A man of many letters decodes our alphabet
If we want to know the origin of any of the letters in the alphabet, we have an expert in our midst.
Brian Colless, 80, is an authority on the origins and evolution of the alphabet, a subject that’s engaged him all his life.
Colless came to Palmerston North from Australia in 1970 and has never left. With an MA and PHD in Middle Eastern Studies from Melbourne University, he became the founding lecturer in religious studies at Massey University.
His abiding interest has been the origins of just about everything, including the universe.
‘‘I love getting in touch with ancient people, hearing them speak through the writings they have bequeathed to us,’’ Colless says.
When Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was shown here, Colless understood the Aramaic language in the soundtrack.
He was originally a teacher of French, German, and Latin, but he reads dozens of other languages and dabbles in many more. The languages and writing systems of the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Greek, Roman, and Persian empires play an important part in his research into how the alphabet developed.
At the outset, about 2300 BC, English had dozens of characters, and each represented a syllable, such as ba, di, hu, but it was subsequently reduced in size, by having only one letter for each consonant, without any vowels.
‘‘This compact alphabet emerged around 1900 BC, probably in Egypt, where many Canaanites settled. Over the centuries, the images became simplified and stylised to resemble the letters we recognise.’’
Having only consonants made reading difficult, but things improved when the Greeks added the vowel signs. The letter A began as an ox’s head with horns, while the letter E started as a person celebrating.
Colless sees the alphabet as fundamental in recording the spoken word easily. ‘‘Ordinary people could write their thoughts, speeches and achievements for other people to read.’’
For example, scholars are speculating on the meaning of a faded Hebrew inscription on a piece of broken pottery found in a fort near where David slayed Goliath.
But Colless thinks he’s cracked it. It’s an independent account of the battle, which was resolved when a stone from David’s sling struck the giant Philistine warrior on the forehead and killed him.
Colless regrets there’s so little evidence about the origins of the alphabet. Early documents were written on perishable material such as parchment and papyrus, and most of them have been destroyed.
However, he doesn’t intend to give up. As an associate of Massey University and a member of the University of the Third Age he’ll continue to study and write, in his home on the hill.
Now he’s retired as a senior lecturer in Religious Studies and a widower, he can devote his time to family, research, and ‘‘advocating tolerance to all the faiths of the world’’.
At present, through his work, he’s showing that the Phoenicians crossed the Atlantic 3000 years before Columbus and taught the people of Central America how to write and build pyramids.
It keeps him young.