The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-03-14
History of the Alphabet.

How many of the millions that daily
use the alphabet ever stop to think of
its origin and long history2 In the true
spirit of a student, Isaac Taylor, a we'll
known English writer on philosophical
and pathological subjects, has recently
written and published, 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 in
scriptions and the progress in the art of
reading lost languages and deciphering
hitherto unknown symbols, that such
well posted history has become possible.
BY careful study of the learned essays and
scientific investigations of the latest phil
ologists, Taylor has set forth in language
of easy comprehension the origin of the
alphabet, showing that our own Gro
man letters may be followed back to
their very beginning, some twenty or more
centuries ago, as he asserts. We have
no more letters, according to this eescount,
than those of the Italian printers of the
fifteenth century. These were initiated
from the beautiful manuscripts of the
tenth and eleventh centurjes, the letter
ing of these being derived from the
Roman of the Augustan age. Roman
letters, in their 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. G. The primitive
alphabet of Rome was derived from
local form of the Greek alphabet, in use
about the sixth century B. c., and that
was variety of the earliest Greek alpha
bet belonging to the eighth, or even to
the ninth century B. G. The Greeks got
their letters from the Phpnicians, and
theirs are clearly traceable in the most
ancient known form of the Semitic.
The most ancient of books, papyrus
found at Thebcs, 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 because of their possession of
an alphabet, and thus the Bible and mod
ern pathological science unite in ascrib-
ing common origin to the alphabet
which is in daily use throughout the
world. The nineteenth century B. G. is
held by Taylor to be the approximate
date of the origin of the alphabetic writ
ing and from that time it grew by slow
degrees, while from Egypt, the home of
the Jews during their long captivity, the
knowledge Of their captivity 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 Taylor's careful
analysis, through all the changes that
have marked the growth, progress, and,
in some instances, the decay of different
letters of various alphabets. 1t is an in
teresting fact that the oldest known "a
b c" in existence Is a childs 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. G. The earliest letters
and many later ones are known only by
inscriptions, and it is the rapid increase,
by recent discoveries, of these precious
fragments that has inspired more dligent
research and quickened the zeal of
learned students in mastering the ele-
ments of knowledge of their origin and
history throughout the world. AS late
as 1876 there were found in Cyprus some
bronze plates inscribed with PhGnician
characters, dating back to the tenth,
even the eleventh century B. c.
Coins, engraved gems, inscribed stat
ues, and, last of ALL the Sloan inscrip-
ton, found in 1880 at Jerusalem, on
the wall of an old tunnel, have sup
piled new material for the history.
From the common mother of many alpha
bets, the PhGnician, are descended the
Greek and other European systems on
the one side, including that which we
use and have the greatest interest in;
and on the other, the aiphabets of Asia,
from which have sprung those of the
East Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew.