Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1884-05-15
History OF the Alphabet.

How many OF the millions that daily
use the alphabet ever stop to think of its
origin and long historyp In the true
spirit of student, Isaac Taylor, q well
known English writer on philosophical
and pathological subjects, has recently
written and published, in London, two
stout volumes under the title: ssThe
Alphabet, an Account of the Origin and
Development of Letters" It is only by
help of recent discoveries of early in
scriptions and the progress in the art of
reading lost languages and deciphering
hitherto unknown symbols, that such q
well posted history has been possible.
BY careful study Of the learned ESSAYS
and scientific investigations of the latest
philologists, Taylor has set forth in Ian
guage within easy comprehension the
origin of the alphabet showing that our
own Roman letters may be followed
back to their very beginning, some
twenty or more centuries ago, as he as
serts. We have no better letters, ac-
cording to this account, than those of
the Italian printers Of the fifteenth GEN.
tury. These were initiated from the
beautiful manuscript of the tenth and
eleventh centuries, the lettering of these
Augustan age. The Roman letters, in
turn, are traced to those employed at
Rome in the third century B. C., and
these do not differ greatly from forms
used in the earliest existing specimens
of Latin writing, dating from the fifth
century B. c. This primitive alphabet
of Rome was derived from a local form
of the Greek alphabet, in use about the
sixth century B. c., and that was va
riety of the earliest Greek alphabet be-
longing to the eighth, OF. even the ninth
century B. C. The Greeks got their
letters from the Ph9nicians. and theirs
are clearly traceable in the most ancient
known form of the Semitic.
The most ancient of books, papyrus
found at Thebes, and now preserved in
the French National Library, supplies
the earliest forms of the letters used in
the Semitic alphabet. The Stone Tables
of the Law could have been possible to
the Jews only becauseof their possession
of an alphabet. and thus the Bible and
modern pathological science unite in
ascribing common origin to the alpha
bet which is in daily use throughout the
world. The nineteenth century B. C.
is held by Taylor to be the approximate
date of the origin Of alphabetic writing,
and from that time it grew by slow de-
grees, while from Egypt, the home of
the Jews during their long captivity,
the knowledge of the alphabet was car
ried in all directions where alphabets
are now found. s5s
The Aryans are thought to have been
the first to bring the primitive alphabet
to perfection, and each letter and each
sound may be traced, by Taylor's care
that have marked the growth, progress,
different letters of various alphabets.
1t is an interesting faef that the
oldest known "a B C',in existence is a i
child's alphabet scratched on an ink
bottle of black ware, found in one of
the oldest Greek settlements in Italy, |
attributed to the fifth century B. c. |
The earliest letters and many later |
ones are known only by inscriptions,
and it is the rapid increase, by recent
of these precious fragments
that has inspired more diligent research
and quickened the zeal of learned stu
dents in mastering the elements of
of their origin and history
throughout the world. As late as 1876
here were found in Cyprus some bronze
plates inscribed with Phenician charac-
,ers, dating back to the tenth, even the
eleventh, century B. e. Each epoch has
is fragments, and the industry of Eng
ish explorers, the perseverance of Ger
nan students, and the genius of French
scholars have all contributed to group
hem in their chronological order.
Coins, engraved gems, inscribed statues
md last of all, the Sloan inscription,
Ound in 1880 at Jerusalem, on the wall
If an old tunnel. have supplied new ma
erial for the history. From the COM
non mother of many alphabets, the
'h9nician. are descended the Greek
md other European systems on the one
Ide, including that which we use and
AVE the greatest interest in; and on the
ther. the alphabets of Asia, from which
ave sprung those of the East. Syriac,
Arahic and Hebrew.-Philadelph
ledger.
SfyiEinD (lit