Preface 7

1 When did the alphabet become the 'Greek alphabet'? - 15
2 A Gift from God—The Original Writings, Moses, and the Sinai Tablets 49
3 Medieval Lions—Magic Alphabet, Mythological Characters, and Exotic Alphabet 75
4 Language Confusion and Character Encyclopedia 111
5. Explanation of Unique Objects: The Origin and Development of Writing 149
Harmony of the 6 Tables and the Alphabet 185
7 Modern Archaeology—Reflecting the Alphabetical Evidence 223
8 Interpreting the Early Alphabet—Epigraphy and Paleolithics 267
9 Alphabetic Effects and the Politics of Letters 315

The Power of the Alphabet and Global Hegemony 347
Week 361
Reference 389
Translator's Note 401
Search 407

The history of 4000 years of writing
― When and where did letters appear?

"The Invention of the Alphabet" provides the first intellectual and cultural account of the "origin and development of the alphabet over 4,000 years."
This book covers 2,500 years of history, starting with Herodotus (around 440 BC), who first historically mentioned the alphabet, and explains the circumstances in Chapter 1, "When Did the Alphabet Become 'Greek Letters'?"
The author points out that from the Linear A of the Minoan civilization in the early 2nd millennium BC, which is the earliest form of writing, and the Linear B derived from it around 1600 BC (Chapter 1, pp. 18-19), to the Linear Phoenician script, a relatively standardized alphabetic script in the late 2nd millennium BC, when the alphabet essentially influenced knowledge production as a whole, it functioned as part of the culture of coastal cities such as Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon (Chapter 7, “Modern Archaeology,” pp. 223-224), in other words, this book covers the global history of writing that spans 4,000 years.


While the history of the alphabet has been studied quite accurately, little is known about the historiography of the alphabet.
Among the 4,000 years of history of writing, the author fundamentally deals with the 'history of the alphabet.'
It has the character of a literature study that traces the 'lineage of transmission', 'writing', and 'the citation that established the 'concept' of the alphabet.
This is also a very important and fascinating case study in relation to the history of Western thought.
Because it provides insight into how the physical properties of knowledge production and dissemination give rise to intellectual concepts.


The Cultural History of the Alphabet, the Politics of Alphabetic Literacy
How the Alphabet Spread Around the World
― How did it come to support global communication?

The author approaches archaeological research to establish a genealogy of objects in relation to their historical past.
Because “the nature of the evidence shapes historical claims.”
It combines knowledge of the 'cultural history of the alphabet' in that it explains in detail how the alphabet was formed and developed in the culture of each era, from the early writing systems of ancient times (Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations, the ancient city of Thebes, classical Greece, etc.) to the alphabet we use today.
The author expands the discussion to explore the ‘politics of alphabetic literacy’ in that the invention of the alphabet goes beyond the influence on mankind’s ‘way of thinking’ and ‘way of communication’ to the neurological and physiological effects of the alphabet (“Gene-Culture Coevolution Theory”, Robert Logan, Derek de Kerkhove, Ivan Illich’s study, pp. 334-335) and even reaches the point of defining other cultures by ‘gendering’ them (Leonard Silane’s Analysis of the Alphabet of Ancient Cultures, pp. 342-343).


“In today’s academic world, where decolonization of knowledge is a familiar topic of academic conversation, it is no longer acceptable to think of the alphabet as a neutral technology.
Clearly, the alphabet itself is a complex cultural system, and its dynamics are partly instrumental, partly accidental, and sometimes intentional, producing positive or negative effects.
Standards laws become part of an asymmetrical political structure in which those who set standards have more power than those who follow them.
Literacy, in whatever form it takes, both grants and deprives rights.
… … The role and historical position of the alphabet in producing and disseminating knowledge and imagination cannot be erased without damaging a significant part of our humanity.” (Page 348, note “The Power of the Alphabet and Global Hegemony”)

A fascinating intellectual journey exploring the greatest wonders of human invention.
― From Plato's imagination, Kabbalah, occult knowledge systems, and mystical writings to modern research methods

The author cites and studies numerous historical sources to establish the following fact: “All alphabetic characters originated from the same proto-Semitic script, which spread across Europe, Arabia, Africa, and Southeast Asia, and as a result, visually diversified into Greek, Cyrillic, Tamil, Burmese, Balinese, Roman, and Thai scripts,” and points out the beliefs that have corresponded to each period and intellectual framework.
We also do not overlook the fact that the process by which misunderstandings are formed is part of the long history of knowledge production and dissemination.


