Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1901-10-09
A. B, c AND OTHERS.
A LOOK INTO THE ORIGIN OF
OUR ALPHABET.
Orr Letters Are Mainly the Same as
Those Used by the mans-Ear1ier
Derived from Greek aud Phenician-
short Study of Interesting Subject

Our letters are mainly the same 40
those used by the Romans, and their
alphabet was one of several derived
from the Greek, which WAS formed
from the Phenician. And back of that
Is good deal of guesswork. Very ike
ly the Egyptian hieroglyphic and HER
atic 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 Ian
guage it signified ok; the Greek al
pha" means the same thing, though Its
Egyptian hieroglyphic equivalent was
a bird somewhat like the vulture In out
line.
"B" was also the second letter In the
Phenlcian, as In the Greek. The name
Of the character was beth" meaning
house. 1t has less variety of use than
any other. being more frequently ST.
lent, as In dumb" or debt" In the
original lndio- European or Aryan lam
guages "b" was rarely found.
&c" In the Phenician and Greek had
the value of hard 81" as In go and
was similar n the enunciation Of TX"
as "g" Is now. For long time the
Latins made &c" do service for both
"k" and e." No word containing &c"
pronounced as 50 Is Of Anglo Saxon
origin, except few misspelled words,
as "cinder," which was originally "sin-
der"
In the English "D" has the same place
fourth letter and third cOnsonant-as
In the Roman, Greek and Phenician,
and Is singularly uninteresting as a
study.
"E" is an unchanging and aristocrat-
ic conservative. Its form was always
pretty nearly the same as at present.
Its name In Phenician was "he," which
most scholars say signifed window
In its two quantities, as 1t met" and
In they" 1t constitutes about per
cent of English utterance.
"F' In the Phenician meant peg or
hook, and It's value was that Of the En-
glish "w." This NV" sound gradually
went out Of use In Greek, and the sign
with it. In the adaptation Of the al
phabet to Latin use the sign was resur-
rected, and first received the value we
give it.
"G" Is a sign of Italic origin, having
been fabricated by the Romans by add
Ing tail or drop 10 the ga transit
tion very easily detected. 1t never oc-
ours at the beginning Of words Of An
glo-Saxon origin. In medieval Roman
1t stood for 400, and with line over
1t for 100000.
III" came from the Phenician, and
has had curious history, In which the
cockney inability 30 manage 1t may be
traced. III" meant 200 In medieval
Roman.
"I' may be traced to the Egyptian.
The Phenicians represented 1t rather as
a consonant, but 1t was converted to
vowel value by the Greeks, and the RO-
mans gave 1t both consonant and vowel
duty.
~" Is but another form of the same
letter. They were used indifferently
until about $780, AS numeral 1t had
the same value as a." but was used
only at conclusion, as will" for eight.
tx" Is Phenlcian, and still earlier
Egyptian. 1t was little used In CLASH
cal Latin, and Is Of rare occurrence In
languages derived from the Latin. AS
a numeral 1t represented $50.
81" was lion In the Egyptian hero
II, tn ho tnto
about It's present form In the Greek and
the Latin. 1t Is the most sonorous and
most purely consonant
in sound Of all our letters. AS there
are three RS" In land colloQuialism,
so there are three us" In nautical
latitude and lookout"
1t Is conservative, changing little.
IN" is an ancient and honorable"
Its hieroglyphic equivalent, away back
in Egypt was almost fieur de lis in
the oval outline Of birds head-a fieur
de lis minus the central branch. AS a
Roman numeral 1t denotes 1000 For
merly the brand of IN" was impressed
on the person of one convicted of man.
In fiagrant cases the brand
was applied to the forehead. In print
ing 1t is the square, the quadrate, the
unit of computation in any body Of
type.
IN" Is as old, and the value of Its
character has been the same through
the whole history Of Its use. The sign
has no variety Of sounds, and there Is
no possible substitute. As a mineral
It's value is 90, which becomes 10000
when line Is drawn above the letter.
80" In the Phenician alphabet repre-
sented peculiarly and-to us-unpro-
cultural, but the Greeks
made vowel Of 1t, though they chang
ed Its form to a square instead of an
oval. 1t stood for II in the Roman nu-
merals of medieval times
"P" was evolved from the hero
glyphic age, and in all alphabets It has
stood for the one unvarying sound. 1t
has no varieties save that 1t Is silent
at the beginning of a few Greek words,
as psalm and pneumatic. 1t is 400 In