Abstract
It is the aim of the following remarks to clarify at least some of the theoretical concepts and criteria that have been proposed by W.C. Watt in some of his recent articles. It is to be hoped that our discussion could perhaps result in paving the way towards an overall framework for a historico-genetic theory of the lettershapes of our alphabet. To my knowledge no such framework with a reasonable degree of explanatory power has yet been sent forth from the quarters of palaeographers and epigraphers. These scholars have restricted their endeavors mostly to taxonomic and descriptive statements on a wide variety of morphological variants of lettershapes and their chronological succession. I do not, however, intend to minimize the results hitherto obtained by representatives of these venerable, time-honored disciplines. To the contrary: in the second part of a work in progress (Brekle, in preparation) I will have to rely heavily on a great number of epigraphical and palaeographical works whose high descriptive quality commands my full respect (e.g. Mallon 1952, Jeffery 1961, Tjäder 1974, McCarter 1975).
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Brekle, H.E. (1994). Some Thoughts on a Historico-Genetic Theory of the Lettershapes of our Alphabet. In: Watt, W.C. (eds) Writing Systems and Cognition. Neuropsychology and Cognition, vol 6. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8285-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8285-8_8
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