The hypothesis about the presence of a common ancestor of the Cyrillic, Greek, Phoenician and Brahmi alphabets.
And also the hypothesis about the existence of a single law of construction of the letters of this "pre-alphabet".
Introduction
Below, two theories will be offered to your attention:
- On the origin of both the Cyrillic, Brahmi, Greek, and Phoenician alphabets from one common ancestor,
- And about the existence of a certain general law of the construction of the letters of this pre-alphabet.
I would like to especially emphasize that I do not insist at all that the letters of the hypothetical original writing looked exactly the way they turned out as a result of my reconstruction.
Because not a single written source has survived relating to the time of the division of the Aryan people into eastern and western branches. However, the presence of a large number of similar letters in the ancient Indian writing of Brahmi, the Slavic Cyrillic and the ancient Greek alphabet, allows us to assert that a certain alphabet - an ancestor with them still existed, and, therefore, was in use by the Aryans in about the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. e.
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The hypothesis about the presence of a common ancestor in the Cyrillic, Brahmi, Ancient Greek and Phoenician alphabets
It is well known that all of the above scripts, together with the Latin alphabet, have much in common in the writing of their letters and together make up, as it were, one family of alphabets.
The similarities and differences can be seen in Table. 1, where, for contrast, a completely different glagolitic alphabet is given.
Note the following phenomenon that is important for our further consideration. In the Cyrillic, Greek and Phoenician alphabets (as well as in early Latin), the same letters could be very different for different authors: tilt to the left or right up to 90o (Latin "R" and Greek "G"), lengthen or shorten the sticks, be mirrored (in, k, z), completely overturn (a rare variant of Old Russian Sh, Latin "L") and undergo other transformations (see Table 1 and Table 2).
Taking into account the above-described phenomenon of the variability of letters, the ancient Indian letter Brahmi, which was in use by the Aryans until the second half of the II millennium BC, can also be included in the group of Cyrillic-Greek-Phoenician alphabets. e.
Note: The dot under the letter means its palatal pronunciation, and not the dental pronunciation familiar to the Russian language.
Of course, Brahmi differs markedly from the scripts of the Greek group (19 similar letters and 17 dissimilar). However, even in the Cyrillic, Phoenician and Ancient Greek letters, it is possible to make such selections that it will give the impression that we are dealing with very dissimilar scripts.
From the similarity of a fairly significant number of letters, we can conclude that the Cyrillic, Latin, Phoenician, Ancient Greek alphabets and Brahmi most likely had a certain common ancestor - the "proto-Cyrillic", created by the Aryans before the division of this people into eastern and western branches, that is, at the end of III millennium BC e.
It is possible to draw the following conclusion that the north - northeast of Europe was during this period a developed center of culture, about which we know little. After all, a high level of education of people is found only in strong states with a developed economy (no matter what it is based on) and culture.
II. Hypothesis about the principle of formation of letters of the "proto-Cyrillic"
It is known that, before their division into western and eastern branches, the Aryans lived, among other things, in the territory of central and eastern Europe, where birch bark was the most convenient (and most widespread) writing material.
They wrote on it with charcoal. And it was almost the perfect way to preserve information. Other materials could not compete with birch bark either because of their high cost (parchment), or because of the inconvenience of applying letters (wood and stone).
The properties of birch bark are such that, due to the unevenness of the surface, only sticks and circles can be drawn well, but not more complex shapes. Consequently, the supposed "proto-writing" should be limited by this set of pictorial means.
Main idea:
Suppose that each letter of the prototype is a schematic representation of a human mouth when viewed from the side.
- In this case, the top and bottom of the mouth could be represented by horizontal lines "-", and the vertical stick "|" meant some kind of stammering, an obstacle, with an effort overcome for the pronunciation of a sound. It could be closed lips, teeth, constriction in the throat, an upright tongue.
- The oblique line "/" could mean that something touches something (by the way, the words "oblique" and "touch" in Russian are the same root).
- It is quite logical to assume that roundness meant the adoption by the speech organs of just this form.
- The colon, inscribed above the letter, could symbolize two nasal passages open at the time of pronunciation of the sound.
- And in the end, let's say that all unnecessary details that are not essential for sound extraction were not written. I will note that different people could consider different sets of speech organs to be insignificant.
Based on this set of assumptions, I have constructed the one shown in Table. 5 hypothetical pre-alphabet.
Many of its letters bear great resemblance to the real-life letters of the ancient alphabets, up to 90 ° tilts and turns. Others have not been found anywhere, however, they are given to illustrate the possibility of free construction according to the above rules of symbols for almost any sound.
When writing them, the image of the mouth making sound from left to right is accepted everywhere (except for the letters "O" and "Ö" drawn in front).
I would like to once again draw your attention to the fact that at least 2 millennia have passed since the creation of the pre-alphabet and up to the first Phoenician and Greek inscriptions that have come down to us. During this time, any writing can change very significantly. And the old documents, for such a period, naturally, are lost, decayed, rewritten, etc … Moreover, birch bark does not last long in our humid climate. These are not the sands of Egypt or the Middle East. Perhaps that is why archaeologists have not yet found samples of the alphabet that exactly corresponds to the reconstruction offered to your attention.
