12 Letters That Didn't Make the Alphabet | Mental Floss 12 Letters That Didn't Make the Alphabet ThinkStock Like us on Facebook You know the alphabet. It’s one of the first things you’re taught in school. But did you know that they’re not teaching you all of the alphabet? There are quite a few letters we tossed aside as our language grew, and you probably never even knew they existed. 1. Thorn Have you ever seen a place that calls itself “ye olde whatever”? As it happens, that’s not a “y”, or, at least, it wasn’t supposed to be. Originally, it was an entirely different letter called thorn , which derived from the Old English runic alphabet, Futhark. Thorn, which was pronounced exactly like the "th" in its name, is actually still around today in Icelandic. We replaced it with “th” over time—thorn fell out of use because Gothic-style scripting made the letters y and thorn look practically identical. And, since French printing presses didn’t have thorn anyway, it just became common to replace it with a y. Hence naming things like, “Ye Olde Magazine of Interesting Facts” (just as an example, of course).

2. Wynn Another holdover from the Futhark runic alphabet, wynn was adapted to the Latin alphabet because it didn’t have a letter that quite fit the “w” sound that was common in English. You could stick two u’s (technically v’s, since Latin didn’t have u either) together, like in equus, but that wasn’t exactly right. Over time, though, the idea of sticking two u’s together actually became quite popular, enough so that they literally became stuck together and became the letter W (which, you’ll notice, is actually two V’s). 3. Yogh Yogh stood for a sort of throaty noise that was common in Middle English words that sounded like the "ch" in "Bach" or Scottish "loch." French scholars weren’t fans of our weird non-Latin letters and started replacing all instances of yogh with “gh” in their texts. When the throaty sound turned into "f" in Modern English, the "gh"s were left behind." 4. Ash You’re probably familiar with this guy from old-fashioned Greek or Roman style text, especially the kind found in churches.

It’s even still used stylistically in words today, like æther and æon. What you may not know, however, is that at one time the ae grapheme (as it’s now known) was an honorary English letter back in the days of Old English. It still had the same pronunciation and everything, it was just considered to be part of the alphabet and called “ æ sc” or “ash” after the ash Futhark rune, for which it was used as a substitute when transcribing into Latin letters. 5. Eth Eth is kind of like the little brother to thorn. Originating from Irish, it was meant to represent a slightly different pronunciation of the “th” sound, more like that in “thought” or “thing” as opposed to the one found in “this” or “them.” (The first is the voiceless dental fricative, the second is the voiced dental fricative). Note that, depending on your regional accent, there may not be much of a difference (or any at all) in the two pronunciations anyway, but that’s Modern English. Back in the old days, the difference was much more distinct.

As such, you’d often see texts with both eth and thorn depending on the required pronunciation . Before too long, however, people just began using thorn for both (and later “th”) and so eth slowly became unnecessary. 6. Ampersand Today we just use it for stylistic purposes (and when we’ve run out of space in a text message or tweet), but the ampersand has had a long and storied history in English, and was actually frequently included as a 27th letter of the alphabet as recently as the 19th century. In fact, it’s because of its placement in the alphabet that it gets its name. Originally, the character was simply called “and” or sometimes “et” (from the Latin word for and, which the ampersand is usually stylistically meant to resemble).

However, when teaching children the alphabet, the & was often placed at the end, after Z, and recited as “and per se and,” meaning “and in and of itself” or “and standing on its own.” So you’d have “w, x, y, z, and, per se, and.” Over time, the last bit morphed into “ampersand,” and it stuck even after we quit teaching it as part of the alphabet. 7. Insular G This letter (referred to as “insular G” or “Irish G” because it didn’t have a fancy, official name) is sort of the grandfather of the Middle English version of yogh. Originally an Irish letter, it was used for the previously mentioned zhyah/jhah pronunciation that was later taken up by yogh , though for a time both were used. It also stood alongside the modern G (or Carolingian G) for many centuries, as they represented separate sounds. The Carolingian G was used for hard G sounds, like growth or good, yogh was used for “ogh” sounds, like cough or tough, and insular g was used for words like measure or vision.

As Old English transformed into Middle English, insular G was combined with yogh and, as mentioned earlier, was slowly replaced with the now-standard “gh” by scribes, at which point insular G/yogh were no longer needed and the Carolingian G stood alone (though the insular G is still used in modern Irish). 8. “That” Much like the way we have a symbol/letter for “and,” we also once had a similar situation with “that,” which was a letter thorn with a stroke at the top. It was originally just a shorthand, an amalgamation of thorn and T (so more like “tht”), but it eventually caught on and got somewhat popular in its own right (even outliving thorn itself), especially with religious institutions. There’s an excellent chance you can find this symbol somewhere around any given church to this day. 9. Ethel Similar to Æ/ash/æsc above, the digraph for OE was once considered to be a letter as well , called ethel. It wasn’t named after someone’s dear, sweet grandmother, but the Furthark rune Odal, as œ was its equivalent in transcribing.

It was traditionally used in Latin loan words with a long e sound, such as subpœna or fœtus. Even federal was once spelled with an ethel. (Fœderal.) These days, we’ve just replaced it with a simple e. 10. Tironian “Ond” Long before there were stenographers, a Roman by the name of Marcus Tullius Tiro (who was basically Roman writer Cicero’s P.A.) invented a shorthand system called Tironian notes. It was a fairly simple system that was easily expanded, so it remained in use by scribes for centuries after Tiro’s death . One of the most useful symbols (and an ancestor to the ampersand) was the “et” symbol above—a simple way of tossing in an “and.” (And yes, it was sometimes drawn in a way that’s now a popular stylistic way of drawing the number 7.) When used by English scribes, it became known as “ond,” and they did something very clever with it. If they wanted to say “bond,” they’d write a B and directly follow it with a Tironian ond.

