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The "Golden Age of Ornamental Penmanship", from 1850 to 1925, was a unique period in American calligraphic history. Beautiful penmanship was the rule of the day, and the flexible pointed pen was king.
“It’s good to be good for when you lose your place in reality” - you think at a theme park for adults called “Fun Etc” and as you lose your place in reality
“I’m good” you say
Pretty much right off the bat (whatever that means) you and a few others get stuck in the Tunnel of Love and have gone around so many times now
You’re the only one in the swan who begins freaking out at like the 50th revelation
Eventually you calm down and commence to wonder about the logistics of how the things around you worked and if there’s a way out
Some graffiti you spot reads:
“The phrase: “I would say” - no king has ever said
I have not today yet until tomorrow it becomes”
I’ve embraced my own weird way to fail that is very successful and fun and totally my own thing
It’s a long sandy lot of a lot of work that’s no fun for anyone but me
And you know
Sometimes you get athletes foot and you can’t even touch your toes but…
She’s a beaut
She’s of a generation that never wrote a check or bothered with cursive and she doesn’t know a thing about romance
The girl with the favorite laugh
The girl with the Swiss Army Knife
The girl that no one knows smokes cloves
The girl of licking Greek fire
And you can forget the word “no” in a moment with her and all you can say is: “yes” in every language
Yes in an echo chamber
Yes in a tunnel of love
Yes but only in theory
I should have said yes dear
I should have said:
“Whatever the lady wants”
For now I can’t carry this face that
wasn’t wronged by the world
but that did wrong by it to you
I want off this ride and me and a few others
Are busting or do you say “breaking” out?
I dispersed all the soil through a hole in my pocket already yesterday
I gently placed my thoughts in a blue bandana and went for it
But alas!
There was no purchase on the ravine wall to be had
Thus I stayed low as the water
Was as the ferns high on whatever they put in my body
Was drunk like a red-ass monkey that gorged on fermented red pears
Some folks buy a car and hope to pass 300,000 miles
But instead when I get one, I think:
“How soon can I get out of this thing?”
By about the 124th revelation I came around and resolved to no longer count
And we went around again and again more
And I laughed knee-slappin’ hard with the others at the same one joke each time around and the jump-scare near the end Golly-gosh gets me like literally E’ry time
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Winters are cold in Saüle. Cold and rainy, really, but today I had the good luck of going out on a not so terrible day. Clouds covered the entirety of the sky, giving the whole place this gray and depressive tone, one I am probably never growing to appreciate. I always thought that people with depression liked these sorts of times… then again, my knowledge of depression before actually being diagnosed with it was inaccurate and biased.
The city’s residential district was soon far away, as the taxi I called took me straight into the Independence Plaza. Or, as many of us call it, The Pit. The place is a beautiful, open space divided into four quadrants, each with a water fountain, surrounding a big, barricaded patch of concrete that has been graffitied over and over again.
That’s where they covered the hole.
I slowly leave the taxi, being very careful not to slam the door behind me, and then turn to see the Plaza and the many stores surrounding it. To think there was once a gigantic tower in the center of it all… it’s kind of strange, really. I’ve always thought that the so called ‘Pillar of the Heavens’ was just another building back in the day, and the old people just like to mythify it.
Whatever the case, it fell into the depths of the planet over a hundred years ago, so it doesn’t really matter anymore, does it?
It’s already four in the afternoon and I once again get that strange feeling of eyes locking on me, chasing me no matter how fast I walk. The loud trumpets of some random ska song keep me relatively animated and, what’s better, they keep the thoughts low. All I could think about as I walked were the vague situations I could put my characters through, mostly following the rhythm of the music.
It’s easy to get lost in such things, daydreaming about what makes life a bit easier to live through, but I feel like I’ve developed a bit of a ‘autopilot’ for these situations. My body moves slowly, trying not to become a nuisance for someone else in the way, while my brain flies up, trying to collect ideas for a book I’ll never write.
It’s been a while since I've actually created something… the prospect of trying again, this time with renewed motivation and purpose, pushes me to walk a little faster, maybe even skip a few steps as I move in front of the many stores around the plaza. I don’t have infinite money to just buy everything I want, so I’ve decided I’ll bite the bullet and go for a single book today.
“
Ahhh, remember the last time we went book hunting? It’s such a fun feeling, moving silently through the bookshelves, stalking the titles, sneaking glances at the fronts…”
I do remember, but I also do remember the tendency of the biggest bookstore in town to put new releases first and foremost, often leaving treasures hidden in their obnoxiously bad registration system. I doubt they have fixed that…so, to not waste time digging over the many, many new books I wont read, maybe I should set my focus elsewhere.
“
Don’t be so dismissive of new things. Some of them are authors just like you, trying to get by.”
…I guess I’ve grown a little cynical. Not everything is a cash grab these days, no. I need to be solidary with my fellow writers!
Or… future fellows? Considering I haven’t written anything to completion yet.
“
None of that. Focus. We’re getting a new book today! Where are we getting it?”
Well, solidarity or not, I am not feeling like going to the big bookstore today… my feet take a turn, going through one of the many secondary streets that are born from this plaza. Not too far from there, in a darker corner of the city… there’s an old concrete house, completely painted yellow. The sign above its front door reads “Ricardo’s Stash: Antiques”, and oh how I missed it. I even turn off my cellphone’s music out of respect.
Looking through the shop window, my lips curl into a smile as most of the items I remembered being there are gone. Probably sold, good for old Ricardo really! Although the bronze typewriter is still there, taunting me with its excessive price… Good Saints above, give me strength to not succumb to my earthly desires!
“
You already have a pretty good computer, you don’t need a typewriter. Be strong.”
The door has one of those bells that ring when it is opened, so there’s no way I can avoid miss Pelafina’s watchful demeanor as I enter. The old lady was sitting right behind the register, small but regal, dignified, with her black dyed hairs tied back in a single ponytail. Looking at her, seeing how well time has really treated her, it is easy to believe the rumors that say she used to be an olympic athlete for a country in the West before settling down with mister Ricardo.
The woman looked at me, before fixing her glasses in place and smirking with complicity.
“Well well well, if it isn’t our favorite customer.” I am convinced she says this to every youngun who wanders in, but I don’t have the guts to challenge the lady. “Long time no see! Had a hard time with your studies?”
“A little bit…” I smile slightly, trying not to be too awkward. “Any new books in your storage?”
“Plenty! You’ve been gone so long, we’ve stocked on some very interesting ones! But you give it a look! You’ve always been good at finding the good stuff among the rubble.”
All this praise is really bad for my health. I smile like an idiot, rubbing the back of my neck for a moment before walking deeper into the store, muttering a soft ‘Hi, Mister Ricardo’ to the old man sleeping on a wheelchair by the register. Ricardo’s is a huge, squared room turned into a labyrinth of shelves and showcases, piles upon piles of old toys, furniture, mementos and, of course, books! All at honestly pretty reasonable prices, considering the age of some of these items.
Last time I was here, Ricardo even swore that some of these items come from the fabled Pillar! But I feel that was just him trying to secure a sale.
I see old tomes of detective work, some poetry compilations, old classroom books and other curiosities, but nothing really catches my eye. I’ve seen these before, I want something new to read! Well, not ‘new’, I am in an antique shop, but uh, something unexpected. Uncommon. Rare, even! It’s not like I am a connoisseur of book rarity or anything but, when you are holding something special, you just know it in your bones! You can feel it, the excitement of having something very few others have had.
Maybe I am being a little too demanding though, because no matter how many books I keep checking, pulling and dusting in this store, the feeling never comes to me. What if the books are not the problem, but myself…?
“
The light in you hasn’t died yet.”
I try to tell myself that very often. That there’s still hope and creativity in my heart, despite it all. That I can still see the beauty of the world despite this depression… and I honestly, desperately try to believe it. I cling to this feeling. Mostly because I know that the moment I truly give up, the instant that light in me really fizzles out…
… I don’t want to think about that.
“Having trouble there, boy?”
The whiplash of hearing a new voice forces me back to reality. I am holding an old math book in front of me, and probably I’ve been in this position for long enough to attract old Ricardo’s attention. The man even wheeled all the way over here to check on me. I immediately feel the guilt stab my back.
“A-Ah, no no. I am just… looking.” I offer my typical service smile, but Ricardo isn’t buying it. I can see it in those opaque eyes of his. Despite the huge glasses and the cataracts, I can feel a bright light in that look of his, rationality and youth that refuse to die out.
“Can’t quite find something you’d like to read?” The old man smiled, knowingly. He thought he understood… and I couldn’t help but think the same. There’s something about Ricardo, a weird air of experience, that convinces you that he really does know what he’s talking about. I gently nod. “Uh huh. Have you thought of what sort of things you’d like reading this time, youngun?”
“I… admit I have not. I am mostly guiding myself by feeling here. Seeing if something sparks my curiosity…”
There’s a bright glimmer in the man’s eye as he signals for me to follow him. He seems to have precisely what I am looking for; either that or he has something curious he simply hasn’t been able to sell yet.
