The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-01-17
History of the Alphabet.

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, we'll
known English writer on philosophical
and pathological subjects, has recently
written and published in London, two
stout volumes under the title ''The AL
phabet, 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 decipheriug
hitherto unknown symbols, that such
we'll posted history has become possible.
By careful study of the essays and scien.
tifc investigations of the latest philolo-
gists, Taylor has set forth in language
within 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 be asserts. We
have no better letters, according to this
account, than those of the Italian print
ers of the fifteenth century. These were
Initiated from the beautiful manuscripts
of the tenth and eleventh centuries, the
lettering of these being derived from the
Roman of the Augustan age. The Ro-
man letters, in turn, are traced to those
employed at Rome in the third century
B. G., and these do not differ greatly from
forms used in the earliest existing speci-
mems of Latin writing, dating from the
fifth century B.C. This primitive alpha
bet of Rome was derived from local
form of the Greek alphabet, lin use about
the sixth century B. G., and that was
variety of the earliest Greek alphabet
belonging to the eighth or even the ninth
century B. c. The Greeks got their let
ters from the Phenicians, and theirs are
clearly traceable in the most ancient
known form Of the Semitic.
The most ancient of books, a Papyrus
found at Thebes and now preserved in
the French National Library, supplies
the earliest forms of the letters used i'll
the Semitic alphabet The Stone Tables
of the Law could have been possible to
the Jews, only because of their posses.
sion of an alphabet, and thus the Bible
and modern pathological science unite in
ascribing a common origin to the alpha.
bet 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 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 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 G" in existence is child's alphabet,
scratched on little ink bottle, of black
ware, found in one of the oldest Greek
settlements in Italy, attributed 10 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 dill
gent 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
rs 1876 there we're found in Cyprus some
bronze plates inscribed with Ph@nician
characters, dating back to the tenth,
even the eleventh century, B. G..
Each epoch has its fragments, and the