On Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:25:52 -0700, "Circe" wrote:

If the writer had simply accurately stated that Semitic languages didn't
have *written* vowels and that the Greeks put vowels into the *written*
language, you might not have been led so far astray. All the Greeks invented
was a method of representing a vowel sound with a written symbol.

That's what putting vowels in a language is.

Vowel *sounds*, OTOH, had no need to be invented, since any month-old infant is
quite capable of producing them!

Of course there was every need for vowels. It gave the Greeks an
advantage because they were able to create new words easier. In order
to communicate you have to be able to write words down. Not just make
sounds like savages sending drum messages through the jungle.

Bwana, the natives are restless tonight. :-)

Holger

http://www.mindspring.com/~holger1/holger1.htm