We pass by shelves full of little figurines and old collector items, careful not to push the boxes full of ancient magazines and comic books, until we reach the front of the store. Right beside the desk, there stands a full set of ancient Cipangian armor, restored and shiny, complete with a kabuto and a red oni mask. Ricardo and Pelafina love that thing, it’s pretty much the main symbol of the store. They call it ‘Akai-san’.
“I got something special right here.” Said Ricardo, keeping his voice low as if he was sharing a secret with me. He smiled, carefully sliding a hand under the kabuto and pulling a small, yet thick leather bound book. The thickness of the bind and the yellow of the pages made it clear that one was older than what you usually see in the store. “Take a look at this…!”
It was a matter of holding the book to just feel electricity jolt through my back. Excitement? Curiosity? The cover was rough, a bad work of tanning clearly meant for a notebook more than a commercial product. My finger gently caressed the uneven black surface before I opened the book right in the middle.
The yellow pages were completely covered by black, thin scribbles, made in a language I have never seen before. Each character in the pages looked like some sort of runes, symbols without meaning to me, ordered in long vertical rows… I honestly have no idea how to even start this! In which direction should I read this? Is it even readable at all? I go back in the pages, discovering not only more of those runes but also some illustrations, rough drawings made with a coal piece… each with a little letter underneath it. What? This book has *annotations* on it?
My eyes focus. The pages, they are numbered! In Eastern numbers, to be precise, written with a blue pen. Clearly these notations were made recently, or at least more recently than the book itself was written.
“Check the later pages.” Ricardo said with a smirk, probably catching my bewilderment and interest.
I do as the man says and quickly pass the pages. There comes a point where the runes end, immediately replaced by latin alphabet written with the same old blue pen. A little arrow tells me to read columns of letters from top to bottom, from left to right, in columns. Once I reached the end of a column, the arrows then pointed me to start reading from bottom to top, alternating from each column I passed… it’s a bit unintuitive but, I manage to make sense of it, words start to appear from the jumble. It’s not gibberish, there’s something here, meaning to be discovered…
Most curious of all though, was the fact that the very last page of it all had a little text in some language that I was able to recognize. Maybe roman? Or portuguese? I couldn’t read it, but I could certainly know this one was translatable for sure.
“Maybe what you need is not reading material, but a challenge.” Ricardo said with a big smile. “I got that book a long time ago, some old lady came and sold it to us for a pittance.”
“You say that as if you weren’t an old man, dear.” Pelafina chuckled, covering her mouth.
“Oh shut up!” The man coughed a little bit. “But yeah. I tried to read it but couldn’t get too far… maybe you can properly translate it?”
“I am not a translator…” I quickly admitted, but I was not letting go of that book. Not anytime soon. “... But I will do what I can. How much for it?”
“Twenty thousand Empires.” Ricardo said with the brightest of smiles.
For reference, that’s not that expensive when it comes to books. You could find a regular book (you know, no hardcover) for around E$15.000. It is a little more than I would normally pay for a used book though, but urgh. Look at that man! Look at that smug look in his eyes. Even Pelafina is smirking.
They know. They know this is a sale for certain.
After struggling a little bit I just sigh, shaking my head and putting the two bills of 10 thousand on the desk.
“Fine.”
“Atta boy! I’m sure you can handle this. But keep us informed on what you find!” Ricardo chuckled.
“Please do. Ricky here has been pacing for days over it.” Pelafina added with a wink. “But take it at your own pace, okay? You’re not a translator, after all.”
“I will do my best.”
With a little bow, I walk out of the store with the book between my arms. The giddiness on my step hasn’t faded yet, I actually think it’s a bit worse now. I need to control myself, try not to make a scene right here and now… but it’s been so long since I’ve felt this motivated! This intrigued! This stimulated!
“
Never forget this feeling. Strive to always feel this way.” Now that’s unrealistic, but wouldn’t that be wonderful? Just… feeling the fire inside of me burning this brightly every day? I would die for something like that. I even smile thinking about it for a moment, as I raise my hand and try to call a taxi. Hells, I won’t even care if there are people sitting beside me today. I am excited!
“
Maybe we can even take public transportation then!”
Let’s not get crazy.
Baby steps, alright?
—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By the time I arrive home it’s already six. The sun is starting to set, and students everywhere peek out of their hiding spots with excited, yet tired smiles on their faces. Vacation time, huh? That meant people would start celebrating soon enough… good thing I don’t live close to the city’s party side, or else I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all tonight. Not with all the music and the people just drunkenly singing in the streets.
I wave at the guard when passing him by, going straight for the elevators while the old man barely acknowledges me. I sometimes wonder if he remembers me at all… I can’t just assume he doesn’t, all things considered, so I can’t really do anything strange without him (and by consequence, my dad) knowing about it. Not that I’d ever invite anyone to the disaster that is my apartment.
Normally this is the part where I’d start torturing myself with those thoughts… but today I feel excited. The book between my hands has captured my whole interest, to the point where I even started trying to decipher it while sitting in the taxi. The symbols could have some alchemical significance? Some of them did look similar to arrows and such, so maybe this was supposed to be read like that!
The words on the latter pages were, as far as I knew, a romanization of the symbols. Was it accurate? Or just a wild guess? For all I know, the former translator of this work could have been making everything up.
Last chapter is in roman! Or, maybe some other romantic language!?
What if I am being racist and this is not roman at all!? Saints damn it!
The elevator can’t go fast enough. I don’t even care about the shaking of the metal box or even the unnerving sounds of old gears doing an effort to lift me. My eyes are glued to the book.
All until I arrive at Floor 8 and rush to the second door, closing behind me and sitting at the table.
For a moment I consider taking all the job over to my comfortable not-reclinable couch, but no. This is supposed to feel like work, so I can’t just do it in the messy comfort of my bedroom.
“Alright, how should we start…”
“
Get a notebook, first of all!”
Right. I need somewhere to work on! But, wait, can’t I just do it all on my computer?
“
You can’t take your computer everywhere. And besides, doesn’t it feel kind of romantic? To have a journal to keep up with your progress…?”
All my attempts to keep up a journal up to this point in my life have failed, I simply don’t have the discipline or focus for that sort of work.
“
What if this time is different?”
I can’t help but smile a little bit. I get it, you really want to try and do a journal for this one, huh? I can feel Her stirring and shifting behind me, embarrassed to be called out like that but not really denying it. With a sigh, I get up and walk over to the old bookshelf to check, pulling out an old and badly bound notebook. The covers were made with bright green cardboard and messily cut, to the point where you could see the paper peek from behind it in some parts.
“
Oh my Saints.”
This will do.
“
Oh. My Saints. Why do you still have that?”
What? You don’t like the fruit of your own effort?
“
Please, put that away. I beg you, the embarrassment is too much!!”
I had made this notebook myself during the “Bookbinding” class I went to for a while when I just started college. I still remember the looks the other girls gave me when I first arrived, none of them expected a law student or a man to join the class, not one.
“
This is torture, do we really not have any other notebooks to work with? None at all??”
Is this or nothing, homegirl.
“
Sigh.”
I pull one of my many pens from my backpack, sitting back by the computer and then, with a crack of my knuckles, I start writing.
I do not know who may read this. Honestly, I am not even sure if I will read it myself after I finish writing it, but whomever is picking up this torn and ugly book? This is dedicated to you. “
Pretentious and needlessly emotional.”
Ah, there you are. I was starting to miss you. With a sigh, I shake the thoughts off and keep writing.
I found the original version of the text I’m working through in the old antique shop “Ricardo’s”, where the titular man himself had been keeping this book for… I honestly have no idea how long Ricardo had been clinging to this one. It couldn’t be that long, right? Ricardo said ‘a long time ago’, but that’s all the reference I have. Urgh.
…for a while. The book was originally written in a set of symbols similar in function to hieroglyphs, with each symbol representing a different word. Luckily for me, my predecessor left me with transcriptions to the latin alphabet, and a final chapter written in a language I am yet to identify and translate. I am still placing my bets on roman, but honestly, I feel less and less confident about that with every second that passes.
I will record my findings in this book and then share them to all who may be interested. Please bear with me. After writing that messy introduction, I focus back on my computer and start my investigation by opening Gaggle Translations. I input the first words I find in the book… and beg.
Asu tlo’ikovithiio The translator suggested Kauaian, but changing it to that language showed no results whatsoever. It’s not Kauaian..
I then tried all the permutations I could come up with in the search. I tried “Asu”, “Tlo” “Ikovithiio”, “kovithiio”, and beyond the Arizona State University and some western guy called Vito Iio, I had no better luck. That pretty much confirms my suspicions of this being a code, a sort of new language, or just plain nonsense.
What differentiates a language from a code anyways? Intentionality?