For a modern equivalent, it’d be like if you wanted to say your oatmeal didn’t have much flavor and you wrote that it was “bl&.” The trend grew popular beyond scribes practicing shorthand and it became common to see it on official documents and signage, but since it realistically had a pretty limited usage and could occasionally be confusing, it eventually faded away. 11. Long S You may have seen this in old books or other documents, like the title page from Paradise Lost above. Sometimes the letter s will be replaced by a character that looks a bit like an f. This is what’s known as a “long s,” which was an early form of a lowercase s. And yet the modern lowercase s (then referred to as the “short s”) was still used according to a complicated set of rules (but most usually seen at the end of a word), which led to many words (especially plurals) using both. For example, ?uper?titous is how the word superstitious would have been printed. It was purely a stylistic lettering, and didn’t change the pronunciation at all.

It was also kind of silly and weird, since no other letters behaved that way, so around the beginning of the 19th century, the practice was largely abandoned and the modern lowercase s became king. 12. Eng For this particular letter, we can actually point to its exact origin. It was invented by a scribe named Alexander Gill the Elder in the year 1619 and meant to represent a velar nasal , which is found at the end of words like king, ring, thing, etc. Gill intended for the letter to take the place of ng entirely (thus bringing would become bri?i?), and while it did get used by some scribes and printers, it never really took off—the Carolingian G was pretty well-established at that time and the language was beginning to morph into Modern English, which streamlined the alphabet instead of adding more to it. Eng did manage live on in the International Phonetic Alphabet, however. Discovering the 2-Dimensional Structure of the Alphabetical Order of the alphabetical order, its didactic system, and its Israelite origin.

I published my discovery on Simchat Torah in September of 1983 in the first German edition of my book entitled TORAH OF THE ALPHABET or How the Art of Writing was Taught under the Judges of Israel (1441�1025), Reconstruction of the 2 Tablets of Moses in the Original Alphabet, which I wrote under the pen-name ELIYAHU MOZIANI.1) § 2. The letter of the law is the professional concern of jurisprudence as an applied cultural science, art or technology, which is as closely related to cultural anthropology as medicine is to physical anthropology or human biology.2) �������������� TORAH OF THE ALPHABET or How the Art of Writing was Taught under the Judges of Israel (1441�1025), Reconstruction of the 2 Tablets of Moses in the Original Alphabet, translated from the 2nd German edition (1984) by the author, 2nd English ed.

(1985) ISBN 3-924448-02-7 (hardcover), published by Baalschem Press, and selling for US- Dollars 12.95 (hereinafter cited as TORAH OF THE ALPHABET). From the precise measurements of the tablets I calculated their volumes and weights, cf. Ed Metzler, Discovering the System of Mosaical Metrology, (Herborn 1985) pp. 4�7. 2) Culture is the software of human biology, and indepen- dent of whether the original hardware is still extant, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 20. However, there is hope that [4] Hence the palaeography of the original alphabet is well within the scope of legal history, if the Tablets of the Law hewn and written by Moses in the Sinai, 3427 years ago, were the first legal document in alphabetical script, and the beginning of alphabetical literature.

This opinion had been expressed already by professor Hubert Grimme, an expert of proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, in his article on the Alphabet in the Encyclopaedia Judaica of 1928, and I was able to prove it by discovering the three-dimensional structure of the Ten Commandments.3) the original tablets of Moses may still be waiting to be found in a Genizah, see Ed Metzler, Mosaical Metrology (N. 1) p. 19. Reconstructing cultural phenomena, such as the original Indo- European language, is not a new endeavor in comparative cultural sciences, and dates back to the days of Franz Bopp. But, while there is no end to reconstructing an entire language from the most ancient sources available, the graphic reconstruction of the 22 letters in the original alphabet is a limited task that was to be accomplished some day. 3) Cf. Ed Metzler, Discovering the Three-Dimensional Structure of the Ten Commandments, (Herborn 1986) p. 7.

Thus, the Bible constitutes the oldest collection of alphabetical literature that grew around the law of the two tablets of the Torah of Moses from the Sinai (Ibid. p. 29). The correctness of my reconstruction of the Mosaical tablets can be proven by empirical and mathematical evidence, because they were the prototypes of ancient weights and measures (Ibid. pp. 18�23). recognition, in others their phonetic values were readjusted to meet the needs of foreign languages, some retained the original letter names, and others dropped them altogether.5) Thus, the alphabetical order of letters, characteristic of every alphabet in the strict sense, turns out to be its most resistant aspect.6) § 4. The alphabetical order of the Latin ABC, which dropped the letters Zayin, Tet, Samekh, and Tzadi, but added G, V, X, Y, and Z, has 18 out of 22 letters in common with the sequence of letters in the ancient Hebrew alphabet.7) The �������������� 5) The cuneiform alphabet was used in Ugarit during its last two centuries, which are contemporary with the first two centuries of the Israelite monarchy (ca.

1030�830 B. C. E.), as proved by Immanuel Velikovsky, From Exodus to King Akhnaton, (1952) chapters 3 and 5; confirmed by Ed Metzler, Mosaical Metrology (N. 1) p. 24. Ugarit did not adopt the alphabet before Old Hebrew had lost the th-sound toward the end of the ancient Israelite republic, see below Note 34. 6) Neither the so-called Egyptian alphabet of one-con- sonant hieroglyphs nor the so-called Ethiopian alphabet, in spite of its Sinaitic origin, are alphabets in the strict sense, because Alef and Bet were never placed at the top of their sequence of letters, cf. Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) p. 29. 7) The letter G was formed out of C, and inserted where Zayin was dropped, while V, X, Y, and Z were added at the end of the ancient Hebrew alphabet, and thus are irrelevant for the alphabetical order, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N.

