Books and Alphabets.

The article discusses the history of alphabetic writing and related discoveries in technological innovations such as paper, books, and parchment. The origins of the words Bible, babel, and the Greek word biblia from the Phoenician city of Byblos is explored. The use of alphabet characters to write Phoenician inscriptions on royal tombs uncovered at Byblos is considered. It also explores the fact that early Semitic languages lacked vowels as part of their alphabets, a situation that the author posits is because their languages were predominantly consonantal. Other written languages considered include those using pictographs, ideographs, and hieroglyphs.