D. Starner wrote:
Scholars of Semitic languages do *not* have a monopoly on the heritage
of ancient writing systems. There are other people in the world besides
them (a few),
"The heritage of ancient writing systems." All of a sudden these letters
are incredibly important (despite the fact you could take every class
some major universities offer and not hear word one about them), and suddenly
all these people who don't know anything about Phoenician have a huge vested
interest in the matter.
Let's be honest; the only people who matter in the least when discussing
a script is the people who actually use it. And all evidence presented here
indicates that scholars of Semitic languages--that is, the people who can
actually read the stuff written in the script--are, not surprisingly, the
majority users of Phoenician.
and some of them wish to use Phoenician letters distinctly
from Square Hebrew, and their desires and needs are *EVERY* *BIT* as
important as those of your precious Semiticists.
No, they aren't. The people who use the script are the most important
concerns.
But I *was* talking about people who use the script. People who want to
use it anyway. Just that they might not be Semitic scholars. My point
was that Semiticists are NOT the only users of the script.
~mark
