The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-04-30
THE ENGLISH ALPHABET.
symbols OF sound Traced Back Into
the Misls OF Antiauity.

To invent and bring to perfection the
score or so of many symbols for the
expression of spoken sounds which we
call an alphabet has proved to be the
most arduous enterprise on which the
human intellect has ever been engaged
It's achievement taxed the genius Of
the three most gifted races of the an
Cient world 1t was begun by the Egyp-
tians, continued by the Semites, and
finally perfected by the Greeks.
From certain Egyptian hieroglyphic
pictures which were i'm use long before
the pyramids it Is possible to deduce
the actual outlines OF almost every letter
of our modern English alphabet to re-
count the history and to investigate the
transformation Of these ancient phono-
grams through the period of GOO0 years
during which they have been shaping;
to trace also the unity and the historical
connection between all the various ex-
isting alchabets of the world.
Writing began with kilograms (plc-
lures representing either things or
thoughts, which afterward developed
into phonograms (the graphic symbols OF
sounds.
Although our own writing has reached
the alphabetic stage, yet we still employ
number of Photographic and ideo-
graphic signs. The digits |. II, III stood
as pictures OF fingers; the V was from
the fingers collected and the thumb
apart; w or X represents the two hands,
while w and vi are only pictures of the
hand with the substraCtion or addition
of a finger. kilograms GOO years old,
and which are showing no possibility OF
| improving on, are such printers signs
! as the index, exclamation and parallel.
To these may be added certain shop
| signs such as the barbcr's pole, with it's
| spiral bandages, which was and is a
| significant ideogram of the blood-letter;
| and the three balls of our pawnbrokers.
| If the history of any one of our alpha
| betical symbols be traced back 1t will
be found to resolve itself ultimately into
| the conventionaliged picture of some
| object 1t is marvellous that, despite long
| continued usage, during so many CEN
! turtles, the modern letter retains in al
most every instance manifest features
derived from the primitive picture from
which 1t has descended.
| The letter NJ, for instance. was the
! picture of an owl, the conventionalizing
! process of 600 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 a not inapt repre-
| sentation of the beak, while the vertical
strokes are all that remain of the out
| lines OF the breast.
| II mankind is inclined to see q laugh
| on the owl at what 5000 years have done
| for it in this case, the owl probably feels
capable of suppressng any such gayety
by blinking mems attention to the mon
key. The letter r is derived from the
horned Egyptian asp, the two bars being
the survival Of the two horns. while the
| vertical strokes represent the body.
| The letter Y descended from the same
| picture, the two horns and body being
| retained. Then, too, in those days there
was four-horned asp. which has come
down to us In the letter w, the four
strokes necessary to its making repre-
senting the four horns, although 5000
years seem TO have been a few toe
many for the body, yet that of Kan.
sas grasshopper may be found supple
mented by the people 5000 years from
| now
The letter A was originally the pic.
ture of an eagle, whose ancestry, by tht