cover-Alfa-Beta

Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo
ALFA BETA
Formazione e affermazione di un mezzo di comunicazione di successo

(Title’s translation: ALPHA BETA | Formation and Establishment of a Successful Mean of Communication)

978-88-31926-45-4 (paperback)
978-88-31926-46-1 (pdf)
978-88-31926-47-8 (enhanced)
DOI: 10.12878/1088pressbyte2024_1
Paperback: € 30,00
pp. 240
format: 15×21

THE BOOK

Alpha and beta, the names of the first two letters of the Greek script derived from the Eastern designations aleph and beth, are the origin of the name of the writing system that has become most widespread in the world: the alphabet. The system originated in the Near East in the first half of the 2nd millennium BCE to meet the needs of a local society, as a simplification of the writing systems of surrounding countries (cuneiform and hieroglyphic) and through specific inspiration from the Egyptian system. Due to its flexibility and reasons related to contacts with social groups lacking their own writing, the alphabet was rapidly adopted both in the East and in the West. This volume traces its history, with specific attention to its origin; it describes the stages of its spread over time and space, from the Levant to the Ancient Near East, to Arabia and India, from Greece to ancient Italy, from the Bronze Age to modernity, undergoing profound changes in the form of the signs, often with more subtle changes in conception.

THE AUTHOR

Maria Giulia Amadasi Guzzo is a Semitic Philology scholar and taught Semitic Epigraphy at the Sapienza University of Rome. She participated in numerous archaeological and epigraphic missions in Sardinia and Sicily, in Libya, Malta, and Syria, publishing monographs and articles on inscriptions, especially Phoenician and Punic, from these regions. She also dealt with the history of writing and the study of cults.

Copyright
1088press
Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna
Via Zamboni 33, 40126 Bologna (Italy)
978-88-31926-45-4 (paperback)
978-88-31926-46-1 (pdf)
978-88-31926-47-8 (enhanced)
DOI: 10.12878/1088pressbyte2024_1

Text, images and multimedia materials are under the License Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0  of the Authors and 1088press, if not credited otherwise.

First edition: february 2024