1) p. 23. [7] Greek alphabet dropped the letters Waw, Tzadi, and Kof, but added Ypsilon, Phi, Chi, Psi, and Omega, so that it shares 19 out of 22 letters with the ancient Hebrew alphabet.8) All of its 22 letters occur in the same order in the Ugaritic alphabet, which has eight additional letters. Since the chances of hitting the same alphabetical order of 22 letters at random are one in billions of thousands of billions, all of the alphabets must be descendants of one original alphabet.9) Yet, it seemed as if we would never know the genius who invented it. 8) The obsolete letters Waw (F) and Kof (Q) were retained as Greek numerals at their appropriate places in the alphabetical order, so that the Greek alphabet originally even had 21 letters in common with the ancient Hebrew alphabet. Since Tzadi was dropped, the numerical value of Hebrew Kof (100) is only 90 in Greek.

Another obsolete letter-name retained as a numeral (900), although not at its former place in the alphabetical order, is Sampi shut up!, see below Note 27. 9) The Sefer Yetzirah (chapter 4, no. 16) gives the number of permutations for seven letters (= 5040) adding, continue from here on to calculate what the mouth cannot say, and the ear cannot hear . The uniqueness of the one and only alphabetical order is illustrated by the number of possibilities of arranging its 22 letters in different orders, which is not infinite, but calculable: 22! = 1· 2· 3· 4· 5· 6· 7· 8· 9· 10·11·12·13·14·15·16·17·18·19·20·21·22 = 1 124 000 727 777 607 680 000, i. e.

billions of thousands of billions, see TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 53. [8] § 5. Three typical similarities of letters have been known for a long time.10) The phonetic and graphic similarity of M and N, which I shall call the Mem-Nun type of similarity, is obvious to every child. A comparable similarity is the He-Chet type, and the Tet-Taw type. In all three cases phonetic similarities correspond to graphic similarities, and phonetic differences to graphic differences.11) But while Mem and Nun form the seventh consecutive pair of letters in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, He and Chet are separated by two intervening letters, as Tet and Taw are �������������� 10) Cf. Joseph Halévy, Mélanges dépigraphie et darchéologie sémitiques, (1874) pp. 168 and 179, who observed already that Mem appears to be just a modification of Nun, as Chet of He, and Tet of Taw.

11) The phonetic similarity of the nasal sounds M and N is parallelled by the graphic similarity of the ancient Hebrew letters Mem and Nun, that changed little in the Roman alphabet. The phonetic difference of the bilabial M, pronounced with closed lips, from the dental N, pronounced with the teeth showing, corresponds to their graphic difference, since the more nasal M has one more stroke. Similarly, the letter He looks like a mirror-imaged E, and Chet, which stands for a more closed h-sound, is obtained by closing it. The ancient Hebrew letter Taw is x-shaped, whereas the letter Tet, which represents an emphatic or velarized t-sound with a more closed mouth position, is derived from Taw by en- closing it with a circle, see below p. 30, and TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 65, 77, and 85, cf. also pp. 59, 61, and 71. [9] § 6. After its invention the original alphabet had to be taught in order to survive.

The teacher, then as now, faced the same practical problem of �������������� 12) Wondering why the letters Tet and Taw, in spite of their obvious similarity, are numbers 9 and 22 in the alphabetical order, and likewise why He and Chet are numbers 5 and 8, is the decisive question answered below in the diagram on page 14. A comparable problem is the three-dimensional structure of the Ten Commandments, which was destroyed by the one-dimensional copy of the biblical text, cf. Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) Notes 23 and seventy more chemical elements than alphabetical letters, the two-dimensional structure of the alphabetical order was less easily perceptible than the periodic system of chemical elements, because there could not possibly be any periodicity of this kind in the alphabet due to the much smaller number of letters. [10] how to arrange its twenty-two letters on a two- dimensional writing area, such as a sheet of paper, a blackboard or a slate tablet.13) Recognizing the same practical problem almost three and a half thousand years later may also lead to the same solution.

The best solution is a tablet of 6 by 4 with two empty spaces, for an area of 11 by 2 is too oblong, while a square of 5 letter-units has three empty spaces.14) Like a string of pearls the one-dimensional alphabetical order must be laid out or coiled up in a two-dimensional pattern in such a way as to bring out the similarities of remote letters by their nearness on the tablet. �������������� 13) Such an ancient Etruscan school-tablet, dated around 700 B. C. E. was found in Marsiliana, Italy. All 22 letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet are inscribed in alphabetical order in one line on its frame plus four additional letters at the end. The shapes of most letters are still very close to their Hebrew original, and may rightly be called Punic (Latin for Phoenician), as Herodotus writes with respect to the most ancient Greek letters, see above Note 4. In this context we should remember the story told by Virgil (cf.

Aeneid I, 5�7) about a man named Aeneas (Hebrew Aenosh man), coming over from the Hebrew-speaking Tyrian colony of Carthage to found a city on Capitol Hill, that was to be called Roma (Hebrew Romah proud elevation). 14) The Tablets of the Law of the Torah of Moses from the Sinai (below p. 26) turned out to have the same proportions (6 : 4 = 3 : 2 = 1.5 : 1) as my didactic table (cf. Note 19 infra). § 7. The ancient Hebrew alphabet consists of the following twenty-two letters: 1. Alef, 2. Bet, 3. Gimel, 4. Dalet, 5. He, 6. Waw, 7. Zayin, 8. Chet, 9. Tet, 10. Yod, 11. Kaf, 12. Lamed, 13. Mem, 14. Nun, 15. Samekh, 16.

Ayin, 17. Peh, 18. Tzadi, 19. Kof, 20. Resh, 21. Shin, and 22. Taw.15) The first step towards a two- dimensional arrangement of the alphabetical order is dictated by the prime numbers of 22, which are two times eleven. Hence the 22 letters may at first be arranged in an oblong column of 11 pairs of letters, which must be consecutive in keeping with the alphabetical order of letters: �������������� 15) This alphabetical order of the ancient Hebrew alphabet is known from the acrostic compositions in the Bible, in particular the Proverbs of King Solomon 31, 10�31, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah 1, 1�22, in which successive verses begin with the letters of the alphabet, furthermore from Psalms 111 and 112 with con- secutive pairs of letters to a verse, as well as Psalm 119 with units of eight verses , each beginning with the same letter.