I smack my head for a moment there, trying to keep myself focused. Now that the easy solution was not available, I had to get resourceful, and before I started working with the final chapter, Gaggle still had one tool on its sleeve. It’s still a bit of an experimental feature, but by taking a picture of these runes I can actually search the internet for similar things…!
Rune 1 So I quickly copy one of the symbols on the page, the one I see repeating itself the most, take a picture of it with my phone and just wait for the best.
The result? A bunch of unfiltered stickmen, some of them with dicks. Because of course, Gaggle’s image searching is still a new tool and it needs plenty of work to properly function. With a sigh, I debate for a moment if I really should bother to check image per image… until I decide to just check the first two pages before abandoning all hope.
“Stickman, stickman, stickman with a dick, another stickman…”
“
Stickmen animations and games really have boomed these years huh?”
“I guess so… another stickman…”
I promised to myself I wouldn’t go beyond the second page of results… and yet here I am, going deeper and deeper, trying to find anything at all.
It’s dark outside already… and that only means that the pills will stop working soon.
“
Not that they ever really worked to begin with. Have you stopped feeling sad since you started taking them?”
There it is.
With a loud sigh, I set my computer down and stop messing with the search.
Maybe I just picked a bad symbol. Maybe if I pick another, I will get actual results.
“
Or maybe you won’t get anything at all. You’re no translator, and you can’t start pretending to be one now, you know?”
I breathe in deeply, holding it inside for a good few seconds before letting it out. With that, I stand from my chair and pick up my computer. I’ll leave it for tonight…
“
Yeah. Just leave it like you leave anything: incomplete. It’s not like you ever finish anything anyways. You may as well toss it to the side and ignore it until you forget about it.”
“
But we were so excited about it… Come on, don’t give up now…”
“
Let’s just leave it. It’s vacation time anyways, right? Let’s just play some videogames until your body can’t take any more. I promise I’ll be quiet while you do so! Let’s play some King of Legends”
I don’t even like that game…
“
But it passes the time, doesn’t it? Precious time, so full of suffering too. You don’t even notice death encroaching ever closer while you have something to do.”
“
You only rage in that game, it’s not good for you. Come on, please?”
“
Just lay down and sleep then…”
… No.
“
Hmmm?”
You know what? No. I am not sleeping tonight.
“
Let’s not go to the extremes!”
Alright then, I am sleeping, but not now. Not until I get through some of this book!
I set the computer back down on the table and get myself a glass of soda, sitting down and cracking my knuckles with renewed determination. Spite can be quite the fuel, even if it’s spite for your own inner voices.
“I am not letting a stupid book defeat me.” With a grin, I open my notebook to start transcribing. “Let’s do this!!”
I’m 35m and a virgin with the female population. I’ve had 1 sexual experience with a female and she thought I had done this before (had she only known my Teacher at 14 was Talk Sex with Sue on late night TV😂🤣😂) do the alphabet with your tongue in cursive omg 😳 😅😅😅🥹it works!! It works REALLY GOOD hahahaha (alphabet and dik are different…. 😂🤣😂) I can attest to that one.. but this girl got super weird about my virginity and become like so turned on IM GOING TO TAKE YOUR VIRGINITY FROM YOU!! And it was creepy to me, very creepy I’ve never seen anyone behave that way before in my life.. I couldn’t do it with her, emotionally she freaked me out a lot and my dik felt the same way about it.. BUT when I lost my virginity to a guy it was kinda heartbreaking bc he wanted nothing to do with me after that… (oh wells..😢) Some guys just play it like a game going guy to guy (hence HepraGonaSyphilAids existing! 😅) that’s the term that comes to mind when someone wants to BB without protection or proper sexual health testing and then BB.. 😉 Know your partner guys and gals, get tested then love their insides ❤️ lol! 😂 But still being a virgin to the female population at 35 makes me wonder if it’s gunna happen at this point, I’m happy being single but a partner would be great financially to have… (secretly I think having a female pound the shit out of me would be sexually fun, as long as they are sexually pleased as well, any toy ideas out there LMAO!🤣) but finding that kind of SPECIAL person is going to be rare!! (Any takers on Reddit here?! I’m not unattractive btw😂🤣😂) actually I would be curious if any female redditors respond to this post!!
I honestly want honest feedback here. But from Females mostly, I know some males are going to chirp in here.. So for history purposes all of my past lovers have been men but my heart is an open heart and that love is love regardless of gender, it’s what’s on the inside that I care about, your soul and purpose on this earth is all that matters.. It’s also not that I haven’t found love, I’ve found it and didn’t realize it and self sabotaged myself and hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to this topic, I can see clearly now what I did wrong and how I could have done better and made things work long term.. I truly believe my 1st encounter as being a one night date has had long lasting impacting mental health with me sub consciously but now that I’m aware of that I can fix it moving forward!! 😀 I’m ready for something longer term and eager to make it work out and also make it romantic too, I’m kind of a hopeless romantic type guy.. the kinda clawfoot roses in the tub make love kinda guy.. 🥰 if you get my drift.. 😉
I’m 35 and a virgin with the female population. I’ve had 1 sexual experience with a female and she thought I had done this before (had she only known my Teacher at 14 was Talk Sex with Sue on late night TV😂🤣😂) do the alphabet with your tongue in cursive omg 😳 😅😅😅🥹it works!! It works REALLY GOOD hahahaha (alphabet and dik are different…. 😂🤣😂) I can attest to that one.. but this girl got super weird about my virginity and become like so turned on IM GOING TO TAKE YOUR VIRGINITY FROM YOU!! And it was creepy to me, very creepy I’ve never seen anyone behave that way before in my life.. I couldn’t do it with her, emotionally she freaked me out a lot and my dik felt the same way about it.. BUT when I lost my virginity to a guy it was kinda heartbreaking bc he wanted nothing to do with me after that… (oh wells..😢) Some guys just play it like a game going guy to guy (hence HepraGonaSyphilAids existing! 😅) that’s the term that comes to mind when someone wants to BB without protection or proper sexual health testing and then BB.. 😉 Know your partner guys and gals, get tested then love their insides ❤️ lol! 😂 But still being a virgin to the female population at 35 makes me wonder if it’s gunna happen at this point, I’m happy being single but a partner would be great financially to have… (secretly I think having a female pound the shit out of me would be sexually fun, as long as they are sexually pleased as well, any toy ideas out there LMAO!🤣) but finding that kind of SPECIAL person is going to be rare!! (Any takers on Reddit here?! I’m not unattractive btw😂🤣😂) actually I would be curious if any female redditors respond to this post!!
I honestly want honest feedback here. But from Females mostly, I know some males are going to chirp in here.. So for history purposes all of my past lovers have been men but my heart is an open heart and that love is love regardless of gender, it’s what’s on the inside that I care about, your soul and purpose on this earth is all that matters.. It’s also not that I haven’t found love, I’ve found it and didn’t realize it and self sabotaged myself and hindsight is 20/20 when it comes to this topic, I can see clearly now what I did wrong and how I could have done better and made things work long term.. I truly believe my 1st encounter as being a one night date has had long lasting impacting mental health with me sub consciously but now that I’m aware of that I can fix it moving forward!! 😀 I’m ready for something longer term and eager to make it work out and also make it romantic too, I’m kind of a hopeless romantic type guy.. the kinda clawfoot roses in the tub make love kinda guy.. 🥰 if you get my drift.. 😉
My handwriting is very inconsistent. I would really like to try out different styles to find one that feels more like “me” but I’m not sure how to go about this. I’ve always really disliked my handwriting. Advice/tips on how to go about this? Resources or guides? My least favorite letters in my current handwriting have to be: Y/y, D/d, J/j, Q/q, r, E, A, G - these I am never happy with but I am looking to totally revamp all of the letters in the alphabet!
I’m also looking for guidance and resources for learning cursive. It was required in second grade but that feels like a lifetime ago and it doesn’t come naturally anymore.
Hey everyone! I do postcrossing (exchange of real postcards around the world with the help of special websites and apps) and my handwriting in languages that use Latin alphabet is mostly cursive with random letters looking like print and having spaces between letters within one word. But still, it looks mostly like cursive.
I usually write in print (which looks rather sloppy imo) when signing postcards to Japan, China, and sometimes India. It would be a good idea to know where people don't have trouble understanding cursive writing in languages that use the Latin alphabet and where people are less likely to understand your handwriting unless it's print.
As for age groups, they are absolutely different. If it's Europe and the Americas, it's usually people in their 50s, 60s etc, in Asia and Russia, users tend to be younger, like in their 20s and 30s but that's not a rule. Sometimes you draw kids' and teenagers' addresses.
Thank you in advance!
I can read the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, not good at handwriting in either language. I can read some French too, but I would only read French handwriting very slowly, if at all, in most cases.
