David Sacks's book is a popular reference work, structured as twenty-six per-letter biographies of the Roman alphabet tracing each letter's Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan descent, phonetic value and history, first published under the title Language Visible in 2003 before this 2004 edition, a revision history this record states rather than presenting the two editions as unrelated. This atlas holds it at the tier for a reputable popular reference rather than the top scholarly tier, since it is written for a general readership rather than as a specialist philological monograph. Use it for the documented descent and history of a specific Roman letter as this reference presents it; a claim resting on specialist current epigraphic scholarship needs a dedicated academic source alongside it.
Facts
Citation
AuthorDavid Sacks
PublisherBroadway Books
Publication Year2004
URLhttps://archive.org/details/letterperfect00davi
Source Typereference
Assessment
Reliability Tier2
A popular history of the Roman alphabet from a general trade publisher, useful for standard facts about each letter's descent rather than as academic linguistic scholarship. NotesTwenty-six per-letter biographies of the Roman alphabet A-Z, tracing each letter's Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan descent, phonetic value and history; first published as Language Visible (2003).
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Etruscans directly: "David Sacks's book is a popular reference work, structured as twenty-six per-letter biographies of the Roman alphabet tracing each letter's Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan descent, phonetic value and..."
This source names Phoenicians directly: "David Sacks's book is a popular reference work, structured as twenty-six per-letter biographies of the Roman alphabet tracing each letter's Phoenician, Greek and Etruscan descent, phonetic value and..."
Claims Backed By This Source (41 claims)
This source backs 41 claims across the atlas. As facts: 8 well-attested. As cited relationships: 6 holds. Plus 27 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- Alphabet Letters, 30 claims: 4 holds, 26 general references.
- Sources, 10 claims: 8 well-attested, 2 holds.
- Languages, 1 claims: 1 general references.
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