The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-08-24
MORNING BOARD.
AFTERNOON SESSION,
ORIGIN OF THE ALPHABET
a French Writer Thinks the Phoeni
clan Form Was Invented 1900 b. c.

n French Writer Thinks the Phoeni-
clan Form Was Invented 1900 b. c.
NJ. G. Valbert, in reviewing Philippe
Berger's Historic de PEcriture dams
pAnuquite," in the ReUUe deS Deuu Mon
deS, has given us that interesting article
on the origin of the alphabet. 1t is not
only readable, but full of curious and
out-of-the-way learning The idea that
suggests itself most forcibly, he says, on
reading M. Berger'S book. is the love of
mankind for the complicated. The cum
brous hieroglyphics Of Egypt had been
Ia use for centuries before the simple
Ph0niciap alphabet suggested itself M
Berger thinks that the alphabet was in
vented by the Phonicians about the year
1900. The world was already old and
had been writing for some time. Why.
then, had It chung for so many centuries
TO complicated and Iaborious characters?
Because they correspondent to its
wants. In ancient times writing was
used in three ways-for engraving in
scriptions on stones, for correspondence
with the absent and for fixing on paper
the winged words of poet. The utility
OF inscriptions is much less evident than
that of correspondence and OF written
books, yet geographic or lapidary writing
was for long time the only kind Of
which men OF that day felt the need. The
more monumental and decorative it was
the better it pleased them; and it must be
confessed that Egyptian hieroglyphics
look better on wall than the twenty two
letters of the Ph@nician alphabet.
Writing, properly so-called, originated
when men, acquiring some amount of
respect for themselves, began to feel
desire for perpetuating some of their
| thoughts and actions. The art of ex-
pressing ones ideas by simple strokes
was long an occult science, the exclusive
property OF a class, a priestly caste. a cor
poration of learned men and scribes.
There are found in North Africa a great
many Tefnagh inscriptions of various
! dates, some going back several centuries.
! others quite recent. The Tefinagh char
| acter-stIlI in partial use among the
Tuaoregs-is only Ineligible to the in
itiated-principally TO certain women.
who keep the knowledge as a family
secret. Primitive people have always
seen something mysterious and magical
/ in writing, and attributed miraculous
virtue to written words; as in the Edda.
Brunhild tells Siguard of the mystic
power of runeS.
Perhaps II is the virtue supposedtoi be
inherent in writing which explains the
frequent occurrence Of anathemas in an
cient inscriptions. Among those cited
by NJ. Berger there are few that do not
end in curse. Thus, in the temple of
Byblos we find: "Whosoever. whether
the work of this altar and the porch
which is over against it may the great
Baalath of Byblos destroy that man and
his posterity from off the face of the
earth" Perhaps the reader may prefer
the inscription on the Palmyra syna-
gogue: '"Ehe Lord shall take away from
thee all the evil plaques of Egypt which
thou knowest and shall smite thine adj
versaries with them.n Here again is an
epitaph in Nabathean characters: ''This
is the tomb which Sidon has built MAY
Desares and Menat and Queis curse the
man who shall sell it, or buy it, or pledge
it. or lend it,
1t has been remarked that nothing is
rarer than police notice permitting or
authorizing something; what is at least
as rare is an antique inscription destined
n hlaSe SO,oa ono