Also, for anyone who is something like 14 reading this, handwriting, also known as cursive, is this thing adults used to have to learn in school because old teachers used to be somehow unable to read anything we wrote unless it was stuck together, slanted, and drawn as artistically as possible.
| In 136A (1819), Thomas Young, in his Egypt article, §6.K: Sounds (pg. 35), said the following: https://preview.redd.it/vq7t3t7821vc1.jpg?width=1218&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe7fd01e011e74ed368fd0f41aed795abe92a2d6 In 100A (1855), John Leitch, editor of Young's Collective works, Volume Three (pgs. 182-87), gave the following rather long 6-page footnote to the above section, cited by an asterisk * after the word required: This was the first announcement of the discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet. The volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica containing it appeared in 136A/1819. In the year 134A/1821, Champollion published his memoir: "From the Hieratic Writings of the Ancient Egyptians", in which he asserts that the hieroglyphics are "signs of things, not of sounds" (supra, pg. 157, note), from which it is evident that he did not yet suspect the existence of phonetic signs among the hieroglyphic characters. In the following year, after having read the article Egypt, he published the discovery as his own in his celebrated: "Letter to Joseph Dacier" ("Lettre à M. Dacier"), which contained an alphabet consisting of various characters discovered by himself as well as those whose value had been ascertained by Dr. Young. Several signs also which the latter supposed to be syllabic were shown by M. Champollion to be purely alphabetic. In short it was Young's alphabet corrected and extended. Chevalier [Christian] Bunsen, however, although he admits that Young is entitled to the priority, that he demonstrated his discovery to some extent, and that Champollion was led to his discovery by the impression which Dr. Young's analysis of the names of Ptolemy and Berenice produced on his mind, denies that Champollion merely improved on Young, and awards to the former the merit of having found "the alphabet of the Egyptian language and characters", the greatest discovery of the century because he employed "a very different method, and one peculiar to himself." (Egypt's Place, p. 325.) The following are Young and Champollion decodings of the key cartouches: https://preview.redd.it/rk4vbyy7o2vc1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=1038f385d68f2188fc97d0b311ec610c147c5362 It would scarcely be more absurd to say that the patentee of an improved musket should be regarded as the inventor of fire-arms, because he introduced a different method of loading or priming. Champollion appropriated Young's discovery, and thus far his system was certainly peculiar; but in carrying it out, he only departed from Young's method in so far as was prescribed by an advanced stage of the investigation. In making the first step, which was of course the most difficult, Young was obliged to seek for analogies in the enchorial character. Champollion on the other hand had merely to compare the signs he attempted to decipher with Dr. Young's alphabet; and it so happened that the two hieroglyphic names of Ptolemy and Berenice analysed by Young contained most of the characters in that of Cleopatra, the word on which all Champollion's discoveries hinged. The merit of the latter is still further diminished by the fact, that his attention was drawn by Mr. Bankes to the hieroglyphic name of Cleopatra on the obelisk of Philæ; and it is worthy of remark that although Salt (Essay, p. 7-10) and Schwarze (Das Alte Egypten, p. 201) describe at length the difficult process by which Bankes arrived at the identification of this group, and comment on Champollion's characteristic silence regarding his obligations to him, Chevalier Bunsen not only ignores the fact that Champollion was indebted to the English traveller for this important element in the discovery, but even asserts that after recognising on the obelisk the ring of Ptolemy corresponding with that on the Rosetta Stone discovered by Dr. Young, Champollion "assumed that the other would correspond likewise with the name of Cleopatra," as if there were only one other ring in the inscription, and such an assumption were perfectly natural and obvious. (See note, p. 293.) In these circumstances the verification of some of Dr. Young's results and the rectification of others certainly did not seem to require any extraordinary ingenuity. But it may be asked why was not this done by Dr. Young himself? He tells us (see p. 296) that he was misled by a mistake in his copy of the lithographic sketch of the obelisk, and that he had not "leisure at the time to enter into a very minute comparison of the name with other authorities." Chevalier Bunsen, without taking any notice whatever of this, asserts that "Young failed to perceive the use or value of this monument." It must be admitted that he was too easily discouraged, and that, as Peyron remarks (infra, p. 423), the vast variety of his pursuits prevented him in this instance from perfecting his own discovery, which was from that moment transferred to Champollion's hands. This, however, does not invalidate his claim to the merit of the original discovery, which has indeed been hitherto awarded to him by impartial persons of all nations. Although Chevalier Bunsen confidently predicts that those who have dared to oppose Champollion will be unknown to posterity (Egypt's Place, p. 244), we have no doubt that the following judgment of Klaproth will have at least as much weight with future ages enchorial alphabet, which is subjoined, is applicable to most of the proper names in the inscription of Rosetta, and probably also to some other symbols which have been the prototypes of as that of his countryman, although it was elicited in the course of a controversy with Champollion:-"M. Champollion a l'air de croire que c'est attaquer l'honneur Français que de supposer qu'un autre que lui eût pu le devancer dans cette partie de sa carrière littéraire. Qu'il se souvienne que rien ne peut porter honneur que ce qui est vrai. Il ne persuadera jamais aux personnes impartiales et en état de juger d'après les faits, que ses travaux sur l'alphabet des hieroglyphes phonétiques puissent ravir à M. Young le droit de réclamer pour lui l'honneur de la découverte de cet alphabet, selon la maxime universellement adoptée: Prior in tempore, potior in jure." (Seconde Lettre sur les Hieroglyphes, p. 6. 1827.) When Champollion, however, found that Young's claim to priority could not be controverted, he attempted to show that there ought to be no question of priority at all, because his system was widely different from Young's. (Infra, p. 451.) His mystification on this point, as well as on the process by which he obtained his alphabet, is reproduced and exaggerated by his German disciple, whose vague and confused conception of the whole subject, together with his obscure and inflated language, render him sometimes quite unintelligible. (See, for instance, Egypt's Place, p. 327; Infra, p. 362, note.) The latter says that Young had no notion of "a purely phonetic alphabet, although he suspected 'a certain kind of syllabic system'in itself a very obscure and uncritical expression." Dr. Young has nowhere used that expression, but he has repeatedly asserted that foreign proper names were formed in the Egyptian language by syllabic as well as alphabetic characters, an opinion which was afterwards embraced by Champollion, who in his Lettre à M. Dacier, speaks of the "valeur syllabico-alphabetique" (p. 2), of the signs employed for expressing foreign names and again refers to them (p. 40), as the "écriture semi-alphabetique Egyptienne." In his Précis, however, published two years after, where he endeavoured to show that his system had peculiar features which distinguished it from that of Young, he says "D'après moi les Egyptiens transcrivirent les noms propres étrangers par une méthode toute alphabétique." But Dr. Young's opinion has been fully confirmed by more recent discoveries: see, for instance, Lepsius, Lettre à Rosellini, p. 34, where he gives several foreign names composed on the syllabic principle. But both Champollion and Bunsen sometimes speak of Dr. Young's alphabet as if it were entirely syllabic, although the majority of the characters discovered by him are purely alphabetical, and have precisely the same value in Champollion's alphabet. Chevalier Bunsen, contrasting the narrowness of Young's views with those of Champollion, states that the former had no idea of homophone signs, and that his "hieroglyphic alphabet as conceived by him was no alphabet for the language, but only for foreign names;" but there is abundant evidence in this work (see pp. 164, 179, 296) that Champollion was also indebted to Young for the idea of the interchange of various characters for the same sound; and it is scarcely conceivable that the author of Egypt's Place' should have formed a different opinion if he had perused the article Egypt' with attention. As to the second point, Champollion most assuredly did not set out with more enlarged views than Young, as is implied by Chevalier Bunsen's language. He had no notion that the alphabet was a key to Egyptian names and words until he was forced, by repeated application of it to unknown groups, to relinquish his former opinion, which he had adopted from Young, together with his phonetic discovery, as is evident from his Lettre à M. Dacier (p. 3), where he merely speaks of the phonetic characters being used for "inscribing on the monuments of Egypt the titles, names, and surnames of the Greek and Roman sovereigns who governed it in succession." But if Young did not know the full value of his discovery, Champollion, on the other hand, after improving on it, exaggerated its importance, as is clearly shown by Klaproth in his Examen Critique (pp. 23, 24). Chevalier Bunsen also asserts that "Young was led to an approach to the truth merely by an assumption foreign to his own system, and one from the first inseparably clogged with error." On the contrary Young had from the outset recognized a phonetic element in the enchorial character, and even made some additions to Akerblad's alphabet. When he discovered therefore that that character was derived from the hieroglyphic, it naturally occurred to him that proper names would be formed in an analogous manner in the sacred writings; and with regard to the errors he committed, it is sufficient to remark that Champollion corrected them by comparing Young's alphabet with one or two words, and but for an accident Dr. Young himself would have done the same. Indeed any person of ordinary ingenuity might have done what, according. to Chevalier Bunsen, Champollion is to be immortalised for having accomplished. Champollion's true claims to admiration rest on the skill, perseverance, and success with which he applied the hieroglyphic alphabet to the monuments of Egypt. Chevalier Bunsen adds, that Young's errors in the analysis of the names of Ptolemy and Berenice were the natural result of his system, "because his speculations were based on no certain or definite value of the individual hieroglyphics" (Egypt's Place, p. 321); but it is surely too much to expect that his speculations should be based on that which they only aimed at discovering. On the other hand, according to Bunsen, "The denial of any phonetic element in the hieroglyphic characters was a natural conclusion from false premises, which Champollion shared in common with the rest." (Ibid. p. 325.) Now, Champollion at a very early period adopted, of course without acknowledgment, the enchorial discoveries of Akerblad, who showed that that mode of writing contained an alphabet; and when he afterwards similarly appropriated Dr. Young's discovery that the enchorial character was derived from the hieroglyphics, he ought to have concluded that the latter also possessed phonetic signs. But the circumstance which led Young to the truth led Champollion further astray; for, having assumed that the hieroglyphics were exclusively symbolic, he inferred that the hieratic characters (the derivation of which from the former was also demonstrated by Young in 1816, and published by Champollion as a discovery of his own in 1821) were in like manner destitute of alphabetic