Precursor to the IPA

Lepsius, [Karl] R[ichard]. Das allgemeine linguistische Alphabet.

€ 1,500.00

First edition of this rare work by the Egyptologist and linguist Carl R. Lepsius (1810-84), leader of the 1842/45 Prussian expedition to Egypt. In this treatise, he presented what must be regarded as one of the earliest attempts at a standardised phonetic alphabet for all languages - a function today fulfilled by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is still based primarily on the Latin alphabet. Among the many alphabetical systems which Lepsius takes into account are also Egyptian hieroglyphs as well as Hebrew, Arabic, Farsi, Sanscrit, Bengali, Armenian, Malay, Chinese, etc.