Editing Brahmi script (section)

====Greek-Semitic model hypothesis====
[[File:Coin of the Bactrian King Agathokles.jpg|thumb|upright=1.36|Coin (circa 180 BCE) of [[Agathocles of Bactria|Agathocles]] with Indian deities, in Greek and Brahmi.<br />Obverse: With Greek legend: {{lang|grc|ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ}} (''Basileōs Agathokleous'').<br />Reverse: With [[Brahmi]] legend:{{script|Brah|𑀭𑀸𑀚𑀦𑁂 𑀅𑀕𑀣𑀼𑀓𑁆𑀮𑀬𑁂𑀲}} {{Transliteration|Brah|Rājane Agathukleyesa}}  .<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bopearachchi|first=Osmund|date=1993|title=On the so-called earliest representation of Ganesa|url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1993_num_3_2_1479|journal=Topoi. Orient-Occident|volume=3|issue=2|doi=10.3406/topoi.1993.1479|page=436|access-date=2022-07-27|archive-date=2022-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220727044511/https://www.persee.fr/doc/topoi_1161-9473_1993_num_3_2_1479|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bopearachchi" />]]
Falk's 1993 book {{lang|de|Schrift im Alten Indien}} is a study on writing in ancient India,<ref name="bronkhorst2002lar" />{{sfn|Falk|1993}} and has a section on the origins of Brahmi.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=109–167}} It features an extensive review of the literature up to that time. Falk sees the basic [[writing system]] of Brahmi as being derived from the Kharoṣṭhī script, itself a derivative of Aramaic. At the time of his writing, the Ashoka edicts were the oldest confidently dateable examples of Brahmi, and he perceives in them "a clear development in language from a faulty linguistic style to a well honed one"{{Sfn|Annette Wilke |Oliver Moebus |2011|p=194, footnote 421}} over time, which he takes to indicate that the script had been recently developed.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=109–167}}<ref name="salomon1995rev" /> Falk deviates from the mainstream of opinion in seeing Greek as also being a significant source for Brahmi. On this point particularly, Salomon disagrees with Falk, and after presenting evidence of very different methodology between Greek and Brahmi notation of vowel quantity, he states "it is doubtful whether Brahmi derived even the basic concept from a Greek prototype".{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|p=22}} Further, adds Salomon, in a "limited sense Brahmi can be said to be derived from Kharosthi, but in terms of the actual forms of the characters, the differences between the two Indian scripts are much greater than the similarities".{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=23}}

Falk also dated the origin of Kharoṣṭhī to no earlier than 325&nbsp;BCE, based on a proposed connection to the Greek conquest.{{sfn|Falk|1993|pp=104}} Salomon questions Falk's arguments as to the date of Kharoṣṭhī and writes that it is "speculative at best and hardly constitutes firm grounds for a late date for Kharoṣṭhī. The stronger argument for this position is that we have no specimen of the script before the time of Ashoka, nor any direct evidence of intermediate stages in its development; but of course this does not mean that such earlier forms did not exist, only that, if they did exist, they have not survived, presumably because they were not employed for monumental purposes before Ashoka".<ref name="salomon1995rev">{{cite journal |last=Salomon |first=Richard |title=Review: On the Origin of the Early Indian Scripts |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=115 |issue=2 |year=1995 |pages=271–278 |doi=10.2307/604670 |jstor=604670}}</ref>

Unlike Bühler, Falk does not provide details of which and how the presumptive prototypes may have been mapped to the individual characters of Brahmi. Further, states Salomon, Falk accepts there are anomalies in phonetic value and diacritics in Brahmi script that are not found in the presumed Kharoṣṭhī script source. Falk attempts to explain these anomalies by reviving the Greek influence hypothesis, a hypothesis that had previously fallen out of favor.<ref name="salomon1995rev" />{{Sfn|Salomon|1998|pp=19–24}}

Hartmut Scharfe, in his 2002 review of Kharoṣṭī and Brāhmī scripts, concurs with Salomon's questioning of Falk's proposal, and states, "the pattern of the phonemic analysis of the Sanskrit language achieved by the Vedic scholars is much closer to the Brahmi script than the Greek alphabet".<ref name="scharfe391" />

As of 2018, Harry Falk refined his view by affirming that Brahmi was developed from scratch in a rational way at the time of [[Ashoka]], by consciously combining the advantages of the pre-existing [[Greek script]] and northern [[Kharosthi]] script.<ref name="HF57" /> Greek-style letter types were selected for their "broad, upright and symmetrical form", and writing from left to right was also adopted for its convenience.<ref name="HF57" /> On the other hand, the Kharosthi treatment of vowels was retained, with its inherent vowel "a", derived from [[Aramaic]], and stroke additions to represent other vowel signs.<ref name="HF57" /> In addition, a new system of combining consonants vertically to represent complex sounds was also developed.<ref name="HF57">{{cite journal |last1=Falk |first1=Harry |title=The Creation and Spread of Scripts in Ancient India |journal=Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life |pages=43–66 (online 57–58) |date=2018 |doi=10.1515/9783110594065-004 |isbn=9783110594065 |s2cid=134470331 |url=https://www.academia.edu/37342561 |language=en |access-date=2020-01-04 |archive-date=2021-12-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211210121509/https://www.academia.edu/37342561 |url-status=live}}</ref>