dating from its final phase (1450-1350BC) and 1,250 tablets from the palace at Pylos. Only a few dozen or so inscriptions come from the palaces at Thebes, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Kydonia (Chania). Other Inscriptions have been found on vases at Eleusis and Orchomenos. The tablets containing Linear B inscriptions were preserved purely by accident. The only ones to survive were those that were baked during the fires that destroyed the palaces. It is reckoned that only one tenth of the total number of written documents survived. A. Evans correctly supposed from the very beginning that they contained accounts and records. Despite the external similarities between Linear A and Linear B, the latter has several points of difference in terms of its internal structure, and also the external form of the symbols. In terms of structure, Linear B makes use of groups of phonetic symbols followed by an ideogram and a number, referring to the same item. With regard to form, both Linear A and Linear B use virtually the same number of syllabograms, about 100. Some of these are common to both scripts. From the above it may be deduced that the three main forms of Minoan script, though closely connected with each other, do not represent stages in a simple development, with Linear A replacing the pictorial script, and being replaced in turn by Linear B. This was noted by Evans.
   It is certain that there was some overlapping of the scripts, and different schools of scribes worked at different speeds, though in the same general direction of simplifying and standarddisign the symbols. Linear B inscriptions are found on four categories of object: clay page-shaped tablets, clay 'palm-leaf' tablets clay seal impressions, and vases. The same method of writing incising with a sharp point on a piece of wet clay -was used for inscriptions on tablets inscriptions on tablets and seal impressions, all of which were part of the palace archives. They were kept in wooden boxes. Inscriptions on vases were painted, however, and probably relate to the place of origin or possibly the owner of the vases. Tablets occur in two shapes: long narrow 'palm-leaves', and rectangular 'pages'. The first type was suitable for lists, and the second for individual transactions and calculations. The texts are written breadthways on the surface, which is usually divided by ruler incised lines. They were composed by professional scribes following certain rules. The texts on the tablets are calligraphically written and well arranged. The basic elements used in Linear B are sylabograms, ideograms, symbols for measures and weights, and number groups. Quite irrespective of the system used to organize the archives by the scribes who wrote Linear B, modern scholars have classified the texts under eighteen categories, depending on the object to which they refer. These consist of tablets referring to personnel, domestic animals, sheep, corn, quantities of foodstuffs, (offerings and distributions of olive-oil), the registering or distribution of metals, vases, fabrics, lists of weapons, chariots and panoplies, vessels, various supplies, lists with no ideograms, 'palm-leaf tablets, seal impressions, fragments of tablets, and inscriptions on vases. The decipherment of the texts, published in detail in 1956, and the study of the language of the texts are both of great interest. Only a very general account can be given here. It was assumed at the outset that the language of the tablets was Greek and that the words had inflection, with cases and gender. The signs had a syllabic phonetic value and followed a particular orthography that was difficult and had innovative rules. There were precise correspondences between the syllabic script and ideograms, which later con-firmed the correctness of the decipherment. The decipherment was accepted by the majority of scholars of Greek prehistory, and many continue to study and attempt to improve the method and find further evidence to confirm it. At the same time, systematic attempts are continuing to decipher the Linear A script. The reading of the Mycenaean script shed considerable light on the economic and social life of the Late Bronze II and III periods in the Aegean.
(Excerpt taken from the book MINOAN CRETE from myth to history Adonis Vasilakis Adam editions 1999)

[Linear A & Linear B many of this symbols are included in the Alphabet]
 

Humans may appeared before hundreds of thousands of years ago all over the earth, the important proposition is to understand the effect of the great quality of differences of civilizations. Whereas civilization doesn't exist without a language. It takes a long process for a language-civilization to mature, for the reason that a language is relevant to habitat and geological conditions of that region, and the long gradual development of it’s people.
   Examining the Greek area we understand the uniqueness from other areas, the friendly conditions of the environment and the variety of food collections but also the discovery of the technique to cultivate the fields and animal breading as a result to develop a proper settlement to the area. Paleolithic Greeks never lived as nomads the mountains the plain and the sea gave them all they needed. No civilization and language can be developed if people don't have permanent homes, In the house Εστία-Hestia the fireplace was a deity, where the fire was never allowed to go out.