In early accounts of the history of the alphabet, the alphabet was considered a 'birth' or a 'gift from God', and for as long as 2,000 years, the alphabet was associated with cosmology and given a semi-divine status in spiritual or religious belief systems.
The origins of the alphabet are a fascinating mixture of myth and partial fact, as evidenced by the extensive literature, including attributions of the alphabet to “the finger of God, to the writing of the stars, to the wandering Jews of the Sinai Peninsula, to the Egyptian god Thoth (Theut), and to the Phoenicians.”


As in the previous examples, the historical knowledge that elucidated the origins of the alphabet was formed based on evidence known at the time and beliefs combined with that evidence, and this became an intellectual heritage that contributed to the establishment of the current orthodoxy.
Plato argued that writing was invented in Egypt, attributing its origin to the work of the Egyptian god Thoth, and introduced a more multifaceted concept of language development (p. 26).
Although not as Plato imagined, Egypt's contribution cannot be denied as having influenced the current orthodoxy.


The desire to imbue the letters of the alphabet with divine powers is central to Kabbalistic thought (Baron van Helmont's Studies, p. 59).
The author notes that these belief systems sought to recognize and explore the "profound power of the alphabet as a driving force."
This was a characteristic shared by other mystical traditions of the Hellenistic world, such as Gnosticism and Pythagorean symbolism, which linked Greek concepts of letters to complex cosmic order. (p. 76, Chapter 3, “The Life of the Lion in the Middle Ages”)

Alphabet also played an important role in occult knowledge systems (cryptography, magical writing, the symbolic system derived from ancient Hermeticism, a field that Trithemius was fascinated by) and mystical writings (Hebrew script with celestial developments, and river crossing writing). However, the author notes that the practice of mixing mythological and existential writings, as seen in the works of William Hurey and Athanasius Kircher, disappeared with the introduction of new contextual visual information (tables) presented in their publications. (p. 200, Chapter 6, “The Harmony of Table Rhetoric and the Alphabet”)

With the introduction of these visual information, the 'celestial characters' and 'magic alphabets' outside of occult and esoteric literature disappeared, and the differences in research methods between the 16th and 17th centuries (incomplete character table form) and the 18th century (a time when the table form of a rational comparative research method, a time when linguistic research became more sophisticated) are pointed out.
The author argues that epigraphic methods were in place at this juncture (p. 269, Chapter 8, "Interpreting the Early Alphabet").

It is revealed that the rich material value of Greco-Latin inscriptions, which were the result of the “curiosity of intrepid travelers who traveled to foreign lands to read and decipher the inscriptions on ancient artifacts such as ruins, rocks, and monuments,” was not systematized as a “study of form and type” until the 17th century.
Epigraphy is a field that emerged in earnest in the 18th and 19th centuries thanks to archaeological discoveries, and was praised by Frank Moore Cross in the 20th century for its fundamental importance of having an “eye for form.”


The study of texts requires knowledge of history, biblical archaeology, and linguistics, but it is only possible if epigraphy (or paleography) forms the foundation.
This suggests that regional research based on a “systematized character type classification” is possible and that history can be concretized.
This was related to nationalism.
The idea that each people had unique roots, and that they invented their own unique writing system or language to match their cultural identity, was an academic fad in the 18th century.
LD
Nelm's 『An Attempt to Study the Origin and Elements of Language and Writing』 is a representative work that supports this.
(Pages 180-181, Chapter 5, “Commentary on Antiquities”)

Alphabet's Power, Global Hegemony
From modern empirical scientific research methods to modern understanding

In summary, this book details, along with fascinating historical facts, the lesser-known scholars who contributed to our "modern understanding" of the history of the alphabet.
Among the researchers mentioned by the author, the main figures are as follows:


Hrabanus Maurus (defending the Ister alphabet), Johannes Trithemius (publishing the first major compendium of printed texts, Polygraphia), Teseo Ambrogio (author of appendices to the various languages ​​in the Compendium of the Chaldean Language), Angelo Rocca (form-oriented arrangement of letters using specimen tables and graphic legends), Thomas Astle (dismissing the creation myths of letters, emphasizing the interconnectedness of Phoenician, Hebrew, and Samaritan scripts in The Origin and Development of Writing), Edmund Fry (publishing Universal Writing, a comprehensive and eclectic collection of letters), Charles Foster (comprising a comprehensive tabular compendium of biblical and rational perspectives on the origin of the alphabet), Isaac Taylor (presenting evidence showing the origin and development of the alphabet), Frank Moore Cross (analyzing the development of the alphabetic scripts that contributed to the formation of the alphabet), Joseph Nabe (compares Greek inscriptions with the various stages of alphabetic development), René Derolles (the study of the runic alphabet). Genealogy, a specialty of scholarly tradition), Benjamin Seth (an epigraphist who created tables with aesthetic properties linked to the empirical approach in The Birth and Development of the Alphabet), and Villemain Waal (who synthesized archaeological, epigraphic, and linguistic evidence to date the spread of writing).