signs. Those who read the history of hieroglyphical discovery in Egypt's Place in Universal History,' unless previously acquainted with the facts, might suppose that Champollion's career was, from the outset, one of rapid and triumphant discovery and that Young was in comparison a miserable bungler, although the author patronisingly bestows on him an occasional compliment; but amid all the inaccuracies, inconsistencies, misrepresentations, and confusion of thought which prevail throughout this section of Chevalier Bunsen's work, there are to be found certain facts which could not be withheld, and which are perfectly sufficient to show that until Champollion adopted Young's discoveries the case was directly the reverse. The author says that his hero "appeared, from his earliest years, to be the destined instrument of forwarding Egyptian research;" but although Champollion began his Egyptian studies before 1807 and made them the sole business of his life, he really discovered nothing till 1822. In his letter to the President of the Royal Society, in 1814 (supra, p. 62), he states that his study of the Rosetta Inscription had been constante et suicie; but it had produced no important result, and it was prosecuted eight years longer with equal fruitlessness. When forced to descend to facts, the utmost Chevalier Bunsen can say is that Champollion almost discovered something. (Egypt's Place, p. 324, supra, p. 54, note.) Now Dr. Young, who commenced his Egyptian researches in 1814, published near the close of that year his conjectural translation of the Rosetta Inscription, discovered the following year that there were symbolic signs in the enchorial character, demonstrated in 1816 that the cursive characters of the sacred papyri were derived from the hieroglyphics, and in 1818 discovered the hieroglyphic alphabet; besides these, he made various minor discoveries, some of which are enumerated at p. 274. Champollion's discoveries were founded entirely on Young's, and but for the latter Champollion, with all his industry and ingenuity, would in all probability have continued to grope on in the Egyptian darkness helplessly and hopelessly to the end, although Chevalier Bunsen believes that he was sent upon earth for the express purpose of dispelling it. The partiality of the learned German to his friend and niaster is too strong to be concealed, and he frankly avows, at the close of an enthusiastic eulogium, that his praise is "dictated by a no less powerful sense of conviction than of heartfelt gratitude, because we enjoyed the happiness of his personal acquaintance, and of learning from him the first rudiments of hieroglyphic the characters: it is taken from the alphabet of Akerblad, but considerably modified by the conjectures which have been published in the Museum Criticum. The last line of the inscription of Rosetta will serve as a specimen of the way in which the hieroglyphical characters were lore at the foot of the obelisks at Rome." (Egypt's Place, p. 244.) Notwithstanding this, however, Chevalier Bunsen affects a lofty disregard of whatever is personal in the history of this great discovery, and he certainly does most carefully avoid hinting that there was anything censurable in Champollion's conduct towards Young; but when he goes out of his way to commend the former for his candour in acknowledging the merits of the latter (ibid. p. 327), and to charge Young with claiming Champollion's discoveries (ibid. p. 322; infra, p. 265), he does enter upon the personal element involved in the question, and his misrepresentations on these points, as well as on various others, manifest not only a profound reliance on the ignorance of his readers, but afford, we are constrained to add, signal proof that the force of his gratitude can only be equalled by the facility of his conviction. The French, unlike Chevalier Bunsen, did not espouse Champollion's cause from personal feeling, for he was not esteemed by his countrymen, and some of the most distinguished of those who advocated his claims have recorded their contempt for his character. (Supra, pp. 51, 59, 75, note; infra, p. 252). National vanity was the sole motive which prompted the French to lay claim to this great discovery, and they entered into the controversy as a national question. M. Arago, as far as regards himself, does not attempt to conceal this in his Eloge of Dr. Young, where, after disclaiming all cosmopolitism, a quality which one is not apt to look for in his countrymen, he proceeds to evince his patriotism by asserting that the discovery of the Royal Rings in the monuments of Egypt (see p. 274) is due to De Guignes, and that of the hieroglyphic alphabet to Champollion; as he had already, in the same memoir, claimed for Papin the invention of the steam-engine. His reason for denying to Dr. Young the discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet is entirely different from that alleged by Chevalier Bunsen for the same purpose. He asserts that Young did not demonstrate his discovery; but any one who reads carefully the article Egypt' can satisfy himself of the contrary, and even Chevalier Bunsen, notwithstanding his glaring partiality, admits that he did demonstrate it to some extent. Klaproth also says, in his preface to the Collection des Monumens Egyptiens de M. Palin,' that "le célèbre Zoëga avait déjà soupçonne qu'une partie des signes hieroglyphiques pouvaient être employee alphabétiquement, mais l'honneur d'avoir démontré ce fait appartient au Docteur Young." Even among Champollion's countrymen, however, there are some whose conscientious convictions have proved stronger than their feelings of nationality: for example, the Chevalier de Paravey, than whom no man in France is better qualified to form an opinion on the subject. That distinguished savant admits that "Dr. Young was the first who showed that the hieroglyphic characters have, in many cases, an alphabetic value, and thus furnished M. Champollion with a key, without which the latter could never have arrived at the important and curious results which he has since obtained." (Infra, p. 405.) Besides Chevalier Bunsen, two of his friends, Lepsius and Schwarze (whose contributions to Egypt's Place,' together with those of Mr. Birch, render it on the whole a valuable work), have published, the former a brief account of the discovery of the hieroglyphic alphabet, in a letter to his early patron Rosellini, the friend and coadjutor of Champollion, in which he does not even hint at Champollion's obligations to Young; and the latter, a very learned and voluminous work, entitled Das Alte Ægypten (4to. Th. I. Abth. I. II. pp. 2183), in which he gives a detailed history of all that has been done towards the discovery and decypherment of the Egyptian language and methods of writing. It contains certainly the fullest, and as Chevalier Bunsen asserts, the best, history of hieroglyphical discovery in existence. In Schwarze's account of Dr. Young's researches he did the latter great injustice; not so much, however, from partiality, although he also betrays a certain degree of bias towards Champollion, the head of the school to which he belongs, but because he was combined, so as to form a language; and will show at the same time the relation between the sacred and the enchorial texts. At the beginning of the line we find some obscurity, and a want of perfect correspondence in the two inscriptions; but it is clear that the fork or ladder, the arm and the feathers, mean to prepare or procure (n. 165); then follows a column (n. 91); the wavy line of (n. 177); the semicircle and two dashes, with the arm, probably strong or hard; the block or square below, with its semicircle, stone; the loop or knot wrought or engraven; the half arch in or with; the instrument or case, writing, or letters (n. 103); the wavy line, the hatchet, and drop, with the three dashes making a plural, appropriate to the gods, that is, sacred (n. 146); the case again, letters; the hat, of (n. 177); the ladder, arm, and feathers, the country; the serpent and bent line, approaching to the sense of perpetuity and greatness, seem to be a mark of respect to the country, though it is barely possible that they may be substituted for the repetition of the instrument or case, and may mean the language, and belong to the following curl on the stem, the feathers, the serpent, and the hat, which signify Greek (n. 83). The head dress of flowers meaning probably a priest, the following curl with the dashes probably ornamental or honorary, or perhaps collective, and the two bowls, with the man in the plural, a publication (n. 158), the whole of these symbols must express the honorary decree of the priests, or the decree of the assembled priests; but the enchorial text seems to include the symbol for honour. The oval, with the semicircle and arm, implies in order that, or in order to; the fork with cross bars, the arm, the legs, and the snake, set it up (n. 164); the bird, in unable to procure a copy of the article Egypt,' by far the most important of all Dr. Young's memoirs on the Egyptian writings. He certainly did not go so far as to assert, like his countryman (Egypt's Place, p. 322), that Young "actually discovered and deciphered nothing at all,"- - an opinion quoted with approbation by a writer in one of our most eminent literary journals (infra, p. 255), in blind reliance on Chevalier Bunsen, the real value of whose authority he could have ascertained if he chose without much difficulty-but he adopted the same view in regard to Dr. Young's ignorance of homophone signs, and several other points, where he was obliged to rely on Champollion's misrepresentations. In a subsequent part of his work (p. 445), however, he states that he had at length obtained from the Berlin Library, Baron von Humboldt's copy of the article, the perusal of which greatly increased his admiration of the author's powers of investigation, and showed him that much, especially in the interpretation of symbolical hieroglyphics, which is usually regarded as the property of Champollion, belongs in reality to Dr. Young.-Ed. (n. 172); the three broad feathers over as many open squares, the temples, as a plural; the half arch and oval with the plural dashes, all, or of all kinds; the open square, wheel, scale, head, dash, and ring, Egypt (n. 80); the figure with a vase on his head, subjection or power, as in n. 139—making the whole, belonging to Egypt, or throughout Egypt; the fork and dash are in, or in all; the knots or chains, followed by the numbers of the first, the second, and the third order (n. 187, 189, 191); the oval, half arch, and dash, wherever, or in which, leaving out "shall be," the tool and standing figure, with the intervening characters, the image (n. 101); the hat, of; the reed and bee, with the semicircles, King; the square, semicircle, lion, half arch, two feathers, and bent line, Ptolemy (n. 56); the handled cross and serpent with the two semicircles, the everliving (n. 110); the square block, semicircle, and chain, dear to (n. 162); the hieralpha and two feathers, Phthah, or Vulcan (n. 6)—all this being included within the ring or phylactery together with the name; the open square, the oval, and the pair of legs after the ring, illustrious or Epiphanes (n. 121); and lastly, the scale and the three lutes, munificent (n. 154)—the conjunctions being often omitted, as they also very commonly are in Coptic, and even in Greek. The enchorial text agrees in many parts extremely well with the hieroglyphics, according to the general style of imitation which has been already explained and exemplified, although in some passages there is a greater difference than might have been expected. The beginning of the enchorial line seems to contain the word decree, which cannot be found in this part of the hieroglyphics; the character for letters occurs three times in it, as if the sacred character used in the third place meant language; the "sacerdotal decree" of the sacred characters is omitted in the corresponding part of the enchorial; the word temples is repeated before each numeral; the term wherever is amplified; the image is a very coarse imitation, and is followed by the character for a deity, meaning sacred or divine; and, lastly, the name of Ptolemy is omitted, the word king being only followed by "whose life shall be for ever," or a phrase of similar import. Notes - This page is under 🚧 construction.