The complete alphabetical order occurs on the Marsiliana tablet, and on finds from Ugarit, which are not earlier than the Israelite monarchy, see above Note 5. The letters of the ancient Hebrew alphabet have been known from many inscriptions, since the Mesha stone was found in 1868. The original shapes of some letters may be restored from proto-Sinaitic inscriptions, e. g. by raising the horns of the bull (Alef), the hands of the human being (He), by opening the roof of the house (Bet), and placing a dot in the eye (Ayin). [12] 1./2. Alef-Bet, 3./4. Gimel-Dalet, 5./6. He-Waw, 7./8. Zayin-Chet, 9./10. Tet-Yod, 11./12. Kaf- Lamed, 13./14. Mem-Nun, 15./16. Samekh-Ayin, 17./18. Peh-Tzadi, 19./20.

Kof-Resh, and finally 21./22. Shin-Taw.16) § 8. Splitting the oblong column of consecu- tive letter-pairs into one column of six pairs, and another of five pairs yields a better distribution on the writing area by placing them next to each other. If the letters Mem and Nun are at the top of the second column, the letters Tet and Taw happen to stand on the same horizontal line �������������� 16) The overriding principle in all future considerations is the inviolability of the one-dimensional alphabetical order, which must be preserved by all means in any two-dimensional arrangement. The same goes for the above eleven consecutive letter-pairs, which must not be separated, when dividing them into two columns. Thus, the second half of the alphabet begins with Mem (cf. Note 17 infra), although numerically it would begin with Lamed, which has to stay with its mate Kaf at the bottom of the first column, see TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 67. This leaves open the writing direction from right to left or from left to right or both alternately (boustrophedon).

The consecutive pairs of letters supplement and explain each other in a variety of ways, that helped to decipher hitherto unknown meanings of letter-names, especially Zayin-Chet circumcision of the male sexual organ (Ibid. pp. 84�87), Tet-Yod potters clay on disk with working hand (Ibid. pp. 76�81), and Kaf-Lamed male and female sexual organ (Ibid. pp. 52�59 and 108). [13] forming a four-letter group or quaternity.17) The sixteen letters above the Tet-Yod-Shin-Taw qua- ternity are arranged in four square blocks of four letters each with the second line of every block in the opposite writing direction (bou- strophedon).18) It brings out the He-Chet type of similarity by placing these letters above each other in the same four-letter group.

The two empty spaces at the end are filled by Alef-Bet to read: Kol Alef-Bet � all of the alphabet.19) �������������� 17) See the didactic plate of the Hebrew alphabet, which is a recurring theme in recent works of art by Yitzhak Greenfield: On it the second half of the alphabet begins with Mem. Likewise, the second line of a cuneiform alphabet-tablet found in Ugarit already began with the letter Mem. 18) On account of the oldest Greek and proto-Sinaitic inscriptions a boustrophedon pattern could be expected, and was subsequently confirmed (cf. Note 24 infra). 19) The above three typical similarities of the letters 13./14. Mem-Nun, 5./8. He-Chet, and 9./22. Tet-Taw [violet, blue] are sufficient to determine the two-dimensional structure of the alphabetical order, which is graphically illustrated by the adjoining diagram. Its numbers are the ordinal numbers of the letters in the alphabetical order of the ancient Hebrew alphabet.

This diagram also determines the outlines of the graphic designs of the Solomonic alphabet, and of the original Mosaical alphabet (see below pp. § 9. When I first published my reconstruction of the original alphabet in 1983, some illiterate ignoramus may have thought it to be nothing but my imagination running wild.20) Similarly, it must have seemed like magic to an unscientific mind, when Mendeleyeff predicted the chemical ele- ments that were to be discovered in the years after he had found their periodic system in 1869.21) However, if you have an almost com- plete set of teeth, it is no miracle to imagine �������������� 20) This is the assessment of an internationally renowned professor of Bible and Semitic languages at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, quoted in the TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p.

11 calling it the obscene fantasy of a ghetto Jew, and denying the Jews and their Israelite forefathers the honor of having given to the world the principle of phonetic script, and the first alphabet. In the meantime, however, it has been recognized as a scientific work of genius (Ibid. p. 10) 21) When Mendeleyeff discovered his periodic system of chemical elements, he did not know their atomic structure, which is the reason for it. As the periodic system was the basis of atomic theory, my didactic table of the alphabet was the key to the structure of the Ten Commandments (cf. p. 25 infra). what the missing ones looked like. By filling the gaps in his periodic table of chemical elements Mendeleyeff was able to predict the discovery of missing elements, and by the same method I was able to restore distorted letters in the original alphabet from the systematics of my didactic table of alphabetical letters.22) § 10.

Upon closer examination my two- dimensional table of the alphabetical order, which was deduced merely from the three typical simi- larities of the letters Mem-Nun, He-Chet, and Tet-Taw, proved to be a well-planned curriculum for a one-week course in alphabetic writing.23) �������������� 22) Fortunately only the letter Samekh is so distorted as to be considered missing (cf. Note 27 infra). Some letters were restored from proto-Sinaitic script, see above Note 15. 23) This explains the title and character of my book TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1), for he who claims to have discovered a didactic system should be able to present it in the form of a schoolbook. The well-known Hebrew word t-Orah (whence the Greek loan-word theoria theory) means teaching (Aramaic Oraita) like m-Orah female teacher, and indicates the Israelite origin of the alphabet in the Torah of Moses from the Sinai (see below p. 24).

Hence the alphabet may be called the oldest, and most successful illustrated school- book of the world (subtitle), because the alphabetical order is a didactic system, as already suspected by H. Bauer-P. Leander, Historical Grammar of the Hebrew Language, (German 1922) p. 68. [16] § 11.

