Although the earliest surviving Greek inscriptions written in an alphabet date from the eighth century B.C.,
the fact that the text of these Greek inscriptions sometimes runs from right to left and sometimes
from left to right indicates that the Greeks adopted alphabetic writing at least two centuries before these
inscriptions were produced. After all, the Greeks learned alphabetic writing from the Phoenicians, and
presumably, along with the alphabet, they also adopted the then-current Phoenician practice with respect to
the direction of text. And although Phoenician writing was originally inconsistent in direction, by the
eighth century B.C. Phoenician was consistently written from right to left and had been for about
two centuries.
翻译：
尽管现存最早的希腊字母写的题词是eighth century B.C.。 这些希腊题词有时从左往右有时从右往左，这个事实显示在这些题词之前2个世纪，希腊就开始采用字母书写了。
总之，希腊从腓尼基人学习了字母书写，很有可能，他们也像腓尼基人一样注意书写的方向。
尽管腓尼基人刚开始也不注意书写方向，eighth century B.C的时候他们统一从右往左写字已经两个世纪了。
After all后面的东西是推理的过程：毕竟，希腊人是从腓尼基人那学来的字母书写，and presumbly(注意这个是推理的assumption)， 为了表示对书写方向的尊重，（希腊人）在用字母的同时，also 采用then-current腓尼基人的书写方式（注意：原文第一句已经说了，献词虽是8世纪的绝版，但内容的书写方向却为时左时右--B）。尽管腓尼基人的书写最初在方向上不一致，但是，到公元前8世纪，他们已经确定了从右往左的书写方向，并且已经持续了2个世纪（最后一句话得出，书写方向时左时右至少是在公元10世纪以前---A）。
由A+B可以推出：献辞留存文本虽是8世纪的，但书写方式却是当时流行的至少公元前10世纪以前的腓尼基人书写方式。加上两个的细节（....along with alphabet...，then-current）基本上可以猜测出希腊人采用字母书写是在10世纪以前（比那个古代绝版的献辞正好早2个世纪。）
