The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1886-01-27
letters Of the Greeks OF Phcaician origin

and
PRAsTTcALLE IDENTICAL
with the names given 10 the same letters in
the Hebrew alphabet we now know from
inscriptions that the ole forms OF the Greek
letters are more or less identical with the
forms of the same letters in the Oldest
Phonician texts. Not orly is the Rhos-
niecian name of the first letter aleph, IAN
AK" still pronounced every time We speak
of the alphabet. but We may still see in the
form of our capital A the resenlb lance to
the head of an OK which caused some old
Pb0nician sch00lmasterS 10 cali it by that
animals name. Thus far the history of our
alphabet Is clear; like the name it came
from those EngliShmen of the ancient
world, the practical and adventurous
traders of the Canaanitish coast.
But was it really Phenician invention?
This has been sometimes assumed on the
strength OF the names given TO the letters
and attempts have been made 10 show that
the letters may be reduced to pictures cor
responding with the names. All analogy,
however, is against such assumption. We
know good deal now about the Phoeni-
clans, and we find that, although they were
admirable adopters and improvers Of other
mems arts and industries, they invented
none of their own. They were intermedi-
aries, not Originative geniuses, and it would
be strange if so wonderful an invention as
the alphabet had formed the single excep-
ton to their usual character. No traces
moreover, have been met in Ph9nician
lands of
THE PRIMITIVE HIEROGLYPHs
ont of which the alphabetic letters are sup
posed to have grown. The rude rock sculp-
lures found in the neighborhOod of Tyre
imply a condition of society infinitely
below that in which a pictorial system of
writing first becomes possible, and it is
doubtful whether they are not to be referred
10 the barbarous races who inhabited the
country before the PhWnicians arrived there
from the East. Then, again, had the "Ph@-
nician" alphabet really been Ph@nician
invention, we should have expected it to
contain two separate symbols for the letters
called in Hebrew shin and sin (sh and 81, as
well, probably, as two symbols for the two
gutturals still heard in Arabic, 'ayin and
CHAIN, the latter of which appears in the
names OF the Canaanite towns GomOrrah
and GAIA. SO long, however, as no proofs
are forthcoming that the Ph@nicians ever
used hieroglyphs or pictorial characters We
may safely put on one side the theory Of the
PhOnician origin of the alphabet
Another theory has lately been advanced
by the eminent historian of Oriental antiq.
uity, Edward Meyer. He suggests that the
PhUnicians received the alphabet from the
Hittites, whose importance for the history
OF ancient culture is but Just beginning to
be understood But although ali
competent authorities are now inclined to
believe that the syllebaIy once used in Asia
Minor was derived from the Hittite hero
glyphs, Dr. Meyer has vet found no one to
assent to his hypothesis that the same origin
must be ascrlbed to the Ph@ncian alpha
bet. A new hypothesis has just been started
by the AsSyrian scholar, DR.. Hommel He
believes that
THE BEDOUIN TRIBES,
who bordered on the ancient monarchy of
Babylona, acquired a knowledge of a GER
tain number of cuneiform characters in their
primitive pictorial forms and gave to each a
phonetic value. In this way the uncultured
wanderers of the desert effected what the
cultured population of Chaldea and Assyria
never dreamed 0f-the creation of an alpha
bet. The period to which DIR. Hommel would
assign the achievement is about 2O0O b. c.
In the struggle for existence the
Latin alphabet alone survived among its
Italian compeers and was carried by the ex-
tension of the Roman empire through the
length and breadth of Western Europe
Most of our modern European alphabets are
its direct offspring. 1t is only in Eastern
Europe, more especially in Russia, that its
Greek mother and subsequent rival has stood
its ground, and even there the present CEN
fury has witnessed the triumph of che Ro-
man characters in SlavOnic countries over
alphabets of Greek origin. 1t is possible
that time will come when the Roman
characters will triumph likewise even over
alphabets which claim their descent from
THE PHENEcIAN PARENT
of the Greek alphabet itself. 1t is no longer
doubtful that the immense majority, if not
the whole, OF the alphabet used in the East
are descended. like the alphabet of the West,
from the alphabet of PhGnicia. We can
trace the successful gradatiOns by which the
letters of inscriptions of Mesha of the Sloan
tunnel became the flowing characters OF
Palmyrene geography and the running hand
of Aramaic papyri, and from the Palmyrene
characters it is but slight step TO the square
Hebrew of the modern Jews. Even of its
manifold imperfections, has been made the
vehicle OF Persian and Turkish literature as
well as the thoughts of the vast Arabic
speaking world, can be shown to have the
same origin, like the Syriac, which was the
parent of the vertically written Monaghan
and Mantchu. In fact, il is difficult to find
any alphabet Which cannot be affiliated to
the PhOinician, widely different as the two
may have become both in the forms of the
letters and in the values that they bear.
Intermediate forms are continually being
distances anu explain the translations that
time and space have effected. Even the
Devanagari alphabet of Sanskirt, whatever
disputes there may be as TO its exact pedi
gree, is generally allowed to be of Phe-
nician origin. With the exception of the
cuneiform alphabet of the ancient Persians,
and possibly one or two more which may
yet Turk in obscure corners OF the world, all
the alphabets of which we know are derived,
ultimately, from a single source.