Benner's Reconstruction: Hebrew Alphabet

Fulgour

A website referenced by forum member Fudugazi
provides many insights into the Semetic alphabet,
and its evolution into the ancient Hebrew script...

Reconstruction of the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet
by Jeff A. Benner

Al / Aleph
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_01.html

Bet / Beyt
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_02.html

Gam / Gimel
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_03.html

Dal / Dalet
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_04.html

Hey
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_05.html

Waw / Vav
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_06.html

Zan / Zayin
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_07.html

Hhets / Hhet
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_08.html

Thet / Tet
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_09.html

Yad / Yud
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_10.html

Kaph
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_11.html

Lam / Lamed
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_12.html

Mah / Mem
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_13.html

Nun
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_14.html

Sin / Samech
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_15.html

Ayin
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_16.html

Pey
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_17.html

Tsad / Tsade
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_18.html

Quph
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_19.html

Resh
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_20.html

Shin
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_21.html

Taw / Tav
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_22.html

Ghah
http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/4_alphabet_23.html
 

Fulgour

further references

The Phoenician Sacred Letters:
Divine Writing for Meditation and Divination

by David Myriad Rosenbaum

Click On To View

*

Omniglot
Phoenician alphabet and language
Click On To View

*

Ancient Scripts: Phoenician
Click On To View
 

venicebard

Fulgour said:
A website referenced by forum member Fudugazi
provides many insights into the Semetic alphabet,
and its evolution into the ancient Hebrew script...

Reconstruction of the Ancient Hebrew Alphabet
by Jeff A. Benner
'Reconstruction' is the key word in that title (though I would dispute the 're-' part). Benner obviously not only considers the 'Sinai script' pictographic origin of Semitic letters needs no defense but is blissfully ignorant (as most evidently are) of the progress made in the 19th century showing proto-Canaanite's origin in Egyptian hieratic forms. The advantage of the 19th-century approach is that the shapes and sounds match, whereas many of the pictographs used by the proto-Sinaitic crowd had quite different sounds in Egyptian. (After a century of having discarded the hieratic-origin theory in favor of the proto-Sinaitic one, there is still, apparently, only one agreed-upon instance of anything written in that hypothesized 'missing link' script, making it purely speculative and completely ungrounded, unlike what it replaced.)

The most amusing thing about Benner's notions is what he says about the letter he invents, called Ghah. This hieroglyph in Egyptian represents a 'wick of twisted flax', according to Gardiner, and had an h sound probably not far from that of German ich: its hieratic form is almost undoubtedly the precursor of proto-Canaanite samekh, though the 19th-century scholars missed this (because of the subtle sound difference), for it consists of three horizontal lines (like samekh). Considering the infinitely more coherent explanation this provides to Benner's groping concerning this letter (which he cannot even pin down), it is a classic illustration of how once academics take a wrong turn it takes forever for them to back up and take the right one.

Very amusing.
 

Fulgour

venicebard said:
Very amusing.
Hello :) venicebard! Agreed, it does seem a bit naive.
But we can learn something from the overall research.
Benner obviously has an agenda (per rest of website)
but the work appears detailed, and it's fun to browse.
 

Moonbow

Now venicebard you've blown my interest in this site. I found what he has to say about Aleph and Bet facinating (haven't read the rest yet), and also very easy to understand... and there lies a way to understand the Hebrew word and possible work a few things out for myself. The more I try, the more I feel naive in trying to understand this subject. The site sounds interesting more than amusing to me. I also acknowledge the intelligence and learning of Fulgour and Fudugazi Sophie. I'm disappointed that people find this interesting site amusing surely Benner has something to offer, a different approach.. maybe?
 

Fulgour

Daleth-Door & Heh-Behold (the Key!)

Hi :) Moonbow* ~It's just only that Benner overdoes
some of the evolutionary connections he champions.

The Phonecian letter "Heh" is much more like an old
wooden key...topic of a fascinating thread once! ;)

Often Overdone,
~Fulgour
 

Fulgour

Tarot Too!

If you look at the Phoenican "Heh" and think: KEY
it's surprising how well it fits this interpretation...
 

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Dave's Angel

I'm a newcomer to the study of alphabets myself and I find this sort of website perplexing. Sadly, there are too many of them. Nothing is referenced, so there is no way of finding where he got his ideas from, and no way of stepping back and evaluating them for yourself. You have to just swallow it whole.

What I know about this area fits on a postage stamp - but I do have common sense and general knowledge. I have yet to see it anywhere that the numerals 2 and 3 are anything other than 2 or 3 strokes become joined up through being scribbled quickly. Not derivations of Beth and Gimel as Benner has it. I'm also dumbfounded to see Daleth being set up as the root of the number "4". As I understood it, the Sanskrit name for 4 was "chattwar" or similar, and the symbol derived from the "ch" letter. The symbol warped into our 4, and the Romans nicked the name too ("quattuor").

I'm fine about people coming up with different ideas and different approaches, but you don't take your own ideas on what may have been and call them historical research as Benner appears to be doing. The place for that is a forum, where it can all be bounced about without appearing to be set up as gospel. He's welcome to disagree with more general opinions too, but if he doesn't discuss them at any point, it leads me to think he hasn't considered them.

Sorry to sound like a character assassination - there is so much interesting stuff here, except as a newcomer feeling my way, I don't feel able to trust it.
 

Dave's Angel

Me again! On a more cheerful note, I've looked at the David Rosenbaum page and I'm much happier with that. He's been absolutely clear that what he's setting up is a way to use what little meaning we do have for the Phoenician letters in a modern way.

It's like a little brainstorm using similar imagery from Biblical stories, Egyptian myth and so forth, and similar to something I'm working on at the moment looking at the letters across several alphabets. Again it's not history, but it's not aiming to be, and it's very refreshing to read.

Thanks for both these links, by the way!
 

venicebard

Moonbow* said:
Now venicebard you've blown my interest in this site. ... I'm disappointed that people find this interesting site amusing surely Benner has something to offer, a different approach.. maybe?
'People' don't find this site amusing so much as I -- I thought alone -- have found it so. No, I did not mean at all to convey the impression his scheme is not essentially that of the consensus of scholars nowadays (save perhaps in individual instances, but I'm talking overall). This is the very thing that amuses me!
Fulgour said:
If you look at the Phoenican "Heh" and think: KEY
it's surprising how well it fits this interpretation...
Fulgour! Much as I hate to compliment you (since what I usually try to do is complement you), the first especially of the two images you present is amazing. I never thought of 'key'. But it is also, of course, a comb (one can see its connexion to wind or air therethrough, being the breath thereof).

Heh is indeed a key to the whole alef-bet scheme. It was added to Abram to make Abraham and thus stands for covenant, numbered 5 in Hebrew and Greek to signify one's hand given in agreement. From this it is but a single step to heh's being the hand of each given to the other in matrimony in the Name -- as opposed to the modern notion of the two heh's representing a rather redundant female principle to give both power-letters to the male principle, an obvious usurpation based on a sub-teaching to the original signification, wherein the hand given in agreement is passive or receptive to the power-letter of each half. The first heh is apparently the hand of the female given to the male half, Yah or yod-heh, the second the hand of the male given to the female half, vav-heh, vav in Phoenician being a breast pouring forth milk. For the Name invokes the divine creative power, which in man is procreative.