ALFABETO

ALPHABET. — It is the means of expressing the individual vowel and consonant elements of a word by means of fixed and constant signs.

I. ORIGIN

| PHOENICIAN | HEBREW | SAMARITAN | ARAMAIC | SYRIAC | GREEK | ALPHABETIC WRITING |
| ARCHAIC | MESA | SQUARE | LAPIDARY | 8TH CENTURY | STRANGE WRITING | ATHENS | RAS SHAMRA |

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ALPHABET

1
a + b = b
a + b = h
a + b = h
a + b =

The second of these is almost universally interpreted as b-g-b-l-r-b = “to Gebal (= Byblos), master.” Some assign it to the 16th century, others to the 15th. The date of the inscription of Safatbala (Siptibaal), prior to the 15th century B.C., and that of the inscription of ‘Abdô’, 18th–17th century B.C., proposed by Dunand, remain controversial. The famous inscription on the sarcophagus of Alfrām of Byblos, until recently regarded as the oldest in Phoenicia, is a few centuries later, namely the 13th century, or, according to recent authors, the 12th or 11th. The signs are already rather cursive and presuppose a relatively long prior use. A quite distinctive alphabet is that of Ugarit (Râs Samra), discovered in 1929, not written, like the others found up to now, in linear characters, but with “cuneiform” signs, similar to those of the Assyro-Babylonian syllabic script. From the varied combination of the “wedges” about 30 different signs were formed which represent the consonants (and probably 3 vowels) of the Ugaritic language (related to ancient Hebrew). This alphabet probably arose a little before 1500 B.C.

This summary exposition shows that by 1500 B.C. alphabetic writing was known and used in the regions later occupied by the Israelite people or adjacent to II. It is therefore certain that several centuries before Moses alphabetic writing was known and practiced by the peoples with whom the Israelites had contact. There is, however, as yet no proof that an alphabetic script was in use around the middle of the second millennium among other ancient peoples. The Greek alphabet (from which the Italic-Latin alphabet subsequently derives) was derived from the Semitic alphabet at a later, still not well-established period (between the 11th and 8th centuries B.C.).

c) Where the first alphabetic script arose is likewise uncertain. Many authors believe that Semitic workers employed in the mines of Sinai invented it, using Egyptian hieroglyphic signs to express, according to the principle of acrophony, vowels and consonants; but this view is unlikely, particularly in the supposition that the proto-

by means of appropriate images; this is followed by syllabic writing, which reserves a sign for each syllable (e.g., Mesopotamian cuneiform). Finally an attempt was made to assign a sign to each sound (consonant or vowel). Since the number of sounds differs in different languages, the number of signs (“letters”) varies between 20 and 30 (Hebrew has 22 letters, Greek 24, Ugaritic 29). This script is called “alphabetic” from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.

When the first alphabetic writing arose cannot be stated with certainty. It appears almost simultaneously in different regions around the Mediterranean. In the Sinai Peninsula, at Serābīt el-Ḫādim in the Egyptian mines, about thirty inscriptions have been found executed in characters partly resembling Egyptian hieroglyphs and partly Semitic writing. It has been established that these are alphabetic signs (A. H. Gardiner and K. Sethe), which are called “Proto-Sinaitic.” As for the date of these inscriptions, archaeologists are still in disagreement: some assign them to the time of the Twelfth Dynasty (2000–1785 B.C.), while others—with greater probability—to the Eighteenth Dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.).

In Palestine the oldest alphabetic inscriptions have been discovered at Tell ed-Duweir = Lachish (inscription on a dagger), at Tell Balāṭah = Shechem (two limestone fragments with a few letters), and at Gezer (three letters probably belonging to a longer inscription). These inscriptions are assigned to the seventeenth–fifteenth centuries B.C.; their interpretation has not yet been definitively established, but they are undoubtedly examples of alphabetic writing used for practical, everyday purposes.

In Phoenicia the oldest inscription discovered so far is that found at Byblos at the foot of the acropolis, containing three lines of
ALPHABET — Letter V of the Gothic a. with figures by Master ES. German engraving (15th century) — Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum.

ALPHABET — Letter D of the Gothic a. with figures by Master ES. German engraving (15th century) — Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum.

Some believe the Sinaitic inscriptions to be from the 15th century. Others think the alphabet is of Phoenician origin. The Phoenicians, in frequent commercial contact with the Egyptians, would have taken as their model the Egyptian hieroglyphic letters that represent monosyllabic words (omitting vowels), thus forming an alphabet of consonants only. But in this supposition it is difficult to explain the different forms of some letters of the proto-Sinaitic alphabet. It is also unlikely that the linear Phoenician alphabet derives from the Ugaritic cuneiform alphabet, as some maintain. Probably one must suppose a proto-Semitic (pre-Phoenician) alphabet from which the different types of Semitic alphabet (proto-Sinaitic, South Semitic, Palestinian, Phoenician, Ugaritic, etc.) derive. Thus the invention of the alphabet would have to be attributed to an epoch earlier than that of the inscriptions found so far, namely to the beginning of the 2nd millennium or even earlier. But the question cannot be decided without new discoveries.

