The Alphabet Effect: The Impact of the Phonetic Alphabet on the Development of Western Civilization

I'm no linguist and therefore cannot assess the scholarly authority of this book - I came upon it by good chance. What I can say as a layman is that this 272-page book puts forward a credible hypothesis. The book describes a bunch of stuff about the phonetic alphabet: its genesis and comparative impact on the development of Western Civilization. The author strongly believes that the phonetic alphabet is the "Mother of Invention". I have some qualms with that designation, but not strong enough to dismiss the hypothesis. My problem is that if the phonetic alphabet is the Mother of Invention, then why is its impact limited to Western Civilization? What appears reasonable to me is that the phonetic alphabet has been a good parent (mother or father) to the diffusion of inventions across time and space. In that capacity the phonetic alphabet facilitated scientific writing, which in turn enhanced the communication of scientific ideas. However, success did not depend on its mere existence, but more than anything on the fact that the phonetic alphabet was more cross-cultural than its predecessors and some contemporaries. For example, I like learning of the links between Canaanite and Egyptian writings the book makes. These links suggest that the efficiency of the phonetic alphabet benefited from the little resistance to adoption it faced. There was little resistance because different cultures recognized a bit of themselves in the phonetic alphabet as it evolved. This cross-fertilization explains why initial growth was fastest in the Middle Eastern region, including Ethiopia. The book walks the line between scholarship and political correctedness deftly. For example, it clearly sees the joint determination between language and economic progress as an aspect of civilization. However, it is important to note that while the codifying properties of phonetic alphabet made the production of information efficient, nowadays (in 2006), the display (consumption) of information more and more takes the form of icons. Still there is a lot to learn from this book. Growth and change economists (and here I do know a little about what I am talking about) often include a language dummy variable in their attempts to explain the economic performance of nations. A negative sign on the language variable would be interpreted as the presence of unproductive fractionalization - an inference that arches back to the biblical story of Babel. I am not so sure that language alone, whether based on thephonetic alphabet or not, can effectively prevent purposeful activities. According to the book Chinese writing was not conducive to scientific progress. If correct, then we should have a hard time explaining China's rapid progress today. Despite my quarrels, this ia a very good book. H. V. Amavilah, Author Modeling Income Determinants in Embedded Economies : Cross-section Applications to US Native American Economies ISBN: 1600210465

I enjoy history, but I don't often seek it out. My knowledge base of ancient history is really lacking, but this book piqued my interest to find out more. The basic idea of the book is that there is a connection between the use of the phonetic alphabet and the development of monotheism, codified law, and abstract science. I found the section on the inclusion of the zero in math to be particularly interesting. My only criticims are that he seems to make a soft case, that is he goes out of his way to point out that he's not making a causal connection, and the final chapter (on computers), at this point, is more than a little dated.

This is a great book which offers an interesting view on the role played by the type of language in shaping the kind of thinking an individual/culture carries out -- and determining, to some extent, what an individual/culture can accomplish.