- The annotations are my notes from 17 Apr A69 (2024).
- The P of phonetics, comes from the letter phi (Φ), the Ptah fire-drill letter, and the "sound" aspect of the word, derives from the model that the "cry" or first sound, aka proto (secret name), was the "cry" of the phoenix, which started the creation process.
- The S of sound, seems to have to do with the fact that the phoenix, as Horus, is born with a snake, in the bulb of the sun; and seems to have to do with Hercules strangling a snake in his crib.
References Young - Young, Thomas. (140A/c.1815). "An Explanation of the Hieroglyphics on the Stone of Rosetta", Egyptological manuscripts; dating from: 141A/1814 to 136A/1829 (post). British Library. London.
- Young, Thomas. (136A/1819). “Egypt” (61-pgs), Encyclopædia Britannica, Supplement 4.1. Edinburgh, Dec.
- Young, Thomas. (132A/1823). An Account of Some Recent Discoveries in Hieroglyphical Literature and Egyptian Antiquities: Including the Author's Original Alphabet, as Extended by Mr. Champollion, with a Translation of Five Unpublished Greek and Egyptian Manuscripts (160-pgs). Publisher.
- Young, Thomas. (126A/1829). Miscellaneous Works of the Late Thomas Young, Volume Three (editor: John Leitch) (625-pgs). Murray, 100A/1855.Y
- Young, Thomas. (124A/1831). Rudiments of an Egyptian Dictionary in the Ancient Enchorial Character: Containing All the Words of which the Sense Has Been Ascertained (110-pgs). Publisher.
References Champollion - Champollion, Jean. (134A/1821). "From the Hieratic Writings of the Ancient Egyptians" ("De l'Ecriture Hiératique des Anciens Egyptiens") ("hieroglyphics are signs of things, not of sounds" (supra, pg. 157, note) (7-pgs). Baratier.
- Champollion, Jean. (133A/1822). "Letter to Joseph Dacier" ("Lettre à M. Dacier") (text). Publisher.
- Champollion, Jean. (123A/1832). Egyptian Grammar (Grammaire égyptienne) (images). Publisher, 119A/1836.
References Other - Salt, Henry. (132A/1823). Essay on Dr. Young's and M. Champollion's Phonetic System of Hieroglyphics: With Some Additional Discoveries, by which it May be Applied to Decipher the Names of the Ancient Kings of Egypt and Ethiopia (72-pgs). Green.
- Robinson, Andrew. (A51/2006). The Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Genius who Proved Newton Wrong, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Surprising Feats (Archive) (pdf-file) (296-pgs) (An Explanation of the Hieroglyphics on the Stone of Rosetta, pg. vii). OpenBooks, A68/2023.
submitted by JohannGoethe to CartoPhonetics [link] [comments] |
| Abstract A short history on theories concerning the origin of letter M and the origin of the name mu (MY, μυ), word value: 440, in Greek. M extant In 3100A (-1145), letter M was written on the Fayum plates Abecedaria, found in the Fayum Oasis, Egypt, as follows, which seems to be the oldest alphabetically-ordered letter M on record: Fayum M In 2610A (-655), letter M was written on the Samos cup Abecedaria as follows: Samos cup (2610A/-655) letter M. Mu extant In 2490A (-535), Hipponax, in his Evidence and Fragments (fragment 123) used the term: “ μῦ λαλεῖν” ( mý laleín) or “mu facere” {Latin}, meaning: “they sing” 🎶, possibly in the sense of a musical? A citation of this fragment Hipponax mu fragment is as follows: https://preview.redd.it/2rkoms56souc1.jpg?width=1086&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2f19915820e224e88f41a09294ebe45e9728ac8 The LSJ gives the following entry (and here) on mu renders the Hipponax term: μῦ λαλεῖν” ( mý laleín) as meaning “to mutter“, to represent a sound 🔊 made with the lips 👄: τό, name of the letter μ, IG2.4321.24 (iv B. C.), Epigr. ap. Ath. 10.454f, Hellad. ap. Phot.*Bibl.*p.530 B., etc.2 μῦ or μὺ μῦ, to represent a muttering sound made with the lips, μῦ λαλεῖν to mutter, Hippon.80 (dub. l.); to imitate the sound of sobbing, μὺ μῦ, μὺ μῦ Aristophanes The Knights (2379Α/-424) [Eq.10]. In 2379A (-424), Aristophanes, in his The Knights, used the 4-letter word mumu (μυμυ), which is translated by Ian Johnstone (A62/2017) as follows: https://preview.redd.it/nc0cmue3xouc1.jpg?width=1071&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=557b1260946871414c7d1bfdd866cd90cee8d47a Johnstone gives the following footnote to this “mumu (μυμυ)” term: “Olympus was a musician from the 7th century who composed flute 🪈 music 🎵. The English words here have been provided by the translator; the Greek simply has them repeating a series of mu sounds, without any lyrics.“ Possibly this mu-mu is the Etymo of the word music 🎶? The original Greek version, contrary to Johnson’s “do-o-oooo” translation, however, seems to be the cow 🐮 moo sound, or maybe the cat sound: “mu mu”? Kircher In 300A (1655), Kircher, in his 21-letter Egyptian Alphabet, supposedly based on Coptic, assigned letter M as was based on an Egyptian 𓈖 [N35] water 💦 symbol: M = 𓈖 [N35] water 💦 Young In 136A (1819), Thomas Young, in his Egypt article , §:6.G Relations (pg. 35), said that letter M was based on an owl, and resembled the "coptic prefix M" which corroborated with the M of Akerblad's alphabet, and diagrammed this in figure 172, shown below: [add] Champollion In 133A (1822), Jean Champollion, in his hieroglyphic table, assigned the owl 𓅓 to letter M: M = 𓅓 [G17] owl 🦉 Lenormant In 104A (1851), Francois Lenormant, age 14, published an essay on some Greek tablets found at Memphis; therein, or shortly thereafter, he theorized about some sort of connection existing between the Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Phoenician alphabet letters. Specifically, according to Rouge (96A/1859), he was the first to connect Thoth 𓁟 [C3] to the Phoenician letters: 𓁟 = inventor of Phoenician alphabet Or: 𓁟 = ✍️ → 𐤕 ,𐤔 ,𐤓 ,𐤒 ,𐤑 ,𐤐 ,𐤏 ,𐤎 ,𐤍 ,𐤌 ,𐤋 ,𐤊 ,𐤉 ,𐤈 ,𐤇 ,𐤆 ,𐤅 ,𐤄 ,𐤃 ,𐤂 ,𐤁 ,𐤀 Where: M = 𐤌 is the 13th Phoenician letter. Rouge In 104A (1851), Emmanuel Rouge, in his alphabet table, connected letter M to the owl 𓅓 [G17], sickle 𓌳 [U1], and the 𓐝 [Aa15] symbol, as carto-phonetic parent characters, or something along these lines, to letter M: Rouge (104A/1851) letter M model, from owl 𓅓, plinth 𓐝, and or sickle 𓌳. In symbols: - M = 𓅓 [G17] owl 🦉
- M = 𓐝 [Aa15], an unknown) meaning?
