The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-28
A., B., C. AND OTHERS.
From the Chicago Times-Herald.


Our letters are mainly the same as those
used by the Romans, and their alphabet
was one of several derived from the Greek,
which was formed from the Phencian.
And back of that is a good deal of guess
work Very likely the Egyptian hero
glyphic and hieratic characters formed the
base of the Phenician letter-making. A
is the first letter in all the alphabets that
came from the Phenician. and in that
language it signifed OK; the Greek al
pha" means the same thing, though Its
Egyptian hieroglyphic equivalent was
bird somewhat like the vulture in out
line.
''I3" was also the second letter in the
PhenIcian as in the Greek. The name Of
the character was beth, meaning house.
It has less variety of use than any other,
being more frequently silent, as in dumb
or debt" In the original Indio-Euro-
pean or Aryan language "b' was rarely
found.
&c" in the. Phenician and Greek had the
value of a hard g" as in "go" and was
similar in the enunciation to "k'' as g
is now. For a long time the Latins made
'c'' do service for both tx" and "g." No
word containing &C" pronounced as IS"
is of Anglo-saxon origin, except few
misspelled words as "cinder," which was
originally ''sinder."
In the English 3D. has the same place
fourth letter and third consonant-as in
the Roman, Greek and Phenician and is
sngularly uninteresting as a study.
sc" is an unchanging and aristoeratlc
conservative It's form was always pretty
nearly the same as at present. It's name
i'm Phenician was he which most schoi-
ars say signifed a window.In its two guam
titles. as in met and in "they," it con-
stitutes about per cent. of English utter
ance.
''F'' in the Phenician meant peg or hook,
and its value was that of the English w -"
| This "w'' sound gradually went out of use
in Greek and the sign with It, In the
adaptation of the alphabet TO Latin use
the sign was resuTrected, and first receiV-
ed the value We give it.
CO. is sign of Italic origin, having
been fabricated by the Romans by adding
tail or drop to the Ca transition very
easily detected. 1t never occurs at the be-
ginning of words of Anglo-Saxon origin.
In medieval Roman it stood for 400, and
with a line over ii for 100000
"H' came from The Phencian, and has
had a curious history, in which the COCK
ney inability to manage it may be traced
III" meant 200 in medieval Roman.
''I'' may be traced TO the Egyptian. The
Phenicians represented it rather as con-
sonant, but 1t was converted to vowel val
ue by the Greeks, and the Romans gave 1T
both consonant and vowel duty.
u" is but another form of the same let
ter They were used indifferently until
about 1880. AS a numeral ii had the same
value as g." but was used only at conclu-
sion, as will" for eight
TX" is Phenician, and still earlier Egyp-
tan. 1t was little used in classical Latin,
and is Of rare occurrence in languages de-
rived from the Latin. AS a numeral it
represented $50
Il" was a lion in the Egyptian hero
glyphic, a figure in the Phenician, and
about its present form in the Greek and
the Latin. IL is the most Sonorous and
cOntinuous-the most purely consonant-in
sound of all our letters. As there are
three RS" in land colloquailism, so there
are three "L's" in nautical phrase-'1ead
latitude and lookout" 1t is a conserva-
tive. changing little.
M is an ancient and honorable" It's
hieroglyphic equivalent. away back in
Egypt, was almost feur de lis in the
oval outline of a birds head--a fieur de lis
minus the central branch. AS a Roman
numeral 1t denotes 1000 Formerly the
brand of M was impressed on the per-
son of one convicted of manslaughter. In
fragrant cases the brand was applied 10
the forehead. In printing 1t is the square