Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-12-06
LINEAGE OF LETTERS.
A LOOK INTO THE ORIGIN OF
OUR ALPHABET.

80 ANA>AA ~" VI LII l. l. C1GOs
A LOOK INTO THE ORIGIN OF
OUR ALPHABET.
Our Letters are Mainly the Same as Those
Used by the Romans-Earlier Derived from
Greek and Phenician-Short Study Of an In
terestins Subject.
Chicago Tim es- 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 Phenician. And back of
that is a good deal of guesswork.
Very likely the Egyptian hieroglyphic
and hieratic characters formed the
base of the Phenician letter-making.
A is the first letter in all the alpha
bets that came from the Phenician,
and in that language it signified COX" /;
the Greek "alpha" means the same
thing. though its Egyptian hieroglyph-
ic equivalent was bird somewhat like
the vulture in outline.
"B" 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 fire.
quently silent, as in "dumb," or
"debt." In the original Indio- Euro.
pean or Aryan languages "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 enuncia-
tion Of "k"a as "g" is now. For q
long time the Latins made &c" do SER
vice for both ak" and "g." No word
containing &C" pronounced as "s" is
of Anglo-Saxon origin, except few
misspelled words, as cinder," which
was originally "sinder."
In the English I'D" has the same
place-iourth letter and third conso.
nant-ss in the Roman, Greek and
Phenician, and is singularly uninter-
esting as q study.
"E" is an unchanging and aristo-
cratic conservative. Its form was al
ways pretty nearly the same as at
present. It's name in Phenician was
he" which most scholars say signi-
fed window. In its two quantities,
a. in "met" and in "they," it consti-
tutes about FIVE per cent Of English ut.
terance.
"F" in the Phenician meant peg or
hook, and its value was that of the
English "w." This CIV" sound grad.
ually went out Of use in Greek, and
the sign with it. In the adaptation OF
the alphabet to Latin use the sign was
resurrected, and first received the
value we give it.
&c" is . sign of Italic origin, hav.
ing been fabricated by the Romans by
adding q tail or drop to the "c"-a
transition very easily detected. 1t
never occurs at the beginning of words
of Anglo-Saxon origin. In medieval
Roman it stood for 400, and with a
line over it for 100000.
"H" came from the Phenicisn, and
has had . curious history, in which
the cockney inability to manage it
may be traced. "H" meant 200 in
medieval Roman.
"I" may be traced TO the Egyptian.
The Phenicians represented it rather
as consonant, but it was converted
to vowel value by the Greeks, and the
Romans gave it both consonant and
vowel duty.
~" is but another form OF the
same letter. They were used indiffer.
emily until about 1880. As . numeral
it had the same value as al" but was
used only at conclusion, As viii" for
eight.
tx" is Phenician, and still earlier
Egyptian. 1t was little used in class
ical Latin, and is OF rare occurrence in
languages derived from the Latin. As
q numeral it represented $50.
"L' was lion in the Egyptian hi
eroglyphic, . figure 6 in the Phenici-
an, and about it, present form in the
Greek and the Latin. It is the most
sonorous and continuous-the most
purely consonant-in sound OF all our
letters. Az there are "three RS" in
land colloquialism, 40 there are three
:" L's" in nautical phrase" lead, lati.
tude and lookout" 1t is a conserva'
tive, changing little.
IN" is an "ancient and honorable" !"
Its hieroglyphic equivalent. away back
in Egypt, was almost a feur de lis in
the oval outline Of birds head-a
fleur de lie minus the central branch.
As Roman numeral it denotes 1000.
Formerly the brand of "M" was inn.
pressed on the person Of one convicted
of manslaughter. In flagrant cases
the brand was applied to the forehead.
In printing it is the square, the quad
rate, the unit of computation in any
body of type.
"N" 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
numeral its value is 80, which becomes
10000 when line is drawn above the
letter.
40" in the Phenician alphabet rep
,..ortoJ ,,oculiarlv aud-ko us-un.