Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-12-12
ORIGIN or AlPhADGTe
Iesssp A, y 80 q ssrv1vs Al
ChanEs-Inssrsstins Historical Isss&

~ IrSssp A, y 80 q Survive An
ChanEs-Insrsstins Hisserssai Iss.~
When q child cries, the lips are apart,
and form, a. each Gds OF the mouth, q
sharp angle, with sides Of about equal
length. The sounds Of The crying are
tboss sssigned TO the fra letter Of almost
every alphAhsA. The arrow hssdsd -
wedge shaped characters IN 10 among shs
Old Babylnians and Psrusns I'LL Me time
Of the great AleIandss's AnAtse oonquats
were oopisd from ths human mouth. BY
means Of difsrcn, c~ombinat&ons these
wedges or As were made 70 represent
oonsonan, as we'll - vowd sounda Blu,
the entire alphAbes . made up Of thess
wedges. i, required many generations
probably B advance from A and B. Now,
look at a child's face, sideways, whsn the
nps ~ ahus. and you - . natural b.
Put these NV ktseU together and We
have ab, which BY bang doubled gfvss
abba, tbs old sasesrp word for father. A
light modification gives Am, tbsn ANNA,
ths old ssstsrn form Of mama OF mmms
In ths w0s, jusa - abba was changed
into papa and pope or holy father. ns
arrow kssds hsd ssrvsl - record Ne
history, Ne lits~rsturs, Ne religion d
mighty supirs-ths cd A9yrAn,
hsdiAn, and Persian. They wGs 0scsd
mostly On bricks. Pap9 hAl O yssbsa
20 much - dyssmsA Of.
PROM A and B (Alpha and Bsts)a
comprehensive sohSme Of phonetic char
actsn must be worked out before tbs
Leaf os rind Of pspyrus a be used for
writing on. The lip lrtssn II and p,
softened into y and V, which lsa was
vocalizsd - U. are notifications merely
Of b. We may safely say the same OK
the dental d, softened intoT. which gave
rise to S. A series d characters was
gradually worked out, and the time cam
when Cadmus, the man from the East,
brought an alphabet Of Gxteen letters
from Phenicia into Greece. Cadmus,
looked at as an individual man. dwindles
TO a myth-a shadow. lie expresses In
legendary form the outcome Of q long
train Of almost forgotten facts. These
sixteen letters were expanded by the
Greeks to tventy-four. Light wooden
tablets covered with wax for writing IN
were adopted. But the pen was still Of
solid iron. like a pencil, sharp at one end,
with O fat circular head at the other for
blotting out, when desired, what had
been written with the point. These
tablets were fastened together at the
back by wires, 80 that they opened and
shut ike our books. For important
documents the edges Of the tables were
pierced with holes through which a triple
thread was passed and then sealed. Il
is TO this custom that allusion is made I'm
the Apocalypee-"close sealed with seven
seals" This Apocalyptic book was writ
ten within and on the hack" The an
GENTS used TO write on the front side
only-even after they had given up
wooden tablets in favor OF papyrus and
parchment. The back was generally
stained saffron or yellow.
The old Italians, too, Of prehistoric
age got an alphabet from the east. The
letters were extended and modified until
they became very different in form from
those of Greece. But ii is remarkable
that A, b, and o survive all changes.
They are copies Of the mouth when emit
ting the sounds assigned them. Modern
typography has no doubt greatly i'm.
proved the rude, early scrswl, such as
may still be seen on old gravestones. The
old Ph1nician and old Hebrew Aleph has
not the same position as u modern A.
They are almost horizontal. with Q nearly
perpendicular line drawn across the angle
formed by the sides Of the letter. The
later Roman alphabet was spread by Ro,
mar conquest. Our A~nglo-Saxon fore
fathers at length adopted it. They man
aged TO get up q sort Of literature. But
the age Of pocket dictionaries, handy
volumes, the daily or even weekly news-
papers was still a long way of. Art and
discovery have still a long apprenticeship
before we can inundate our postofioes
with valentines or photograph ~instanta.
neously on paper the tail of some mighty
somel-London Stationery Review