The most distorted letter to be restored by filling a gap in the didactic system of the alphabetical order is Samekh.27) Unlike the last lessons of the other schooldays, that are obtained by slightly changing a previous letter, the Ayin following Samekh at the end of the fifth school- day cannot be derived from it nor from Mem and Nun in ancient Hebrew script.28) This de- viation from a rule of didactic psychology is removed by assuming that Samekh looked like the lips (Sefatayim) of a mouth in front view originally, for it may be turned into an eye (Ayin) simply by adding a dot in the middle.29) This also �������������� 27) The hissing sound of its voiceless s may be taken as a command of silence, which was graphically represented in ancient Hebrew script by a vertical finger on the three horizontal lines of the lips Samekh Yad-kha al Pi-kha hold your mouth! or Sam-pi shut up!, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 27, and above Note 8.

28) Thus, on the first schoolday Dalet is derived from Gimel by closing it at the bottom, on the second Chet from He likewise by closing it, on the third Tet from Taw by surrounding it with a circle, on the fourth Resh from Kof by moving its vertical line sideways, and on the sixth schoolday only two easy letters remain (cf. Note 25 supra). 29) After the lips were redesigned to read Samekh shut up!, the distinguishing dot in the eye was no longer needed, and omitted, see TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 61. explains why the letter Peh mouth is shown in profile, which would not make sense unless it had to be distinguished from the mouth shape of the letter Samekh in the original alphabet.30) D. The Restored Sounds, Names, and Meanings of Letters in the Original Alphabet § 12. A phonetic script reflects the phono- logical system of the language at the time and place of its invention.31) The Bible tells us that �������������� 30) Cf.

TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 63. A graphic distinction between Peh mouth and Sefatayim lips was also needed in ancient south Semitic script, which is a non-alphabetic descendant of proto-Sinaitic. Its Peh has the same shape as the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph r � mouth, while the lines of its lips are overlapping at the corners of the mouth. An analogous distinction in the original alphabet is the house in cross-section (Bet) as against its front view (Dalet). 31) Like a phonograph, a phonetic script records the sound of a language. The original alphabet reflects the phonemes of Old Hebrew spoken at the time of the Exodus from Egypt in 1441 B. C. E. This date, which marks the beginning of the ancient Israelite republic and its era, is as highly reliable as counting the Greek Olympiads or the years after the foundation of Rome, cf. Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) pp. 6 and 7.

[19] the two stone Tablets of the Law with the Ten Commandments on them were hewn and written by Moses in the Sinai in 1441 B. C. E. This is confirmed by the proto-Sinaitic inscriptions in Old Hebrew found in the Sinai since 1905, and generally dated around the middle of the second millennium before the common era.32) Three centuries after Moses a sound change occurred, in which Hebrew lost the th-sound setting it apart from other Semitic languages. Hence the original alphabet had to have a special letter for th that I spotted as Tzadi.33) Thus, languages �������������� 32) The complete decipherment of the proto-Sinaitic in- scription on the pedestal of a sphinx, now in the British Museum (no. 41 748), was presented, for the first time, in the TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 9�12 and 32�39, proving that it is Old Hebrew, as already claimed by Grimme, see above text accompanying Note 3 (loc. cit.

at 405). Hebrew is the language of Canaan (Isaiah 19, 18), for which Phoenicia is a synonym, derived from Egyptian Punt or Hebrew Put (Genesis 10, 6), see Velikovsky (N. 5) chapter 3, and above Note 4. 33) Cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 73, and Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) pp. 27, 28, and 31. If this sound change, by which the tribes of Israel could be distinguished (Judges 12, 6), was in full swing some 300 years after the Exodus from Egypt (Judges 11, 26), it may have taken approximately another century until all of Israel had lost the ability to pronounce th correctly, so that the letter Tzadi stood for an s-sound at the beginning of the Israelite monarchy.

[20] adopting the alphabet from Israel after this sound change had to invent a new letter for th, if they needed it.34) § 13. The acrophonic letter-names of the original alphabet are Hebrew model words chosen as examples for their initial sounds.35) The letter Shin tooth must have been renamed in the ancient Hebrew alphabet, because its shape in the proto-Sinaitic inscriptions is so round that it does not resemble a tooth at all, but two female breasts (Shadayim) that happen to have the same initial sound in Hebrew.36) This assumption also ex- plains the name of the letter Tzadi sidewise, �������������� 34) Both Ugarit and Greece needed letters for their th- sounds. But Greek dropped Tzadi (see above Note 8), since it did not need another letter for an s-sound besides Samekh and Shin, whereas Ugarit adapted Tzadi to its cuneiform script as an s-sound within the Peh-Tzadi-Kof-Resh sequence of the alphabet, cf.

Cyrus Herzl Gordon, Ugaritic Textbook (Rome 1965) pp. 52 and 53. While the Ugaritic alphabet invented new letters for its voiced and voiceless th-sounds, the Greek alphabet changed the emphatic Tet into its aspirate Theta, although in Hebrew, later on, Taw sometimes � Tet never � changed into a th-sound. 35) The alphabetical letters are highly abstract pictures of these model objects with the letter-names telling what they are supposed to be. 36) See TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 82 and 83. for it consists of a vertical line next to the breasts marking the side (Tzad) of the body.37) Another letter that was renamed is Nun, originally a snake (Nachash) represented by a sinus curve. The new name honors bin-Nun, which is the patronymic of Joshua, the successor and second in command after Moses, whose initial Mem is followed by the letter Nun.38) § 14.

