The birth of letter scripts
Vowel characters (and therefore complete letter
script) could not have developed in the first Semitic scripts, because Semitic
scripts did not need vowel characters due to linguistic reasons. Semitic
alphabets reported by different authors illustrate just an opposite process;
the number of characters in earlier sets was reduced and existing vowel
characters were left out.
The model for Semitic scripts seems to have been a
character set of 30-32 linear letters including vowel characters, which was in
use in the to the South of the Caucasus around 2000 BC.
This ancient source could have been a part of a
writing set of 60-70 syllabic characters which had started to grow out of
syllabification (or had used it always as a secondary method) into letter
script. Hurrian syllable script shows traces of this process, as do the
unsystematic syllable signs of Gubla (Protobyblos; Varga/1993/159-161) and
Old-Persian cuneiform script. Precisely this practice (letter script with mixed
characters) characterises Székely runic script, which contains letters,
syllable signs and hieroglyphs.
The character order and sound set of the presumed
ancient alphabet show a lot of similarity to Ugaritic cuneiform script which
was used in 14th c. BC to record Hurrian and Semitic texts.
The character order of the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet
is similar to that of the Latin and Székely alphabet, which shows a genetic
relationship. That is, Székely script is in close connection with the Hurrian
(?) predecessor of Semitic scripts, and we have no data to support the view
that Semitic and Turkish scripts had an intermediate part in this connection.
Gelb (1952/133) thinks that the character forms of
Ugaritic cuneiform script started to exist as the results of an independent,
individual creation. Like Assyrian and Sumerian cuneiform scripts, it seems to
have developed from widespread linear traditional forms. However, in our point
of view, it is not character form that is important, as it largely depends on
writing material. We are rather interested in the origins of complete letter
script and a character order similar to Székely.
Returning to the phenomenon of the decreasing number
of characters, note that around 1500 BC the Proto-Sinaitic script had 32
characters, while Southern-Aramean scripts just before the 12th c. BC had 29.
The character number of Protopalestinian reduced from 27 to 22 around 1250 BC
Aramean script used from the 7th c. had only 19 characters.
Such a reduction in the number of characters would be
unprecedented in the case of continuously used writing systems.
Naturally Semitic scripts cannot be regarded as one
continuously used writing system, but rather as a series of character
transmissions between different Semitic peoples. Transmissions always give the
possibility to develop, to leave out old or create new characters.
Therefore, the idea of Semitic scripts cannot be of
Egyptian origin, for the Semitic-like Egyptian consonant set contains only 24
characters. Besides, later Semitic languages and scripts did not provide a
reason for increasing this number first to 32, and then decrease it again to
19. This fluctuation in the number of characters suggests, that Semitic peoples
borrowed a non-Semitic letter script and left the unnecessary vowel characters
out.
The above data are not parallel with, but contrary to
the general development of writing. Data about the development of Semitic
script do not reflect the birth of an alphabet but rather its regression. It
was a process of decline for a Hurrian (?) letter script which used vowel
characters and letter script well before the first Semitic character set.
If we extrapolate from these character numbers and
consider the number of Székely characters (32 or more according to different
authors and alphabets), the birth of the Székely alphabet can be placed before
1500 BC.
Székely word characters and the syllabic script
presented clearly by Thelegdi can be traced back to much earlier times.
Gelb calls the early (Sumerian, Egyptian, and Chinese)
scripts word and syllabic systems, and as far as features and characters are
concerned, Székely script is their equivalent. Similarly to Egyptian, the
predecessor of Székely script also possessed a character set of approximately
32 letters, including vowel characters.
Thus, the idea and practice of developed letter script
arose in Hittite and Hurrian territories in the first half of the 2nd
millennium at the latest, and Székely
script must have been its first or one of its earliest realizations.
The Hurrian Mitanni Empire was broken up by Hittites
around 1400 BC, and the Hittite Empire suffered the same fate around 1200 BC
under the blows of the sea peoples. Their populations probably migrated north
and northeast, where their relatives lived. Hittite and Hurrian tribes founded
the Urartian tribal confederation on the Armenian Plateau. As early as 13th c.
BC. Assyrians conducted a campaign against them. From their confederation grew
the Urartian Empire of several nationalities around 10th c. BC
Urartian hieroglyphic script, which is very similar in
form to Székely, could have developed under the influence of an early and local
variant of Hittite hieroglyphic script in the 2nd millennium BC. Assyrian
cuneiform script spread in a wide area in the 10th c. BC, but not even that
could push Urartian out of use (Fig. 35). Urartian culture had a powerful
effect on Scythians and, through the Medes, on the Persians. The existence of
Old-Persian cuneiform script may be due to this effect. Old Persian is very
close to pure letter script, and some of its characteristics can be found in
Székely and Turkish writings, too.
According to Al Bíruni, in the 13th c. BC Siyanus[2]
arrived in Khwarism. His descendants reigned up to the 10th c. AD; they ruled
the earlier natives as well as the later inhabitants (Tolstov/1986/12).
János Harmatta says that according to the latest
archaeological finds, Eastern-European nomadic peoples knew two kinds of script
in the second half of the 2nd millennium BC. One was the above mentioned
Urartian hieroglyphic Aramean[3],
the other an Old-Aramean (more precisely Pre-Aramean-VG) letter writing
(Harmatta/1996/396).
[1] On the other hand, Hittite hieroglyph
syllable writing possessed vowel characters "a", "e",
"i", "u".
[2] Siyanus's name means "Szent
javas" - Holy Medicine Man (cf. Obi-Ugrian sanki "great god"; its root can be found in the Magyar
word szõke (blond).
[3] Very little is known about Urartian
hieroglyph writing. Some of its characters presented by Barnett (1974) are
linear (many are similar to Székely characters, Fig. 35.), the others are
pictorial (like Székely pottery motives). If Urartian had had a runic tally
variant (which is very likely) it must have been very similar to Székely
writing. However, this only proves the relation between character systems and
mythologies, but it is not enough to identify the source of Székely writing.
Since the equivalent of character "us" is missing from Urartian, it
can also be an extinct collateral line of the predecessor of Székely writing.
Fig. 23 Both character "a" in classic Cypriot syllable writing and rune "ty" in Székely developed from the abbreviated Hurrian word for father (atta) and represent the Orion constellation.
(letter "a" of classic Cypriot syllable script, superimposed on the Orion constellation; Székely "aty" rune (atya = father) superimposed on Orion; the Orion constellation is identified as Nimrod, our forefather)
Fig. 24 Greek and Székely vowel characters adapted from Aczél. Greek "v" and Székely "u" and "v" have evidently the same root, but the latter represent the older form, the form of the ox-hide shaped semi-finished metal ingots (like the corresponding Urartian hieroglyph in Fig. 35); the Chinese character for bronze cauldron fits in that steppe character tradition (Fig. 2)
Contents
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History of the scientific views on the origins of Székely runic script | 10. |
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