I was just thinking about Etruscan writing. Okay, you'll just have to go with me on this one. Etruscan was not closely related to any surviving European languages, falling outside the Indo-European family. But the alphabet was similar to the Romans', which we use in modified form today. Similar, but they wrote from right to left, as in the Hebrew language.
Left to right seems more intuitive for right handed people, as most people are. So I wonder whether there are any larger cultural differences between those whose language is written one way or the other.
2 comments:
I just looked at a stele with Etruscan writing and can see how similar are many of the letters to those with which we're familiar. You're right that writing from left to right is far more intuitive since most of us are right handed, but I can't imagine having the first part of a clue of just how different the Etruscans might have been from Greek (as in it's all ---- to me). There certainly are some huge cultural differences between all the ancient societies and the one we inhabit.
I'm pretty sure I sent you Irving Finkel's lecture about the building of Noah's ark but maybe not. His talk about cuneiform and Sumerian is a treat you may well enjoy.
I read once that kids with dyslexia were encouraged to learn Arabic and Hebrew to try and circumvent the dyslexia wiring in the brain. I am left handed, and I often confuse left and right when directing others because I am so left dominant. I also have trouble reading maps, so maybe I just have spatial reasoning issues altogether.
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