Johana Drucker begins with a key passage in Book V of Herodotus's Histories ("Are writing a gift from Cadmus and the Phoenicians?") and traces the Old Testament's record ("Are writing a gift from God to Moses?") to trace the major debates leading up to the modern era, when empirical science became the standard research method, and arrives at a contemporary concept.


It emphasizes that the codes handed down since ancient times are integrated into the global system of computer media and digital communication networks, and that they are closely related to alphanumeric notation at the level just above binary codes made up of mechanical digits and bits.
This persistent system of alphabetic symbols “exerts its power in the global network of the contemporary world, even in non-alphabetic languages.”


The alphabet is analyzed as a method of organizing information and knowledge according to today's standards, and the identity of the alphabet's letters is characterized by 'endurance' and 'versatility'.
In a communications environment interconnected by a global network, the alphabet, by virtue of its reliance on standards, becomes an essential element of a vast hegemonic system that injects Western bias into various levels of infrastructure.
That is, this instrumental dynamic clearly reveals the politics of alphabetic literacy in contemporary life.

To discuss this active motivation, the author cites a unique perspective based on the animist theory of Luther Marsh.
In his closing remarks, in which he declared that he did not believe evolution would end with humans, he praised the endless possibilities of letter combinations, saying, “What was our XYZ in the long alphabet of life has now become our ABC,” and was optimistic that “there is no combination that cannot be readily taken, no action that cannot be performed.”
Regarding this, Jo Hae-na Drucker states that it is an original and unique insight, but it hits the nail on the head.


This is a poignant portrayal of the dynamics of modern writing.
With the advent of computers, a new frame of reference emerged for understanding the fundamental definition of the alphabet, a set of symbols that now form the basis of digital systems that enable the exchange of encoded information.
The author's discussion outlines aspects of the visual identity of characters, their nature as open sets (as reflected in the work of Douglas Hofstadter), and the identity of Unicode (as a digital character code), and addresses aspects of the shifting paradigm of human knowledge.
He emphasizes that “we are still inventing the alphabet.”


This is precisely why this book has monumental value.
The author's research, which seeks to elucidate the history of the alphabet, reminds us of the significance of how the alphabet was 'invented' anew over time, and integrates research on 'Western history of thought,' 'intellectual history,' 'cultural history,' 'politics of literacy,' and 'digital humanities.'


Translator's Note (excerpts)

― Choi Seong-min (Professor of Visual Design, Seoul Metropolitan University), Choi Seul-gi (Professor of Visual Design, Kyewon University of Art and Design)

… … Published 27 years after the publication of 『The Labyrinth of the Alphabet』, 『The Invention of the Alphabet』 shares the commonality of dealing with the history of the alphabet, but its scope and approach are quite different.
While the former focuses on the imagination and curiosity stimulated by the alphabet, the latter deals more broadly with the history of writing, exploring the origins and development of the alphabet.
Or, in the author's words, "The Alphabet Labyrinth describes what was known or assumed about letters in graphic form over time.
But The Invention of the Alphabet describes how we came to know what we know about this history.” (p. 11) And in this “how,” it analyzes the influence of visual media such as alphabet catalogs, writing practices, and diagrams on our knowledge before empirical science became dominant—and even after the scientific age.
Every attempt to discover the origin and history of the alphabet ends up 'inventing' a new alphabet.
Our knowledge somewhat defines the object of knowledge, and this also applies to writing, the fundamental means of knowledge.

This book provides a breathless overview of the broad academic world of author Haena Jo Drucker, who created the book, and briefly outlines the context surrounding "The Invention of the Alphabet."
This is the author's second book, following the artist book 『Diagrammatic Writing』(2019), translated by one of the translators (Choi Seul-gi), and the first to be introduced as a full-fledged academic book.
Translating the author's writing, which considered not only the content of the text but also its format and letter form, was no easy task. However, in the end, we gave up on guessing at hidden intentions that we might never fully discover, or contacting the author to confirm each and every detail, and opted to interpret the given text as an objective object.
In any case, since the physical properties of a text also imply a certain degree of autonomy of the text, I believe the author will not find this choice absurd.

There is one aspect that is clearly missing or distorted in the Korean version.
Because it is conveyed through Hangul rather than alphabetic characters, this book does not reproduce the original book's unique condition of presenting stories about the alphabet in alphabetic form, which is its self-reflective dimension.
Instead, there are characters on this page that are alphabetic in that they are phonetic, but are also not 'alphabet' in that they do not share a lineage with other alphabets; characters that were invented historically and have been reinvented conceptually and metaphorically many times.
I hope that this unique character will add a new sensory quality to the text and supplement its symbolic dimension.