- M =𓌳 [U1], a sickle, tool for cutting crops 🌱 at harvest time
In 96A (1859), Rouge, in his Egyptian Origin of the Phoenician Alphabet (pg. 6), credited Lenormant as having first proffered the Thoth = Phoenician letter inventor model. Taylor In 72A (1883), Isaac Taylor), in his The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters, Volume One (pg. #), derived the Phoenician M from the cursive form of the owl 𓅓 [G17], as follows: Taylor owl 🦉= M type model Taylor then gave (pg. 11) the following letter M evolution tree diagram: Tayor model (72A/1883) evolution of letter M from owl 🦉 hieroglyph model. Petrie In 50A (1905), Flindes Petrie, under the guise of the “Egyptian Exploration Fund” expedition, wrote down a large number of cave wall and Sphinx figurine markings, while exploring Serabit el-Khadim, Sinai. In 49A (1906), Petrie, in his Researches in Sinai, stated the following about hand-drawn characters found on figure 346 (shown below): ”The figure 138 [#346] was found at the doorway of the shrine of Sopdu, whic was built by Hatshepsut. The sphinx is of a red sandstone which was used by Tahutmes III, and not at other times. Each of these facts is not conclusive by itself, but they all agree, and we are bound to accept this writing as being of about 3455A (-1500).” — Flinders Petrie (49A/1906), Researches in Sinai (pg. 131) In 43A (1912), Petrie, in his The Formation of the Alphabet, argued that the Phoenician alphabet “crystalized out of a diffused signary evidenced in all corners of the Mediterranean littoral” and alluded to the possibility of there being alphabetic writing in the Sinai cave inscriptions. Gardiner In 39A (1916), Alan Gardiner, in his “On the Egyptian Origin of the Semitic Alphabet”, building on Petrie (43A/1912), postulated that that there must have existed a theoretical “proto-Semitic script” that was the parent of Phoenician alphabet, Greek alphabet, and “South-Semitic alphabets” (Pratorius, 46A/1909), and in his “ Comparative table of alphabets”, said that the Phoenician M, Greek M, and Hebrew M all comes from Egyptian water ♒ 💦 zig-zag symbols: 𓈖 [N35], 𓈗 [N35A], , 𓏁 [W15], 𓏂 [W16], 𓀆 [A6], 𓀇 [A6A], 𓀈 [A6B], shown in row #8, found carved on Sinai cave walls, which he defines as “Sinai new script”: Gardiner (39A/1916) model of letter M as a water zig-zag 𓈖 [N35] glyph. The following are plates 345 and 346, with the water-waves💧shown in blue: Petrie (49A/1906) Sinai inscriptions. Rows #9 and #10, to give contrast, are Gardiner’s Sinai new script characters for letter N, a letter he thinks is based on the cave artistry of a fish 🐡, 🐠, 🐟 [346], one example shown above, or snake 🐍 [346], two examples shown above in green, character drawings. Gardiner thinks these symbols were made as follows: “These inscriptions are not Egyptian hieroglyphs, yet many of the signs are obvious borrowed from that source.” — Alan Gardiner (39A/1916), “On the Egyptian Origin of the Semitic Alphabet” (pg. 14) This is the key quote that has allowed many to believe that “traveling Semites”, who had learned to write in the Egyptian schools, invented the alphabet via imitating certain hieroglyphs, e.g. the animal head, next to the water wave in figure 345, according to Gardiner is “borrowed“ from the Egyptian 𓃾 [F1] glyph of an ox head, and that this was how the Phoenician letter A originated. Gardiner (pg. 11) also credited Lenormant as theorizing that “Semites learned to write in the Egyptian schools”. Gardiner concluded his article by saying that this “New Sinai script”, i.e. the characters shown above, could not be dated “latter than” 3055A (-1100), and that they were written write ✍️ by “foreign Semites“ who either were working in the Sinai turquoise mines or were visiting people at the “chief meeting place” (pg. 12) where Semites and Egyptians often met, according to Gardiner, or something along these lines. Jeffery Epigraphic In 4A (1951), Anne Jeffery, in her The Local Scripts of Archaic Greece (see: table), gave the following eleven examples of early Greek letter M forms: Jeffery (4A/1951) early Greek letter M epigraphic forms. The following, made on 16 Apr A69 (2024), shows early Greek epigraphic letter M forms with Egyptian sickles 𓌳 [U1] overlaid: https://preview.redd.it/gw6lqr5s3xuc1.jpg?width=1229&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1132ec1fa04b540447f5b67fd413b5e4a38d6f67 As we see these, aside from the maybe the 9th letter, do NOT match any water 💦 “waves” 🌊 or water pouring zig-zags anyone has ever seen? Jeffery’s epigraphic data thus disproves Gardiner’s M = Semitic-Egyptian water symbol model. Thims M = sickle On 18 Aug A67 (2022), LibbThims, independent of Rouge and Taylor, whose work he had not yet read, had decoded the origin of letter M from the sickle 𓌳 [U1] glyph, of the Maa hiero-name, as follows: Thims (18 Aug A67/2022) decoding of letter M from sickle 𓌳 [U1] glyph. On 19 Aug A67 (2022), Thims used the “character overlap method”, as follows, to show the overlay of the 𓌳 [U1] glyph on the Phoenician M (𐤌), as evidenced proof that the former is is what the latter type is based on: Thims (19 Aug A67/2022) character overlay test of sickle 𓌳 [U1] glyph on the Phoenician M (𐤌), shown an 85% match, in visual guesstimate. We also see that Greek M (μ), wherein the long arm of mu is the sickle “blade”, made of attached fling stones used to cut plants 🌱 at during harvest season, is reversed, or on the left side, as compared to the Phoenician M (𐤌), which has the blade of the cutting tool on the right side; all three shown below are oriented in the blade-on-right direction, for clarity. In letter type evolution: M = 𓎉 » 𓌳 » 𐤌 » μ » 𐡌 » 𐌌 » Μ » म » מ » Ⲙ » ᛗ » 𐌼 » م This decoding was done while working on the 42 = maa (μαα) cipher, which shows that the Μaat sickle/scythe shape is the parent character of the Phoenician M. Thims also pointed out, during this week, that the sickle as M parent shape, also matches the ”moral” nature of the letter, as seen in burials of people with sickles placed over their necks; the sickle or scythe also is the tool of the Grim Reaper, the messenger of death, when someone is a wrong-doer. On 25 Oct A67 (2022), Thims posted a comparison of the Taylor own 🦉= 𐤌 model vs the sickle 𓌳 = 𐤌 model, as follows, which got a 2+ upvote like ranking: Thims (25 Oct A67/2022) comparison of the Tayor owl 🦉 = 𐤌 (M) vs the sickle 𓌳 = 𐤌 (M) models. Thims Mu = 440 (Apep home = 440); Nu = 450 (Apep river bank = 450) On [date], Thims determined that the word value of mu (μυ) (ΜΥ) (40-400) [440] matched the dimensions of the home 🏠 of Apep, namely: 440 x 440 cubits or 𓍥𓎉 x 𓍥𓎉 𓂣, the giant 7th gate snake 🐍 that blocks the solar 🌞 boat 𓊞 of Ra through the Milky Way 🐄 each night, as described in the Book of Gates (3500A/-1545), as follows: Book of Gates (3500A/-1545) section showing that the home 🏠 of the 7th gate Apep snake 🐍 is 440 cubits², located next to a river bank that is 450 cubits in length; which matches the word values of Nu (μυ) [440] and Mu (νυ) [450], the names of the 13th and 14th Greek letters. English translation by Budge: “The region of the Tuat [Amduat] where the giant serpent Apep 𓆙 (or Neha-hra) lives is called Tchau 𓍑𓄿𓅱𓈗𓈀, and it is 440 𓍥𓎉 cubits 𓂣 long and 440 𓍥𓎉 cubits 𓂣 wide. In the seventh gate of Duat, the boat of Ra has traverse a region where there is not sufficient water to float his boat 𓊞 or to permit of its being towed; moreover, his way is blocked by Apep, which lies on a sand bank 450 𓍥𓎊 cubits 𓂣 long.”