Peter T. Daniels

Daniels, Peter T. 2023 When is non-writing writing? or, When is writing non-writing? Written Language & Literacy 26:2, pp. 188–237 | Article

It was easy to say that writing was invented out of nothing three times (that we can be sure of), in Sumer, China, and Mesoamerica. That syllables were important in those inventions emerged from attention to modern inventions of writing. But in recent years, specialists in Mesopotamian and… read more

Daniels, Peter T. 2021 Hebrew script for Jewish languages: A unique phenomenon Written Language & Literacy 24:1, pp. 149–165 | Article

That “script follows religion” is well known. Missionary activities by Christian, Manichaean and Islamic, and Buddhist and Hindu proselytizers brought literacy, in alphabetic, abjadic, and abugidic scripts respectively, to previously non-literate communities in Europe, Asia and Africa, and South… read more

Daniels, Peter T. 2015 George J. Metcalf, On Language Diversity and Relationship from Bibliander to Adelung. Ed. by Toon Van Hal & Raf Van Rooy (Amsterdam, 2013) Missionary Linguistics world-wide: Theory, practice and politics, pp. 423–427 | Review

Daniels, Peter T. 2012 The Native Syriac Linguistic Tradition: Resources Ancient and Modern Historiographia Linguistica 39:2/3, pp. 327–340 | Article

The native Syriac linguistic tradition comprises annotations to the biblical text (‘masorah’), lexica, and grammars created between the 6th and 13th centuries; 24 Syriac scholars are known by name. Syriac grammarians have been considered to be mere imitators, of both Greek and Arab grammarians,… read more

Daniels, Peter T. 2010 Chomsky 1951a and Chomsky 1951b Chomskyan (R)evolutions, Kibbee, Douglas A. (ed.), pp. 169–214 | Article

The December 1951 version of Morphophonemics of Modern Hebrew that has been available to scholars since its publication in 1979 is very different from the original M.A. thesis accepted six months earlier. To assess the importance of this work to the history of linguistics, a number of factors must… read more

Daniels, Peter T. 2009 Two notes on terminology Writing Systems and Linguistic Structure, Lee, Sang-Oak (ed.), pp. 277–281 | Article

Daniels, Peter T. 2006 On beyond alphabets Script Adjustment and Phonological Awareness, Neef, Martin and Guido Nottbusch (eds.), pp. 7–24 | Article

Scripts are often borrowed or adapted for writing new languages, and the borrowing language usually includes sounds not found in the source language. Mechanisms for accommodating new sounds or phonotactics have not been studied as a group before, and a wide variety of cases is considered here.… read more

Daniels, Peter T. 1999 Some Semitic Phonological Considerations on the Sibilants of the Greek Alphabet Written Language & Literacy 2:1, pp. 57–61 | Article

A recent reinterpretation of the phonetics of the sibilant phonemes in Semitic makes it unnecessary to hunt for "explanations" of the apparent failure of Greek sibilant letters to correspond in value with their Phoenician counterparts.

Journal

Written Language & Literacy (WL&L)

General Editor: Dorit Ravid