The choice of Hebrew model words depends on psychological associations current in ancient Israelite culture.39) Thus, circumcision of the foreskin would be out of the question as �������������� 37) The model word Tzadi lateral is an adjective formed out of Tzad side, referring to the noun in the ninth consecutive letter-pair 17./18. Peh-Tzadi, and explaining that it is a mouth seen in profile, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 72�75. Since consecutive letter-pairs supplement and explain each other (see above Note 16), the original letter-name for Shin helped to decipher the last letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet 21./22. Shadayim-Taw breasts and nipple (Ibid. pp. 78�83). It also helped to turn the arm of the hand (Yod) so as to fit the shoulder next to the breast, moving it into a working position at the potters disk of the letter Tet. 38) Cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N.

1) pp. 64 and 65. 39) A model word current among tent-dwellers, and frequently mentioned in the book of Exodus is the sixth letter in the ancient Hebrew alphabet Waw hook, consisting of a tent-pole (Amud from Amad to stand) and a quarter-circle, see TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 88 and 89. a model word for an ancient Philistine as well as a modern Christian, because it is foreign to their cultures, while it would immediately pop into a Jewish mind, to whom it is familiar then as now.40) According to Genesis 17, 12 the covenant of circumcision (Berit Milah) has to be performed on the eighth day after the birth of a son.

Con- sequently, the meaning of the eighth letter in the alphabetical order (Chet) refers to circumcision as in Chatan Damim a bloody bridegroom (Exodus 4, 25 and 26).41) The other letter in the fourth consecutive pair (Zayin) depicts a male sexual organ circumcised at its top.42) �������������� 40) Circumcision, for a Jew, is a happy family occasion. This cultural difference may be the reason for the mental block of Christian scholars shunning the real meaning of the letter Zayin male sexual organ (cf. Zanav tail and Zonah whore), and preferring its second meaning weapon. 41) Other related roots are Chatakh to cut, and Chatam to seal the covenant (Berit) upon the flesh (Bassar). The place of the letter Chet in the alphabetical order proves that it was numerical or alphanumerical from the outset, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p.

120, and Note 8 supra. 42) See TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 84�87. The letter Zayin is the left half of Chet, as Waw of He, and as F is an E without its bottom. In the original alphabet the letter Chet had to be turned into the same position as proto-Sinaitic He, from which it is a modification (cf. Notes 10 and 15 supra). [23] § 15. If Mem and Nun were placed at the top of the second column of consecutive letter- pairs, because they are the initials of the two top men, who founded the ancient Israelite republic, the reason for placing Alef and Bet at the top of the alphabetical order should be that they are the initials of the first two lines of the first republican constitution to be hewn and written on the two stone Tablets of the Law in the original alphabet after its invention by Moses.43) This assumption proved correct, for �������������� 43) Cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 105�107.

My approach to the palaeography of the original alphabet was from comparative history of law, to which it is an auxiliary science, if the two Tablets of the Law of the Torah of Moses from the Sinai were the first legal document in alphabetical script, invented for the practice of law under the Judges of Israel: The Rule of Law begins with the Letter of the Law! � The Hebrew word Alef does not only mean the bull, who leads a herd of animals, but also the leader (Aluf) of a people (Exodus 15, 15). Since the people of Israel are called the house (Bet) of Jacob (Exodus 19, 3), the letters Alef-Bet-Mem-Nun express the leadership of Moses and Joshua. [24] it was the key to my discovering the three- dimensional structure of the Ten Commandments by telling me the number of letters per line on the original inscription.44) It was written in alternating directions as suggested by the bou- strophedon pattern of my alphabetical table.45) § 16.

The proportions of my didactic table of alphabetical letters, arranged on a rectangular area of six by four, turned out to be identical with the proportions of the Tablets of the Law of the Torah of Moses from the Sinai, which were �������������� 44) See Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) p. 14. The principle of reciprocity of consecutive letter-pairs had to apply also to the two top letters in the alphabetical order (Ibid. Note 10), after observing it in the rest of the alphabet (cf. Notes 11, 16, 28, 37, and 42 supra). Since the text of the Ten Command- ments begins with the letter Alef, it was not a far-fetched idea to look for the first Bet, which is number 33, and the first letter in the second line. The commander-in-chief of the troops (Elohey Tzevaot), comparable to the Roman praetor (Ibid.

Note 44), inscribed (Chakak) the Tablets of the Law with 10 lines (Devarim or Sefirot) of 32 letters each (Ketivot, correct for Netivot), cf. Sefer Yetzirah, chapter 1, no. 1. The Hebrew word El (short for Ayil) does not only mean the ram, who leads a herd of sheep, but also the leader of human beings (Exodus 15, 15), who walks in front of them (cf. Latin prae-itor). 45) The turning-quaternity (above Note 24) corresponds to the turning-letters on the Tablets of the Law, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) p. 101. The alternating writing directions are exercised within the square four-letter blocks (above Note 18). [25] one cubit by one and a half, fitting exactly into the width of the Ark of the Covenant.46) The original alphabet may have been painted on the wood of this box imposing its measurements on the arrangement of letters.

If it was painted on its bottom, the free space of half a cubit between the tablets would have been sufficient to see one column of consecutive letter-pairs at a time.47) By the second column would become visible, and the two oblong four-letter blocks could be seen, when turning the tablet by ninety degrees.48) �������������� 46) Cf. Ed Metzler, Ten Commandments (N. 3) p. 18. If my didactic table of alphabetical letters were written on the Tablets of the Law, one schoolday would require one sixth of a tablet, which is one Omer (Ibid. p. 22). Hence counting the Omer from Easter to Pentecost means counting the days, because a schoolday equals one Omer according to the geometry of the Torah of Moses (Ibid. Note 42). 47) Reading one column after the other yields the alpha- numerical sequence of letters, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 31 and 120.

The empty space of half a cubit between the tablets, which are 0.1 cubit thick and 1.5 cubits long, is three Omers, and one Omer is 2.22 liters, if one cubit measures 44.6 cm, see Ed Metzler, Mosaical Metrology (N. 1) Notes 9 and 23. 48) During transportation the empty spaces were filled with the broken tablets: An Omer full of 10 Manah stones of 100 Beka of 6.0 grams each was wrapped in a little fleece (Tzintzenet), and laid in front of the first tablet (YaHUH), cf. Exodus 16, 33. [26] § 17. A revolution such as the Exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt in 1441 B. C.

