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08392_Field_TCGG T157.txt
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1996-04-10
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of printing and the typewriter, and the extensive use of
shorthand-writing, is the best evidence for its suitability
to serve the needs of the whole modern world. It is this
simplicity, adaptability and suitability which have secured
the triumph of the alphabet over the other systems of
writing.
Alphabetic writing and its origin constitute a story
in themselves; they offer a new field for research which
American scholars are beginning to call “alphabetology.”
No other system of writing has had so extensive, so
intricate and so interesting a history.
Diringer’s observation that the alphabet is “now
universally employed by civilized peoples” is a bit tautological
since it is by alphabet alone that men have detribalized or
individualized themselves into “civilization.” Cultures can rise far