The "starting" letter "A" (starting a word, not standing in the middle) may have a cap on top, showing once again that the sound begins with an interruption by the throat. This type of "A" is often found in ancient Russian sources [8].
A straight "L" with a lid and an inclined "L" with a lid are very characteristic of the early Greek inscriptions of the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. and for the Cyrillic alphabet of the XI-XIII centuries [5], [11], [13].
A similar spelling of the letter "R" on the side is sometimes found in early medieval Latin. The "French" variant is quite similar to the Latin uppercase variant of this letter.
The "English" spelling "R" almost exactly corresponds to the above is found, for example, in the "inscription of Samuel" 993. [6].
The letter "Ш" with a high central stick is often found in Old Russian texts of the 11th-12th centuries (see [6] pp. 138, 168, 176.) "Ш" with a lowered central stick crossing the base is often depicted in Old Bulgarian texts of the same period.
In the end, I will note that I decided to limit myself to about 80 letters in my reconstruction, so as not to overload the article. I chose them on the basis of the presence of similar letters in alphabets - "descendants", or analogies in sound. In total, the proposed method can be used to construct about 250 designations for various speech sounds.
Conclusion
1. Herodotus wrote that ancient Russia was a country of complete literacy, and this was a unique phenomenon in the ancient world. Before the adoption of Christianity, the Slavs already had a highly developed art of publishing, and writing was widely used in everyday life [5, p. 104]. This is confirmed by the fact that for all Slavic peoples the words "book", "read", "write" and "letter" are common [5, p. 102].
The above hypothesis of the origin of the letters "praalphabet" explains this phenomenon well.
The fact is that the hypothetical Proto-Slavic alphabet is learned extremely quickly, within several tens of minutes. If necessary, you can restore (or invent) any letter yourself.
It is quite easy to read in the "pre-alphabet", it is enough to know the general principle of the construction of letters.
These statements can be verified very easily. Try to look through the hypothetical proto-Cyrillic alphabet again, and then, from memory, write a phrase. For comparison, do the same experiment with any alphabet you don't know, such as Sanskrit, Tibetan script, or verb. Or do it differently. Read the above passage from the Yoga Sutra or A. Pushkin's quatrains, and then any texts written in an alphabet unknown to you. And compare how easy it was for you.
2. From the above, it follows that the Aryan civilization 4000 years ago was already at a fairly high cultural and social level. These were not wild crowds who had just mastered primitive cattle breeding, as the history books tell us (meaning those Aryans who went to India). Nomad herders do not particularly need literacy for their daily activities. Writing arises in developed social relations in large, culturally rather developed states. Moreover, the sedentary type.
3. In ancient times, both Russian and other languages, very likely, sounded completely different from what is now commonly believed. The choice of the set of sounds used in the language determined the spelling of certain letters. For example, in Russian there was no sound "Z". We pronounced "R" almost like the English !!! Both the voiced and voiceless "th" were in use, and the Greek "п-th". What we now read as the "U" sound was the letter "B". And so on … And in general, the modern sound of the Russian language is much more reminiscent of the sound of the ancient Greek than the old Russian. Apparently this happened due to the strong influence of the first Orthodox priests - the Greeks who came to Russia.
4. In the end, I would like to note that the "praalphabet" extraordinarily accurately conveys the sound of oral speech. Better than all existing alphabets. The very idea of its construction is more perfect.
Please send comments on this article to me at [email protected]
List of used literature
- Anonymous Legends about the beginning of Slavic writing. Academy of Sciences of the USSR Institute of Slavic Studies and Balkan Studies. -M.: Science 1981
- Velchev V. Konstantin-Kiril and Metodiy in the staroblgarskata book. Pirvo Bulgarian kingdom. Sofia "Kazanlshka Valley" 1939
- Georgiev E. Slavic writing before Cyril and Methodius. Sofia 1952
- Grinevich V. S. Pras-Slavic writing. Decryption results. -M.: Public benefit 1993
- Istrin V. A. 1100 years of the Slavic alphabet - Moscow: Nauka 1988
- Lavrov PS Paleographic review of Cyril's writing / in collection. Encyclopedia of Slavs. Philology edition of the Department of Russian. lang. and imperial literature. Academy of Sciences, ed. Acad. Yagicha I. V. 4/1 SPb 1914
- Likhachev D. S. The emergence of Russian literature - M.-L.: 1952
- Samples of ancient Russian writing of the XI-XVII centuries. / comp. Selimov A. M. -M.: Mosk. un-t history of philosophy and literature. Filol. fac. 1939
- Pronshtein A. P. Ovchinnikova V. S. Development of Cyrillic writing graphics. Publishing house Rostovsk. University 1987
- Sobinnikova V. I. Chizhik-Poleiko A. I. From the history of writing and the literary language of the Slavs. Voronezhsk publishing house. university 1975
- Uspensky L. V. According to the law of the letter -M.: Molodaya gvardiya 1979
- Ukhanova E. V. At the origins of the Slavic writing -M.: Muravei 1998
- Cherepnin L. V. Russian paleography -M.: Gospolitizdat 1956
- Shcherba L. V. The theory of Russian writing -L.: Science 1983
D. A. KAMENEV