2. A. IN MYSTICISM AND MAGIC. — The alphabet, both as a whole and in its individual letters, soon assumed a symbolic and mystical meaning, which at times degenerated into magical. The alphabet as a whole has symbolic value in the abbreviation A-2 (q.v.), which refers to the divinity as the principle and end of all things: a meaning that is repeated in the decussate cross, on whose two arms are written respectively the letters of the Greek and Latin alphabets; a cross that is traced with ashes on the floor of a church on the day of its dedication: an ancient return to the delimitation of a sacred space by augurs through the tracing of two lines at right angles, the decumanus and the cardo; later used by Roman surveyors for measuring land and adopted by the Christian ritual of church dedication to consecrate the space of ground dedicated to worship.

The symbolic meaning of the individual letters, in relation to their numerical value (isopsephy), is found in the theological-mystical tradition of Judaism (q.V. below) and Gnosticism, which made extensive use of II.
According to the Gnostic Marcus (Hippolytus 6, 45; Irenaeus 1, 14, 4), the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet represent Truth and contain the mystery of Christ’s descent to earth. Indeed, the 9 mute consonants signify Father and Truth; the 8 semivowels, Logos and Life; the 7 vowels, Man and Church. This imbalance in the proportions among the three series of letters was rectified by Jesus, who descended from the first series (Father) by reducing it by 1 and entered the third (Man) by increasing it by 1.

Still according to the Gnostics, the 7 Greek vowels (α, ε, η, ι, ο, υ, ω) symbolize musically the seven tones of the heptachord, capable of expressing in continuous inarticulate sounds (προπτωμαλοί) the sweetest harmonies in honor of the divinity.

They also represent the seven planetary heavens and their succession from alpha to omega, confirming that the Most High is the beginning and the end of all things and that the heavens sing His glory.

In this connection, mention should be made of the inscription on the temple of Apollo at Miletus, where within seven elliptical circles (two are missing) the seven vowels are inscribed; while above is read an invocation to the archangels to protect the city of Miletus and its inhabitants. The seven ellipses represent the seven planetary heavens, as can be deduced from the symbolic signs at the head of each ellipse.

From this mystical meaning it is an easy step to the magical one in the minds of the uneducated, who place the secret of the efficacy of letters precisely in their mysterious nature, in their juxtaposition, and in the incomprehensibility of the language in which the words formed are written, as is found in the use of amulets with inscribed stones (q.V. ABRAXAS; AMULET; DEFISSION; MAGIA).

3. A. IN JEWISH MYSTICISM. - The Haggadists attributed a cosmic value to the letters: they played a great part in the creation of the world and in the Sinaitic revelation. The Kabbalists developed the system; they speak of celestial and terrestrial letters, masculine and feminine. In the biblical text various coincidences are observed: for example, in the Psalter the word 'ašrê' (=Blessed...) occurs 22 times in conformity with the 22 letters of the alphabet in which the Torah is written; the alphabetic acrostic in Lamentations would indicate that the people had failed to fulfill all the precepts of the Law; "from aleph to tau" is equivalent to "from alpha (v.) to omega," hence the value attributed to 'eth' in Gen. 1:1.

Through the numerical value of the letters an attempt is made to establish the antiquity of the world. Relationships are established between words having the same number of letters or the same letters even if in a different order: for example, mē'ōd (very) and 'ādām (Adam).

Cryptography. The phenomenon of cryptography is gematria (γραμματεία), based on the numerical value and the interchangeability of consonants, used in Haggadic-Midrashic exegesis and in Kabbalistic literature. In place of a given letter one writes the following one in the alphabet (beth for aleph) or the twelfth. The athbās procedure consists in placing the last letter of the alphabet in place of the first, the penultimate in place of the second, and so on: in Jer. 51:41 šēšakh = Babel (Babylon). Another permutation is the tarsāq, i.e., in place of the last letter the penultimate, in place of this the antepenultimate, etc.

Abbreviations. Abbreviations (rāšē tēbhōth = beginnings of words) occur in Semitic inscriptions as early as the 6th century B.C. The Septuagint presupposes abbreviations in the Hebrew text at their disposal; each letter is considered as the beginning of a given word, and the writing attributed to R. Aqiba (The Letters) enumerates these meanings. Common is yod for the Tetragrammaton, on Maccabean coins p for šēnath (year), in epitaphs 'aleph for "amen" and p for šālōm (peace). This procedure is called notariqōn, originally an adjective, in later Greek "notarios" (stenographer). The Talmudic abbreviations served to note down discussions concisely. In exegesis certain words are broken down by considering each letter as the beginning of a word. Simān (Greek σημάνει) means in the Mishnah: sign for recognition, indication; in the Talmud it serves as a mnemonic device to connect various simanim forming a single word. At other times abbreviations are used for laudatory formulas, e.g., z-s-l (the memory of the just for a blessing, Prov. 10:7).