E., which brought to an end the Middle Kingdom and the pyramid age, was indispensable for the introduction of the original alphabet.49) It was not enough to realize that a set of some 20 odd phonetic symbols would do to write a language, as many Egyptian scholars of the time may have concluded from their system of one-consonant hieroglyphs, but it took a tremendous effort to throw over board the Egyptian culture and its hieroglyphic script.50) The exploited pyramid- �������������� 49) In this century the Turkish revolution resulted in the substitution of the Roman for the Arabic alphabet. The correct dating of the Exodus at the end of the Middle Kingdom, which is several centuries off the generally accepted Egyptian chronology, is the great merit of Immanuel Velikovsky (N. 5) chapters 1 and 2. It is confirmed by the biblical description of the building materials used in the construction of the last pyramids in Fayoum (Pithom) as well as by the geography of the Exodus route, which does not lead to the Red Sea unless the point of departure was far enough south of the Nile delta, cf. Ed Metzler, Mosaical Metrology (N.

1) Note 14, and Idem, Ten Commandments (N. 3) Note 36. 50) Without this effort, hieroglyphs continued being written until the Egyptians (Copts) adopted Christianity and the Greek alphabet, followed a few centuries later by Islam and the Arabic alphabet. Other examples for conservative spelling are English, and Japanese combining Chinese characters with a phonetic syllabary. [27] builders of the people of Israel, who were fed up with sacrificing their lives to the death cult of the pharaohs, must have been only too willing to replace the clumsy script of this hated culture by a more efficient way of writing.51) § 18. The alphabet is one of the greatest cultural achievements of mankind, but its origin seemed to be a mystery forever. A long time after the decipherment of cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing, the meaning of many letters in our very own script remained an unsolved problem.52) �������������� 51) Learning how to read and write a complicated script, such as Egyptian hieroglyphs or Chinese characters, takes many years of study, which is an aristocratic luxury and a costly waste of time.

The simplicity of alphabetical writing, on the other hand, which can be taught in a one-week course of four lessons a day, makes literacy and learning available to everybody. Instead of an aristocracy of priests, the revolution of the Torah teaching of Moses aimed at democracy by educating a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19, 6), wishing that all the people were prophets (Numbers 11, 29). 52) The alphabet is a didactic system more geometrico arranged by the geometrical mind of a pyramid-builder. The masons way of thinking represented the letter Bet house in cross-section by omitting the vertical line to the left of the square, that stood for a house in proto-Sinaitic script and in Egyptian hieroglyphs. A law-abiding court-officer under the Judges of Israel had to add the prescribed railing on top of the flat roof (Deuteronomy 22, 8), which later became the second floor of B, cf. TORAH OF THE ALPHABET (N. 1) pp. 16 and 92�97.

Anti-Jewish prejudice prevented the most likely candidate for the invention of alphabetic writing from being taken seriously into consideration.53) By focusing my attention on the systematic aspects of the alphabetical order along with its phonetic, graphic, and semantic aspects of letter-names, I succeeded in restoring the original alphabet, as taught (Torah) by Moses in the Sinai. In every detail the alphabet bears the highly individual fingerprint of the genius of the people of Israel who conceived it.54) �������������� 53) One of the earliest detractors is Tacitus, Annals, XI, 14, twisting the account of Herodotus (N. 4) to the effect that the Phoenicians palmed off the alphabet as their own invention, while they allegedly received it from Egypt. Hieroglyphic script, however, is incontestably non-alphabetic. An equally ridiculous detraction, based on Aryan chauvinism, claims that the decisive step was the introduction of vowel-sounds in the Greek and Roman alphabets by changing Alef into A, He into E, Yod into I, Ayin into O, and Waw into Y or U.

Due to the relativity of what is phonetically significant, these apparent improvements in non- Semitic languages are disadvantages in Hebrew, for which the original alphabet was conceived. 54) Besides circumcision of the foreskin (cf. Note 40 supra), another distinctively Israelite sign is the day of rest (Shabat) after six days of work (Exodus 31, 17). The curriculum of the alphabet ends (Kol Alef-Bet) after six schooldays (above Note 19), as heaven and earth were finished (Genesis 2, 1�3). � The style of writing depends largely on the materials and tools, rather circular on sand, more angular on stone, and cuneiform on wet clay. [29] 10 Basic Chemistry Facts 10 Basic Chemistry Facts 10 Basic Chemistry Facts Fun and Interesting Chemistry Facts An important chemistry fact is that most of the universe is made from the element hydrogen. Hubble Space Telescope, photo PR96-27B Updated March 19, 2016. This is a collection of 10 fun and interesting basic chemistry facts. Chemistry is the study of matter and energy and the interactions between them.

It is a physical science that is closely related to physics, which often shares the same definition. Chemistry traces its roots back to the ancient study of alchemy . Chemistry and alchemy are separate now, though alchemy still is practiced today. All matter is made up of the chemical elements, which are distinguished from each other by the numbers of protons they possess. The chemical elements are organized in order of increasing atomic number into the periodic table . The first element in the periodic table is hydrogen . Each element in the periodic table has a one or two letter symbol. The only letter in the English alphabet not used on the periodic table is J. The letter q only appears in the symbol for the placeholder name for element 114, ununquadium , which has the symbol Uuq. When element 114 is officially discovered, it will be given a new name. Greek Letters and Alphabet - Android Apps on Google Play Greek Letters and Alphabet ( 1,986) Description It is a perfect app to learn 24 Greek letters and alphabet from Alpha to Omega. Choose the way of studying that suits you the best: * Quiz "Find the Letter" * Multiple-choice questions * Time modes Can you distinguish Chi and Xi?

