Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet

Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet
1. Pictographic (form) -- The original letter is
pictographic, meaning it represents a picture of
something, such as the pictograph representing a
mouth.
2. Mnemonic (meaning) -- The mnemonic meaning of a
pictograph is the extended meanings related to the
pictograph 27 . For example, the pictograph , is a picture
of a mouth, and has the extended mnemonic meanings of
speak, blow and open. These mnemonic meanings most
often are related to the pictograph by their function rather
than appearance.
3. Syllabic (name) -- Each pictograph is associated with a
single syllable of two consonants. This syllable is also the
name of the pictograph. The name of the pictograph is
"peh" 28 and is also the Hebrew word for "mouth".
4. Phonetic (sound) -- The first letter of the syllabic
name provides a singular sound for the purpose of
forming words and sentences. The phonetic value of the
pictograph / peh is "p".
Reconstruction of the Alphabet
By applying the below methods, the original Hebrew
alphabet can be reconstructed with a fair amount of
accuracy. Over time the fields of archeology, and their
27 Giorgio Fano, The Origins and Nature of Language (Bloomington:
Indiana University Press, 1992) 20.
28 When translating the Hebrew into English, it is often necessary to
add vowels. These added vowels will be italicized.
27