Pope avoids the controversy over whether West Semitic scripts are “alphabets,” in the sense that the Greek alphabet is, or an odd kind of syllabary, as proposed by I.J. Gelb in the 1960s. For a debate on this issue, see the following articles in Archaeology Odyssey, Premiere Issue 1998: Barry B. Powell, “Who Invented the Alphabet: The Semites or the Greeks?” AO 01:01; and P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., “Who Invented the Alphabet? A Different View,” AO 01:01.