The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-02-02
Our @lio.
History of the Alphabet.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
How many of the millions that daily use
the alphabet ever stop to think of its origin
and long history? In the true spirit of a
student, Isaac Taylor, well known En-
glish writer on philosophical and philologi-
cal subjects, has recently written and pub
lished in London, two stout volumes under
the title "The Alphabet, an Account of the
Origin and Development of Letters" 1t
is only by help of recent discoveries of
early inscriptions and the progress in the
art of reading lost languages and decipher-
ing hitherto unknown symbols, that such a
well posted history has become possible.
By careful study of the essays, and scien-
tifc investigations of the latest philologists,
Taylor has set forth in language within
easy comprehension the origin of the alpha
bet, showing that our own Roman" letters
may be followed back to their very begin
ming, some twenty or more centuries ago,
as he asserts. We have no better letters,
according to this account, than those of
Italian printers of the fifteenth century.
They were initiated from the beautiful
manuscripts of the tenth and eleventh cen
turies, the lettering of these being derived
from the Roman of the Augustan age.
The Roman letters, in turn, are traced to
those employed at Rome in the third CEN
tury B. c., and these do not differ greatly
from the 81 - !, used in the earliest exist
ing specieeseins of Latin writing, dating
from the fifth century B. G. This primi-
tive alphabet of Rome was derived from a
form of the Greek alphabet, in use about
the sixth century B. c., and that was a
variety of the earliest Greek alphabet be-
longing to. the eighth or even the ninth
century B. c. The Greeks got their let
tiers from the Phenicians, and theirs are
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 earl
lest forms of the letters used in the Semitic
alphabet The Stone Tables of the Law
could have been possible to the Jews, only
because of their possession of an alphabet,
and thus the Bible and modern pathological
science unite in ascribing a common origin
to the alphabet 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 alphabet
ical writing, and from that time it grew by
slow degrees, while from Egypt, the home
of the Jews during their long captivity, the
knowledge of the alphabet was carried in
all directions where alphabets are now found.
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 Taylors careful analysis
through all the changes that have marked
the growth, progress, and in some instances
the decay of different letters of various al
phabets. 1t is an interesting fact that the
oldest known "a B C' in existence is a
child's alphabet, scratched on little ink
bottle of black ware, found in one of the
oldest Greek settlements in Italy, attributed
to the fifth century B. C. The earliest let
tiers and many later ones are known only
by inscriptions, and it is the rapid increase,
by recent discoveries of these precious frag-
ments, that has inspired more diligent re-
search, and quickened the zeal of learned
students in mastering the elements of
knowledge of their origin and history
throughout the world As late as 1876
there was found in Cyprus some bronze
plates inscribed with Phenician characters
dating back to the tenth, even the eleventh
century century, B. C.
Each epoch has its fragments, and the
industry of English explorers, the perse-
verance of German students, and the genius
of French scholars, have all contributed to
group them in their chronological order.
Coins, engraved gems, inscribed statutes,
and last of all the Sloan inscription found
in 1880 at Jerusalem, on the wall of an
old tunnel, have supplied new material for
the history From the common mother of
many alphabets, the Phenician, are de-
scended the Greek and other European
systems on the one side, including that
which We use and have the greatest inter-
est in, and on the other, the alphabets of
Asia, from which have sprung those of the
East Syriac. Arabic and Hebrew.