Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1901-09-12
A, B, C AND OTHERS.
A LOOK INTO THE ORIGIN OF
OUR ALPHABET.
Our Letters Are Mainly the Same al
Those Used by the Romnns-Ea Earlier
Derived from Greek aud Phenician-

short Study of Interesting Subject.
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 Phenician. And back Of that
Is a good deal Of guesswork. Very like
iy the Egyptian hieroglyphic and HER
attic characters formed the base Of the
Phenician letter-making. A is the first
letter in all the alphnbets that came
from the Phenican, and in that Ian
guage 1t signified cox; the Greek TAI
pha" means the same thing, though its
Egyptian hieroglyphic equivalent was
bird somewhat like the vulture in out
line.
"B" was also the second letter in the
Phenician, 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, US In dumb" or "debt" In the
original 1ndio-E European or Aryan lam
guages ID" was rarely found.
&C" In the Phenician and Greek had
the value Of hard "g," as In go" and
was similar IL the enunciation of tx"
as "g" Is now. For long time the
Latins made CO.. do service for both
TX" and ~" No word containing &C"
pronounced as 49, Is Of Anglo-Saxon
origin, except a few misspelled words,
as "cinder," which was originally ''sin-
der"
In the English ID" 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-
IL conservative. Its form was always
pretty nearly the same as ut present.
Its name In Phenician was che" which
most scholars say signltied window
In its two quantities, us 1t met" and
In they" 1t constitutes about 3 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 wv" sound gradually
went out of use in Greek, and the sign
with 1t. In the adaptation Of the al
phabet to Latin use the sign was resur-
rected, and first received the value we
give 1t.
&c" Is sign of Italic origin, having
been fabricated by the Romans by add
Ing tail or drop to the Ca transit
ton 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 10000
III" came from the Phenician, and
has had curious history, in which the
cockney inability to manage 1t may be
traced. III" meant 200 in medieval
Roman.
II" may be traced to the Egyptian.
The Phenicians represented 1t rather as
consonant, but 1t was converted to
vowel value by the Greeks, and the Ro-
mans gave it both consonant and vowel
duty.
u" Is but another form Of the same
letter. They We're used indlfferently
until about 1880. AS mineral it had
the same value as IT," 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 mineral 1t represented $50.
IL" was lion in the Egyptian hero
glyphic, a figure 6 In the Phenician, and
about its present form In the Greek and
the Latin. 1t Is the most sonorous and
continuous-the most purely consonant
in sound Of all our letters. AS there
are "three RS" In land colloQuialism,
80 there are three lis" In nautical
phrase-"lead. latitude and lookout"
1t Is conservative, changing little.
M" Is an ancient and honorable"
Its hieroglyphic equivalent, away back
in Egypt was almost fleur de lis in
the oval outline Of a birds head-a feur
de lis minus the central branch. AS a
Roman mineral It denotes 1000. For
merly the brand Of M" was impressed
on the person of one convicted Of man
slaughter. In fragrant cases the brand
was applied to the forehead. In print
ing it 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 mineral
It's value is 90. which becomes 10000
when a line Is drawn above the letter.
20" in the Phenician alphabet repre-
sented a peculiarly and-to us-unpro-
nounceable cultural, but the Greeks
made vowel Of 1t, though they chang
ed its form to square instead Of an
oval. 1t stood for II In the Roman nu-
merals Of medieval times.
up" was evolved from the hero
glyphic age, and In all alphabets 1t has
stood for the one unvarying sound. 1t
has no varieties save that 1t Is silent
at the beginning of few Greek words.
as psalm and pneumatic. 1t is 400 in
medieval numerals, and an abbrevia-
ton for many things.
20" Is an ancient also. AS a sign It
was abandoned In Greek. The Latin
preserved II, though its value was the