Cyclops considered the first to have build their homes within strong walls. “Cyclopean walls are one of the most impressive remains from archaic civilizations. They are found in many places in Greece,

The many names of the primitive Greeks ΕΛΛΟΨ, ΚΥΚΛΩΨ, ΠΕΛΑΣΓΟΣ, ΕΛΛΗΝ HELLOPS, CYCLOPS, PELASGOS, HELLIN

Sounds and optical scenes arranged in three categories were the basic structure of the Greek language

A) Category, sounds and icons originating from natural human surroundings, Played an important role to humans, mimicking natures sounds that were the basic structure of the Greek language.
B) Category, sounds and icons emerging from human activities (work, social communications, feelings of hostility)
C) Category, sounds and icons come from human hypostasis. For various expressions happiness, sorrow, pain, anger, surprise, fear, love, admire, etcetera.

The tablet below, Greek Archaic similar Ionic Alphabet, discovered at Sodo Italy. (archeological museum Florence)

THE PHOENICIANS
 

Phoenicians sea-going traders, and merchants adopting the Greek Alphabet, and introducing it to other countries, giving the impression that the Alphabet was Phoenician, for this responsible was Greek historian Herodotus, a writer of not significant evidence and proof.
 

Plato describing Phoenicians as good seamen with no other skill, they did not leave civilization of intellectual and spiritual heritage.  
Homer's (Odyssey Ξ. 287- 290)
 [...but, when the eighth year came, a Phoenician, untrustworthy man, con artist, approached me....] 
...αλλ' ότε δή ογδοόν μοι επιπλόμενον έτος ήλθε, δή τότε Φοίνιξ ήλθεν ανήρ απατήλια ειδώς, τρώκτης, ός δή πολλά κάκ` ανθρώποισιν εώργει.
 
Homer's (Odyssey Ο. 415 - 417)
 There seamen Phoenicians arrived, well known thieves, with lots of fandangles in their ship.
 Ένθα δέ Φοίνικες ναυσίκλυτοι ήλυθον άνδρες, τρώκται, μυρί' άγοντες αθύρματα νηί μελαίνη·.....
  
Herodotus (484-425 B.C.)
 the two men who killed Hipparchus belonged...I have myself looked into the matter and find that they were really Phoenicians.

 
(Evidence that the Greek writing is older than the Phoenicians)
 

Homer's (Iliad Z. 169-170)
«Γράψας έν πίνακι πτυκτό θυμοφθόρα πολλά» (Γράψας=he writes - write)

We read: [Pritos with aggravating thought to revenge Velerofontes betrayal to Pritos hospitability, as an adulterer,
he writes fearfully events, on double wooden plaques and he folded them, he send them with Velerofontes to Pritos father-in-law for Velerofontes bad doings, Pritos knew that Velerofontes could not read!!!. and would be punished from Pritos father-in-law.]

Homer's (Odyssey E. 299-333-335) «Τον δέ ίδεν Κάδμου θυγάτηρ, καλλίσφυρος Ινώ, λευκοθέη, ή πρίν μέν έην βροτός αυδήεσσα ν΄ν δ' αλός εν πελάγεσσι θεών εξέμμορε τμής» [Odysseus on his despair fighting the sea and almost drowned, Cadmus daughter Eno emerged from the sea, long before she was mortal with human voice, but now in the seas she is honored as a Goddess].

The myth of Europe and its variations:
 Starting off as a mortal woman in Greek Mythology, Europe became immortal after her name was given to the continent. One legend says that Europe had a dream one night in which two women – actually two continents –were arguing. One of them, Asia, believed that Europe belonged to Asia, since she was born there. The other one with no name -Europe - said Zeus would give the name to her.

 The myth of Europe and Zeus has some slightly different variations about the details of how they met and how the bull seduced her. What all of them have in common is that Zeus one day saw Europe among other young women and was so struck by her beauty and her charms that he, known as the God with many love affairs, decided to take her for himself. His plan was to turn himself into a white bull and swim to the shore of Asia where she lived.
 The bull was so pretty and gentle that all women at the shore fell for him. But he bent in front of Europe offering her his back to ride. She mounted on his back and the bull took her from Phoenicia, across the sea, to Crete, to Dikteon Andron, the cave where he was born. That is where he showed his real identity to Europe.

