Bemerkungen zum Ursprung einiger Merkmale der anatolischen Hieroglyphenschrift

Abstract

Summary The article critically reviews the hypotheses on the origin of the Hieroglyphic Luwian script and the stages of its development. Several specific features of the script are explained within their phonological, pragmatic and cultural contexts. It is suggested that the ambiguity of the Ca/i signs originated in the creation of new signs on the basis of words with a/i-stem alternations by way of the acrophonic principle. Another characteristic of the Empire and early Iron Age texts, the frequent omission of the endings of syllabically written verbal forms, was established in analogy to the logographic writings for verbs, which were probably common in economic texts. The influence of the sealings on Hittite rock inscriptions may be detected not only in the fact that many of them are written in relief (instead of being incised), but also in the remarkable spelling convention of the “initial-a-final”: The long vertical sign of initial a- can optionally shift to word-final position, because there is more space in the middle of the seal than on itsmargin.