The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1898-03-16
ALPHABET ODDITIES.
ORIGIN OF MANY OF THE LETTERS WE
USE IN PRINTING.
Of the Letter M to an Owl.
Orthography Of Coffee Years Ago--Ec-
centric Devices Made by Peculiar Ar
rangements of Letters.


centric Devices Made by Peculiar Ar
rangemeuts of Letters.
To invent and bring to perfection the
score or so Of spoken sounds which we call
an alphabet have proved to be the most
arduous enterprise on which the human
intellect has ever been engaged. It's
achievement tasked the genius of the three
most gifted races of the ancient world. 1t
was begun by the Egyptians, continued
by the Semites and finally perfected by
| the Greeks.
Writing began with kilograms (pictures
representing either things or thoughts),
which afterward developed into phono-
grams (the graphic symbols of sounds).
Although our own writing has reached
the alphabetic stage, yet we still employ
| q number Of Photographic and topographic
signs. The dgits /, III, III stood as Pic
lures of fingers. The V was from the fin
gers collected and the thumb apart; Wv
or X represents the two hands, while ~
and vi are only pictures of the hand, with
the subtraction or addition of finger.
kilograms 5000 years DID, and which we
are showing no possibility of improving
on, are such printers signs as the index,
exclamation and parallel.
| If the history of any one of our alpha
bette symbols be traced back, it will be
found to resolve itself ultimately into the
conventionalized picture of some object.
The letter NJ, for instance, was the pic
ture of an owl, the conventionalizing
process of 5000 years having left only the
two peaks, which are the lineal descend
ants of the two ears Of the owl, still re-
tanning between them not inapt repre-
| of kn hoaly 10 ha al
strokes are all that remain of the outlines
of the breast.
The letter f is derived from the horned
Egyptian asp, the two bars being the sur
vival of the two horns, while the vertical
stroke represents the body.
The letter Y descended from the same
picture, the two horns and body being re-
tanned. Then, too, in those days there
was a four horned asp, which has come
down to us in the letter W. the four strokes
necessary to its making representing the
four HORNS although 5000 years seem to
have been a few too many for the body,
yet that of Kansas grasshopper may be
found supplemented by the people 9, 900
years from now.
The letter A was originally the picture
of an eagle, Egypt being the eagles real
home land, and r. was taken from q pic
ture of the human mouth. ID was evolved
from q picture of the hand, and SO on
through the pictorial origin of all our let
tiers.
The immediate parentage of our Eng
lish alphabet is most difficult to deter
mine BY series Of easy steps the forms
of the very letters the reader sees before
him on this printed page may be traced
back for some 20 centuries. These "Ro-
man types" as they are appropriately
called, have not varied appreciably in their
forms from the types used at Rome and
Venice by the Italian printers of the fif-
tenth century.
The puzzle of all English literature Is
giving 26 letters an arrangement by which
they will present some new impression to
the mind. The more brilliant that ar
rangement the more successful the writer.
The writers of the English dictionary alone
have been able to fit more than 40, 600
words constructed from these letters with
out much effort. The language is said to
contain 100, 900. The confusion of Eng
lish sounds and letters is well illustrated
by spelling coffee without one correct let
ter-kauphy, which spelling is nearer the
original than the one in use, for a pam
phlet was printed in Oxford in 1859 on
"The Nature of the Drink Kauphy, or
Il
Coffee
Many eccentric devices of literature de
pend upon the peculiar arrangement OF
letters Some of these have fine sound
ing names and are recognized as famous
recreations of the learned. The palm
drome, which is line that reads back
ward and forward is one of tho most diff
cult of all feats of letter juggling and
has engaged the attention OF the world s
cleverest brains.
The anagram has occupied a most pre-
tentious place in literature. Wits and
wiseacres of the olden times looked into
the names and places for satires and for
omens Several astronomers have used
anagrams to secure the credit Of discoveries
which they did not wish to reveal. Louis
XIII retained in his service an anagram-
matist named Thomas Bullion, with PEN
sion of 1900 liyrcs. 1t was deemed a
! | prophecy Of fate when 1t was found that
the name of Louis dc Boucherat could be
transposed to "est la couche du roi" lis
the mouthpiece of the king); that of
Francis de Veloys to "de facon suis royal
(of royal strain). The fascinating Marie
Touchet procured a liberal pension for the
: writer who deduced from her name "Je
charme tout" q charm all .-Detroit Free