Plato and Socrates Commenting on the Greek Alphabet
 

Plato's Cratylus The etymologies (390e-427d)
Socrates' proposed answer fills the very extensive central section of the dialogue. In short (for to say it at length would exceed the capacity of this article), names are appropriate to their objects in so far as they describe what they are.
According to a long series of etymologies proposed by Socrates, the Greek vocabulary itself, when suitably decoded, is an elaborate set of descriptions of what each named item is.

To continue with the example already mentioned, the Greek word for ‘man’, anthrôpos, according to Socrates appears to break down into ana thrôn ha opôpe (αναθρών α όπωπε), ‘one who reflects on what he has seen’. That is, the species which uniquely possesses both eyesight and intelligence has been given a name which acknowledges precisely that distinguishing combination.

The argument with Socrates, and Cratylus that the correctness to a name is the meaning of the elements that creates the word, and to describe it as accurate as it can be, like a painting using the right colors and the right combination of elements to create a logical image that may emerge from that painting, using the proper symbols-letters or a combination of small sentences like music notes to create and build the word. (a word should be created from a combination of symbols of tools, sounds, visuals, human activities, and whether conditions)
On the other hand many words are not as correct as they should have been, for the reason that this words, from the creation where difficult to pronounce (tongue-twisters) as a result to add an extra vowel or consonant and other times to remove, this words are difficult to decipher correctly, the most accrued words are the very ancient prime words. Barbaric words are words that the symbol characters are irrelevant to the subject-name (at least the first two or three symbols in that word must describe the subject-name of that word)

To be more specific I will try to place this words in frames as I was mentioned earlier
that every word is describing a painting by using symbol tools

The cup as a symbol character Y is used in words of liquids 
and the lantern as a symbol character Φ on the right in words that emit light  

The Phoenician and the Latin Alphabets are irrelevant of any meaning (they adopted them from the Greek without knowing the meaning of them)      Phoenician alphabet

Greek philosophers consider any non Greek language as barbaric language.
1) Greeks who short lived in other barbaric countries brought many barbaric words,
2) The correctness of the names is to revive the substances of the objects,
3) Names are replica exactly as a painting,
*4) The creation of names given with an agreement,
5) For someone who understands the names he will understand the objects symbols that created the names-words. (Socrates & Cratelus)

*4) The word ΤΕΙΧΟΣ or any word for some one who don’t speak or understand Greek is meaningless, on the other hand if he understands how to decipher the Greek symbols will be puzzled, but finely he will end up with a result 
(Using the T=hemmer=(technique), = E=work, I=height, O=my home)
The above decoding it may prove or explain some understanding but doesn't establish or register the word to be placed in a dictionary.
Here comes the agreement to establish the word ΤΕΙΧΟΣ or any other word for every one to understand.

I will use another example on the word hubris=ύβρις=ΥΒΡΙΣ (abusive, hubristic, insulting) ΥΒΡΙΣ Υ=wet moist saliva spit, Β=violent abuse, Ρ=(r) run reel orator direction, Ι= wicked, Σ=continuously. As we can see with all that code breaking we have to come to an agreement and establish the word as ΥΒΡΙΣ=hubris (by not mixing the order of the symbols).
The agreement is based on the structure of the word by using the same order at all times the symbols, and not mixing them, to be more specific Y is first Β comes second R third etc, that order can never be changed or it will ruin the agreement of the word in the dictionary. (nevertheless mixing the symbols we probably will get more or less the same result of understanding without matching the word in the dictionary).

The Latins permanently coarsen them sounds within the same Latin: quatru - quadru.
Vitruvius (Vitrubius)
The sound of the voice is different depending on variety of breeds
In the South, through, nations have thin and shrill voice.
In Greece, which lies in the middle, producing tone of voice of each region.
Going north, the tone of voice made deeper, and shorter words, to short breath out to prevent reducing body warmth

Let us decipherment the Alphabet
 

H, Y, I, which phonetically have the same sound but as symbols, have very different meanings

THE BOOK THE MEANING OF THE GREEK SYMBOLS
HISTORY OF GENESIS OF THE ALPHABET Origins of the Alphabet

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Stratis Hatgivlastis © 2006  E-mail: shatgis@stipsi.gr