this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2024
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Evidence of oldest known alphabetic writing unearthed in ancient Syrian city (hub.jhu.edu)
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Archive link: https://archive.ph/cIz4A

It's dated to be from around 2400 BCE. The article doesn't clarify if it's a true alphabet or an abjad, but either way it's interesting.

EDIT: see also https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/worlds-oldest-alphabet-discovered/ for a less pop-linguistics narrative of the same discovery.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No sane Middle Eastern language would use a true alphabet, so probably an abjad.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 6 days ago

That's more like a common pattern than a sure way to know it.