Alphabet Key To History Of Mankind

Author(s): David Diringer
Publisher: Hutchinsons Scientific and Technical Publications

Page 485

484
THE ALPHABET to express a sound similar to the Scottish ch; the q to represent a back
ound similar to the Semitic qof: a combination of the letters d- and d-s, to represent the sounds dz or ds, and dzh or dsh, respectively. Other new letters have been created by the addition of diacritical marks inserted above the following letters u (ü = w), k, p, t (by the addition of the acute accent, the guttural endings are expressed), < (for the sound c) and ch (for a hard ch).
Reform of Russian Orthography
The Slavonic alphabets are amongst the most complete systems of writing; they contain, however, too many letters, some of which have become redundant. The need for a reform of the Russian alphabet, therefore, was felt long before the Revolution, and many learned academies and scientific institutions sponsored the various changes, which were introduced under the Kerenski regime (Collection of Laws and Decrees, No. 74, of October 17th, 1918). Some letters have been dropped and replaced by others representing similar sounds; so, for instance, the letter ye is replaced now by e, the letter by f, the sound i is expressed only by one letter. Of the two mute letters of Fig, 218, the first indicating that the preceding consonant is hard, and the other indicating that the pi consonant is soft, the former is dropped at the end of words and part of compound words, but is retained in the middle of words as a sign of division.
Bukvitsa Catholic Slavs of Dalmatia and Bosnia employed for some time the alphabet termed Bukvitsa; it was the Cyrillic alphabet slightly modified, with some influences of the Glagolitic script.
Glagolitic Alphabet "Glagolitic" (in Slavonic, glagolitsa, from glagol, "word," "dixit;" a frequent term in early Slavonic documents, but of uncertain connection with the origin of the name of the script), consisted of forty letters (Fig. 212-213). From the external angle, that is considering the shapes of the single letters, the Glagolitic alphabet is unlike any known Greek variety; the general impression recalls the aspect of the Ethiopic letters. The Glagolitic characters are singularly stylized, geometric and symmetrical with their little quadrangles, triangles and circles with appendages; there are no ligatures. From the angle of the phonetic value of the letters, as a system of writing, the Glagolitic is, as Professor Minns points out, nearly identical with the Cyrillic alphabet.