Languages

Alphabet

Codices are written in uncial (now called lowercase), & capitals (now called uppercase) are used for chapter initial decoration. The terms upper- & lowercase are from printing presses.

According to Christians, Moses, from Ægypt, invented letters, which survives today as Arabian, & also taught the hieroglyphs to the Ægyptians.

But according to the gentiles, Hermes was the first to invent letters, who then taught it to the Ægyptians, &c. They also credit Phœbus with some letters.

Cadmus (3769 AM), from Phonœcia, taught a form of Syrian letters to the Greeks

Carmenta (3977 AM) taught a form of Greek letters to the Italians, which survives as Latin.

Palamedes (4330 AM), son of Nauplius, is said to have invented some letters. These must have been: φ χ.

Simonides the Lyricist (5041 AM) also invented the letters: η ω ξ ψ.

Aristophanes of Byzantium (5324 AM) invented accent, breath, & punctuation marks.

Pharnabazus (5272 AM) taught a form of Syrian letters to the Caucasians, which survives as Georgian.

The Æthiopians received a form of Hebrew letters, which was reformed by St. Frumentius of Axum (†5892 AM).

Bishop Ulfilas (†5889 AM) taught a form of Greek letters to the Germans, called Gothic.

Mesropius Mastotzes (†5949 AM) & Isaac the Parthian (†5947 AM)—together with the Armenian king Bramsapuchus, Bishop Daniel of Mesopotmia, & Rufinus of Samosata—reformed Georgian letters for the Armenians, which survives as Armenian.

SS. Cyril (†6378 AM) & Methodius (†6394 AM) taught a form of Greek letters to the Slavs, further developed by SS. Clement of Ochrid (†6425 AM), Naum, Sabbas, Gorazd, Angelar, which survives as Slavonic, also called Cyrillic.

Indian Brachmins received a form of seemingly Syrian letters.

The Assyrian cuneiform would seem to have been formed from the Ægyptian hieroglyphs. Chinese han-tzu, in turn, would seem to have been formed from Assyrian cuneiform. This is my opinion.

Pronunciation

The following letters are used so for pronunciation on each language page:

Numerals

Greek:

For continued counting, place a numeral over Μ (for myriás) to multiply ten thousands by it: e.g. ϛ̅Μ = 10,000 * 6.

For fractional counting, append ʹ to the numeral: e.g. ϛ̅ʹ = 1/6.

Latin:

For continued counting, place ◌̅ over a numeral to multiply the number by one thousand: e.g. vj͞. = 6 * 1,000.

For fractional counting, append · for 1/12, : for 2/12, &c., s for 6/12, s· for 7/12, &c.

Slavonic:

For continued counting, prefix ҂ to multiply the following number by 1,000, but also overlay ⃝ for 10,000, ҈ for 100,000, ҉ for 1,000,000, ꙰ for 10,000,000, ꙱ for 100,000,000, & ꙲ for 1,000,000,000.

Georgian:

For continued counting up to ten thousands, the rest of the alphabet is used, i.e. ც ძ წ ჭ ხ ჴ ჯ ჰ ჵ.

References

• Isidore of Seville, St. Etymologies.
• The Suda.