Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-11-23
The Origin of Alpbabets.

When child cries, the lips are apart, and
form, at each side of the mouth, q sharp angle,
with sides OF about equal length The sounds
OF the crying are those assigned to the first let
ter OF almost every alphabet. The arrow
headed or wedge-shaped characters in use
among the old Babylonians and Persians till the
time OF the great Alexander's Asatic conquests
were copied from the human mouth. BY means
of different combinations these wedges or AS
were made to represent consonant as well as
vowel sounds. But the entire alphabet is made
up of these wedges. 1t required many genera
tons probably to advance from A and B. Now,
look at chlld's face, sideways, when the lips
are shut, and you see a natural B. Put these
two letters together and we have db, which bv
being doubled gives Gbba, the old Eastern word
for father A slight modification gives am,
then ANNA. the old Eastern form Of mama or
mamma in the west. just as abba was changed
into papa and pope or holy father.
The arrOw-heads had served to record the
history. the literature, the religion OF mighty
empires+the old Assyran, Median and Per-
sian. They were traced mostly on bricks.
Paper had not yet been so much as dreamed Of
From and B alpha and Beta) comprehen-
sive scheme Of phonetic characters must be
worked out before the leaf or rind of papyrus
can be used for writing on. The lip letters Nj
and P, sOftened into F and V, which last was
vOcalized as u, are notifications merely of B.
We may safely say the same of the dental D,
softened into T, which gave rise to s. A series
OF characters was gradually worked out, and
the time came when Cadmus, the man from the
east, brought an alphabet Of sixteen letters
as an individual man, dwindles to a INVITA-
shadow. He expresses in legendary form the
outcome of a long train of almost forgotten
facts. These sixteen letters were expanded by
the Greeks to twenty-fOur. Light wooden tab
lets, covered with wax for writing on. were
Rlf % cfin IF
like pencil, sharp at one end. with flat circu-
lar head at the other for blOtting out when de-
sired, what had been written with the point
These tablets were fastened together at the
like our books. For important documents the
edges OF the tablets were pierced with holes.
through which triple thread was passed and
then sealed. 1t is to this custom that allusiOn
is made in the ApOcalypse-"close-sea with
seven seals This apocalyptic book was s'writ-
used to write on the front side only-even after
they had given up wooden tablets in favor of
papyrus and parchment. The back was gen.
orally stained saffron or yellow. The old Ital-
iails, TOO. OF a prehistoric age, got an alphabet
from the east, The letters were extended aud
modified until they became very different in
form from those of Greece. But it is remarks
able that A, b and o survive all changes They
are copies OF the mouth when emitting the
sounds assigned to them. Modern Typography
scrawl such as may still be seen on old grave
stones. The old PhGnician and old Hebrew
Aleph has not the same position as our modern
A. They are almost horizontal with a nearly
perpendicular line drawn across the angle
formed by the sides Of the letter. The later
Roman alphabet was spread by Roman conquest
our Anglo-Saxon fOrefathers at length adopted
1t. Ihey managed to get up a sort of literature
Dut the age q pocket dictionaries, handy vol
s uies, 5ne daily or even weekly newspaper was
sun long way Off. Art and discovery have
SUN long apprenticeship before we can inun-
aate our post offices with valentines, or pho
Stationery Reuie,c
l.. OF g., Mlano Junction: 81 am here sever 4
hours waiting for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa
| Fe train. Our international train was eigbt
hours late. hence failed to connect. Rieht in
| front of me is huge sign-bOard Look ont fo,
the ears Now l have been looking out fol-
| them for five hours and am told | m1st .ooL
| out for them three hours more Where 10 thr