Linguistics

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Evidence of oldest known alphabetic writing unearthed in ancient Syrian city (hub.jhu.edu)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by lvxferre@mander.xyz to c/linguistics@mander.xyz

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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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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Hopefully, I’ve now expressed my ideas clearly without bringing politics into it.

I think that you did. I wasn't the one removing your comment (I was discussing elsewhere, then sleeping), but I 100% agree with the removal; it's that sort of stuff prone to derail discussion to things outside linguistics.

That said I don't think that writing being so recent has much to do with our propensity to be misinformed. Without writing, perhaps we'd be misinformed through lore instead. Or even gossips. We're probably still being misinformed this way, even with writing.

[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Yeah, the rule is clear, and I understand the danger.

My thoughts about the newness are that perhaps we’re too trusting if it’s written it must be true. Like we do with TV and the internet. We all stronger critical thinking, and that takes practice.