Test yourself right now! Alpha, beta, gamma, and go on! This app is essential for those: - Learning Greek and reading Homer in original; - Joining a Greek fraternity or sorority (ever wondered what those ΦΛΥ stand for?); - Studying science classes (math, physics, chemistry - there are Greek symbols in every formula!); - Traveling to Greece or Cyprus (to understand signs and names); - Wanting to learn more about other cultures and impress buddies by knowing letter ω. Read more 1 58 Myla C Freakin' Awesome! Good job ppl! Fun, clean, no crashes, minimal intrusive adverts, great basic learning tool for the Greek alphabet. Only thing to add is sound clips. I got this for brushing up equations but now I'm thinking of learning more of the actual language! Next they should make a version brighter, colourful, simple animations/picts & sound clips to make THE BEST tool for kids to use too! It would be a hit, hint, hint! Caglar Aktuna Hope it gets better It doesn't give name of letters in their native languages. Pronunciation of the letters are not given either, so you can't learn which letter makes which sound.

Lastly, some of the letters are given wrong (for example β=βήτα=vita is given as beta, which is wrong for modern greek). Developer is a reponsible person. Gavin Kerrigan Best "learn to read Greek" app I have found. Before I used this app I only knew a little bit of the Greek alphabet now, after only a few hours, I know almost the entire thing! This app is hugely appreciated and recommend. Daniel Doherty Doesn't teach pronunciation It's a well-made app for studying the names of the letters, but knowing what the letters are called doesn't help me to learn greek at all. Why doesn't any app actually tell you what sounds the letters make? Hayden Schultz Not very useful If you want to know the names of the Greek letters, this is a perfect app for you. If you want to know the sounds of each Greek letter this app is useless Jeff Cunningham Love it... I absolutely love this app. It is exactly what a lazy geek like myself needed to kick me in the booty and get me learning the Greek alphabet! User reviews Myla C March 18, 2015 Freakin' Awesome! Good job ppl!

Fun, clean, no crashes, minimal intrusive adverts, great basic learning tool for the Greek alphabet. Only thing to add is sound clips. I got this for brushing up equations but now I'm thinking of learning more of the actual language! Next they should make a version brighter, colourful, simple animations/picts & sound clips to make THE BEST tool for kids to use too! It would be a hit, hint, hint! Full Review Andrey Solovyev September 10, 2016 Useful. For scientists. They do call Greek letter β "beta": beta-particles, Beta Centauri (for a star). It's an official name of the letter in English language. I'll try to add Greek language to the app, so that people studying Modern Greek language can also find this app useful. Thank you. Gavin Kerrigan March 20, 2016 Best "learn to read Greek" app I have found. Before I used this app I only knew a little bit of the Greek alphabet now, after only a few hours, I know almost the entire thing! This app is hugely appreciated and recommend. Full Review Andrey Solovyev April 1, 2016 Hi Gavin!

Thank you very much for your kind words and feedback on my app about Greek Letters and Alphabet. Best wishes, Andrey Daniel Doherty November 16, 2015 Doesn't teach pronunciation It's a well-made app for studying the names of the letters, but knowing what the letters are called doesn't help me to learn greek at all. Why doesn't any app actually tell you what sounds the letters make? Full Review Andrey Solovyev November 27, 2015 Daniel! Thanks for the feedback. Actually, I created this app to learn Greek letters as they are used in math and physics. Now I see that it is also helpful for the people learning Greek language and I'll try to add pronunciation in the next version of this app. Best wishes, Andrey Hayden Schultz July 26, 2015 Not very useful If you want to know the names of the Greek letters, this is a perfect app for you. If you want to know the sounds of each Greek letter this app is useless Full Review Andrey Solovyev May 27, 2016 Hi Kavitha! Thank you for your comment on my app about Greek Alphabet.

Do you suggest me to add examples of use of Greek letters in math and physics? Or a separate quiz about science concepts using the same model? I'm always happy to receive suggestions for new app ideas. You may write me at asmolgam@gmail.com if you have them. Andrey Tommy Shelton March 3, 2015 Love the app but the constant ticker-tape ads at the bottom are very distracting. I have made sure Google ads are turned off. I love the app but hate the ads! Full Review Andrey Solovyev February 19, 2016 Hello! Initially, I created my app about Greek Letters and Alphabet with their usage in science and math in mind. All these letters have established spelling in English and other languages that may slightly vary from their pronunciation in Modern Greek. Andrey Pavel Mishurov September 26, 2015 Not for studying Greek Letters are called in an English manner, but not as they are called in Greek language. E.g. Beta in Greek is pronounced as vita, delta - thelta, etc.

Full Review Andrey Solovyev October 4, 2015 I created this app with Math and Physics students in mind (who encounter Greek letters in formulas), only later to realize that the app has become popular among Greek language students. I plan to add Greek pronunciation in the next version. Kirito Kun October 14, 2016 Astonshing I truly thought this would be stupid and not help but I learned this in history class and it has helped me improve in my Greek class!! I recommend to anyone!! 😁 Full Review Andrey Solovyev May 13, 2016 Hi Scott! Thank you very much for your kind feedback on my app about Greek Letters. Actually, I am trained as a scientist myself (Chemistry) and my initial idea for this app came from the use of Greek letters in math, physics, astronomy, etc. I am pleasantly surprised that people learning Greek language have found it useful as well. Best, Andrey. Branden Price September 16, 2016 Pretty handy It's really good at teaching you the written alphabet. I wish there was audio of Greek pronunciation of the letter names and the letter sounds.

I would like the "Name the letter" game more if you had a QWERTY keyboard instead of a choice of letters that contains the name of the letter. I really am learning the alphabet, though, so it's good for that as is.

Question: There are 2 letters of the alphabet which are not the initial letter of chemical elements. One is Q. Name the other.
Answer: J