— Wallis Budge (A49/1906), The Egyptian Heaven and Hell, Volume Three (pg. 152) Thims also noted here that the sand bank on the river next to the home 🏠 of Apep is 450 cubits or 𓍥𓎊 𓂣 in length, which matches the word value of Nu (νυ), the 14th Greek letter, which by no coincidence is the letter next to letter M, in alphabetic order, just 450 cubit river is next to the 440 cubit home in the Book of Gates. In table form: | 440 | | 450 | | Egyptian | 𓍥𓎉 𓂣 | Apep home 🏠 dimensions. | 𓍥𓎊 𓂣 | Apep river bank dimensions. | Greek | Mu (μυ) | Value of name of Mu, Greek letter M. | Νυ (Νυ) | Value of name of Nu, Greek letter N. | The following is a diagram of the Fayum M and N along with two versions of Egyptian sickles and the N-bend of the Nile, overlaid on M and N, respectively: https://preview.redd.it/xoiml3mw8ouc1.jpg?width=1187&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=356a634ba4551971c93a1491eb6384a25e7cc41a On 21 Oct A68 (2023), Thims made the following conceptual diagram of the 440 cubit² home 🏠 of Apep 🐍, at 7th solar ☀️ gate 𓉪, either below the 440 cubit² base sized Khufu pyramid, or in the stars ✨ above the pyramid, in the Milky Way: Thims (21 Oct A68/2023) conceptual diagram of the 7th solar ☀️ gate 𓉪 of Apep snake 🐍, at the 19th hour, of the 24-hours or 24-Horus 𓁜 sun 🌞 or stoicheia count units, in a 440 cubit² sized star 🌟 home 🏠, blocking the solar boat 𓊞 of Ra. Thims Osiris = 440 On 24 Jan A69 (2024), Thims had decoded the that Osiris (οσιριν) [440 = 𓀲], the Egyptian crop 🌱 god, as number 440, was the god name, aka “secret name”, used to make the base of Khufu 👁️⃤ pyramid (4500A/-2545), as follows, post getting a 3+ upvote rating and lots of debate and attempted refutation from the PIEland linguists: Thims (24 Jan A69/2024) decoding that the 440 cubit base of Khufu pyramid is based on the secret name of Osiris, spelled OSIRIN (ΟΣΙΡΙΝ) [440] according to Plutarch. On 11:21PM 14 Apr A69 (2024), Thims, to summarize, in one image, what was done in this post (13 Apr A69), posted the following diagram to summarize things, collectively: Thims (14 Apr A69/2024) summary of how the hiero-name (𓐙𓌳𓏏𓂣) of the Maat 𓁧 morality 𓍝 goddess, combined with the name value of 440 of Osiris, spelled as OSIRIN (ΟΣΙΡΙΝ) [440], became the letter M, the 13th Greek letter, with a word value of 440. In table summary form: | Type | Number | Value | Name | Goddess | Symbol | Evidence | Egyptian | 𓌳 | 𓎉 | 𓍥𓎉 | 𓐙𓌳𓏏𓂣 | 𓁧 {Maat} [42 laws] | 𓍝 | Khufu pyramid 👁️⃤ base length = 440 cubits (𓂣) | Phoenician | 𐤌 | | | | | | | Greek | M, μ | 40 | 440 | Mu (μυ) | Dike (Δικη) [42] | ⚖️ | Osiris (Οσιριν) [440] | We thus went from the following original Khufu (4500A/-4545) pyramid era model: - 𓁦 = 𓐙𓌳𓏏𓂣 {Maat}, the morality goddess of the 40 + 2 laws of Egypt
- 𓐙 = Osiris (ΟΣΙΡΙΝ) [440] plinth
- 𓌳 = Egypto M, a sickle or tool for cutting crops 🌱; Osiris was cut into 14 pieces, but only 13 pieces were found
- 𓏏 = loaf of bread 🍞, 🥯, 🥖
- 𓂣 = cubit, 24 finger digits in length
To the following Greek era (2800A/-845) LunarScript version: - M = 13th letter, value: 40, name: mu (μυ), value: 440
Ancient Egyptian On 11:57PM 14 Apr A69 (2024), Thims cross-posted the previously made Osiris 440 summary diagram to AncientEgyptian (members: 8.2K; online: 6+), and within 2-hours, 339-views, 40% upvote rate, and 7 comments of discussion, was permanently banned 🚫 from the sub (which he had only posted at before twice in the last year or so), and the post was removed, per reason of pseudo-science: Thims was permanently-banned, within 2-hours, from AncientEgyptian for suggesting that letter M in symbol: 𓌳 » 𐤌 » μ, name: mu (μυ), and name value: 440, derive from “Ancient Egypt“. It is bannable pseudo-science, according to the AncientEgyptian, to postulate as a post that the Greek letter M (𓌳 » 𐤌 » μ) and name mu (𓐙 = 𓍥𓎉 » ΜΥ = 440) derived from ”ancient Egyptian” hieroglyphs! Egyptian Hieroglyphics On 12:33PM 15 Apr A69 (2024), Thims, to test the “reaction water” further, did the same cross-post to the EgyptianHieroglyphs (members: 2.6K; online: 4+): - Debate: Greek letter M (𓌳 » 𐤌 » μ) and name mu (𓐙 = 𓍥𓎉 » ΜΥ (μυ) = 440) derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs! Science or pseudo-science?
At 5+ hours into post, there were 200 views, a 25% upvote rate, and 8+ comments. Wiktionary Wiktionary entry on the English word mu: From Ancient Greek μῦ (mû), derived from Phoenician 𐤌𐤌 (mm /mem/, “water”). Doublet of mem. The μυ ( mû) link returns: Borrowed from Phoenician 𐤌𐤌 (mm /mēm/), with influence from νῦ (nû). This, as we see, is the Gardiner (39A/1916) letter M = water wave model. Quotes David Sacks on mu as a meaningless word: “The name mu, as with all Greek letter names, meant nothing in Greek, aside from signifying the letter.” — David Sacks (A48/2003), Letter Perfect: the Marvelous History of Our Alphabet from A to Z (pg. 232) (see: DCE rankings) A PIEland believer on objecting to mu being Egypto-based: “I'll switch immediately as soon as you present a more convincing argument than mainstream linguistics. The only argument for EAN that you've ever given me is fucking "mu". It's nothing to me. Try harder.” — Anon (A68/2020), ”comment”, Alphanumerics, Nov 20 A PIEland believer objecting to mu being Egypto-based: “The EAN proof that Khufu 👁️⃤ base (440 [𓍥𓎉] cubits 𓂣) = mu (𓌳𓉽) (Mυ) [440] is nothing but someone practicing numerology and not even showing a connection to anything relevant.” — Anon (A68/2003), “Proofs of Egypto alphanumerics (𐌄𓌹𐤍) ranked” (comment), Dec 1 See also Notes - This post is under-construction 🚧.
- Many people presently, to clarify, believe the water = M and snake = N model, of Gardiner, as there have been dozens of arguments and posts on this over the last year.
Posts - What is the oldest recorded use of the Greek word mu: ΜΥ (μυ), defined as the name for Greek letter M?
References - Aristophanes. (2379A/-424). The Knights (translator: Ian Johnstone) (pdf-file) (μυμυ, pdf pg. 10-11). Publisher, A62/2017.
- Lenormant, Francois. (104A/1851). “Essay” (on Greek tablets found in Memphis, Egypt), Revue Archéologique.
- Rouge, Emanuel. (96A/1859). Memoir on the Egyptian origin of the Phoenician alphabet (Mémoire sur l'origine égyptienne de l'alphabet phénicien). Publisher, 81A/1874.
- Taylor, Isaac. (72A/1883). The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters, Volume One (pdf-file). Kegan.
- Taylor, Isaac. (72A/1883). The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters, Volume Two (pdf-file) (7.3: Greek Alphabet - Legend of Cadmus, pgs. 28-43). Kegan.
- Petrie, Flinders. (49A/1906). Researches in Sinai. Egyptian Exploration Fund.
- Pratorius, Franz. (46A/1909). “Article”, ZDMG, 63:191.
- Petrie, Flinders. (43A/1912). The Formation of the Alphabet. Macmillan.
- Gardiner, Alan. (39A/1916). ”The Egyptian Origin of the Semitic Alphabet” (jstor) (pdf file), Journal of Egyptian Archeology, 3(1), Jan.
- Hipponax. (2490A/-535). Evidence and fragments of Hipponactus (Hipponactis testimonia et fragmenta) (μῦ λαλεῖν, fragment 123, pg. 126). Publisher.
External links submitted by JohannGoethe to Alphanumerics [link] [comments] |
When entries in a series don't fall together alphabetically for whatever reason, do you still put them together or stick to alphabetical? A good example is the Yakuza renaming to align with the Japanese title - are your LaD Infinite Wealth/Ishin/Gaidens sitting next to Yakuza 7 in the Ys, or are they off lonely in the Ls? I went with alpha, but it gnaws at me :)
Other examples would be spinoffs that relegate the main series name to a subtitle - i.e. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins.
Or on the extreme end, what about series that are sequels but just don't have anything in their title at all to indicate (i.e. Magic Pengel and Graffiti Kingdom)?