These procedures are explained in The Letters of R. Aqiba and those of Ben Sira, Alphabetum Siracidis, both considered as belonging to the 8th century A.D.

Mysticism. According to the Kabbalists, the letters are spiritual substances in which the outward form corresponds to the inner essence. The letters are linked to the 10 sefirot. Each time a letter is pronounced or applied, its spiritual essence is aroused, giving rise to “holy forms” that unite with the celestial letters (patagonic influences?). The letters are the garments of the Torah, woven of all the colors of light—white, red, green, and black. Prayer transforms the letters into spiritual substances that ascend to heaven. The first letter is the source of all others, which are divided into three groups: the first is the mystery of the line of grace, the second of mercy, the third of justice. Only Adam knew, before original sin, the five final letters (m, n, s, p, kh). Abraham recognized them by inspiration, and their knowledge passed

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That

the letter B. It is composed of two circles, one larger than the other, with a part of the moon, that is, five ninths of its height in diameter. And the part of the moon is four ninths, likewise in diameter, as shown above proportionally in the figure.

Q

the letter S. It is formed of two circles, and its proportion is as shown in the example. By means of its curves, you will find their centers; those below will be greater than those above by one third of the ninth of its square. The middle belly should be thick at the ninth point of the height. The lines are one third of the thickness, leaving the rest with its grace.
ALPHABET — Letters B and S, from L. Pacioli, *De divina proportione* (15th cent.).

27. — ENCYCLOPEDIA CATHOLICA. — I.

Then to Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph; but it was obscured later by the worship of the golden calf. Moses, Joshua, and the 70 Elders recognized it again. They were then recast in Palestine together with the other 22 letters of the alphabet in the mystical *Song of Songs*.

Every combination of letters (*sērûp*) expresses a mystical idea; this theory is already found in Talmudic literature and then recurs in the mystical *Book of Creation* and in Sabbatai Donnolo’s commentary on II. There exists a *sērûp* with which one can even create a man. The doctrine of the synthesis of letters assumes great importance in that of the divine names.

4. A. IN PEDAGOGY. — Pedagogically and psychologically, it is interesting to study the teaching methods employed for the instruction of the alphabet. Setting aside the older ones transmitted in various *Santa Croce* and *Abecedaria*, we shall here mention only the current trends most widely followed, all of which originate from the psycho-pedagogical movement determined in the last century. According to the analytic or syncretic phonetic method (Mauro, Jacotot, Decroly, etc.), the teaching of the alphabet in its graphic and vocal expressions should not begin with individual signs and sounds, but with the word, a rational phonetic fact of greater concreteness for the child, who should be placed immediately in the psychological reality of language. Only subsequently will the word be broken down into syllables and letters, demonstrating the value of each character and phoneme. This method would be confirmed by a twofold series of experiences: 1st, that reading is not done syllable by syllable but in whole words; 2nd, that idiots, though unable to learn the value of individual letters, can read complete words. The synthetic method (Lindner) proceeds in the opposite way: it starts from the elements of words, i.e., elementary sounds, letters, and syllables. In both systems, reading is at first mechanical, with the contribution of intelligence increasing as automatism develops.

Notable for their originality and practicality respectively are the Italian methods of Ferretti and Montessori. G. Ferretti aims to revive in children the process by which humanity developed the invention of the alphabet (especially the need for alphabetic writing) through the progressive and simplifying stages of pictography and ideography, which in school practice would be summarized in drawing. M. Montessori, starting from the natural transition from drawing to writing as theorized by Itard and Séguin, combats as unnatural the didactics that, through an infinite multiplication of strokes and curves, believed it best to prepare the mechanics of writing. She advocates the acquisition of motor skill through drawings, first geometric and then alphabetic, made on raised figures and letters. Simultaneously with graphic activity, the child learns to pronounce the sounds corresponding to the alphabetic signs, first isolated into syllabic and then verbal units. Cases with carved letters serve to compose new words, and thus, in this activism, reading and writing, embryonically fused, are learned quickly and effortlessly.

Too numerous to be recalled here are the variations and innovations in teaching methods for learning the alphabet devised in this first half of the 20th century. Essential in each of them appears to be the tendency toward greater practicality that leaves more room for the little pupils.

ALPHABET (Rite):

V. CHURCH, dedication of the ALPHABET, AUGUSTO