The record-union., 1894-04-14
ABOUT OUR ALPHABET.
How and Where We Got it Ex-
planned.
A Concise Historic Paper on the Evo-
luton of the Letters
Their Origin.

Rev. B. A. Elias recently delivered an
extended lecture before the Museum
Association in this city on the history OF
the alphabet. 1t was freely illustrated
with charts, and by drawings and dia-
grams. 1t was OF character that rem
dered a synopsis by any other than the
author too difficult task. Mr.. Elias, by
request, furnishes the RECORD UNION
with this epitome of the lecture. 1t will
be found to well repay perusal:
In attempting to search for the Begin
ming of letters we have to go back into
the dim mists of prehistoric times. Ac-
cording 10 the view of the ancients, letters
were divine invention. The Hebrew
claimed that they were given to Moses on
Mount Sinai; the Roman, that they were
first taught by Mercury; the Brahman,
that they were communicated to his an
cestors by Brahma; the BabylOnian
ascribed them to Nebo, and the Egyptian
to Tot.
Our ALPHABET is growth-an evolution
by a long and gradual process, and our
letters were originally hieroglyphics. The
English characters were derived from the
Romans. who obtained them from the
Greeks. The Greeks themselves, both
according to their own traditions, and as
!
their letters. derived them from The
Phoenician.
The discovery of the Moabite stone in
1868 has enabled us to clear up many in
teresting points.
In comparing the archaic Greek letters
with the characters on the Moabite stone,
and with the PhRnician characters OF
later periods, with those, G. g., on the AS
syrian gems and seals, and with those of
l,e4 Anf] hot y ~Sf ,R,.~
nassau, and, finally, with the same char
acters of Greek and Romans times we at
once see that these letters resem BILE most
those on the Moabite stone, showing that
it must have been somewhere between
1000 b. c. and 900 B. C. that the Greeks
got their alphabet from the Phpnicians-
a circumstance that has an interesting
bearing on the question OF the handing
down of the Homeric poems.
But whence did the Phenicians get
their letters? Were they the inventors,
or were they merely borrowers? In
looking at the letters, aleph, beth, etc.,
we notice that they all have meaning in
the language to which they belong, and
this leads US to suspect that their forms
were once abridged and worn-down rep
resentatives of objects.
In comparing the letters on the Moabite
stone with pictures of the various objects
whose names are borne by the letters, we
have no difficulty IN recognizing a clear
resemblance in sixteen letters out of the
twenty-one that have come down to US
wonderful number when we take all
things into consideration; number far
too large to have been the result of mere
accident. The gradual wearing down of
the picture was brought about IN natural
way. by the necessity OF obtaining brew
ity and speed in writing.
The study of language and its ex-
preston amongst savages and the deaf
and dumb will help US to understand the
process by which letters were evolved.
The first language is a gesture lam
guage. In Gulliver's travels, when that
worthy visited the school of languages at
Lagardo he was made acquainted with
scheme for improving language by abol-
ishing all word whatsoever. Words be-
il only the names ofthings, people were
tt carry the things themselves about, in
stead of wasting their breath in talking
about them. The learned adopted the
- cheme, and sages might be seen in the