Abecedarium – Wikipedia
Inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet
An abecedarium (often known as an abecedary or ABCs or just an ABC) is an inscription consisting of the letters of an alphabet, virtually at all times listed in order. Usually, abecedaria (or abecedaries) are apply workouts.
Non-Latin alphabets[edit]
Some abecedaria embody out of date letters which aren’t in any other case attested in inscriptions. For instance, abecedaria within the Etruscan alphabet from Marsiliana (the Tuscana city) embody the letters B, D, and O, which point out sounds not current within the Etruscan language and are due to this fact not present in Etruscan inscriptions. Others, corresponding to these recognized from Safaitic inscriptions, listing the letters of the alphabet in numerous orders, suggesting that the script was casually relatively than formally realized.
Some abecedaria discovered within the Athenian Agora seem like intentionally incomplete, consisting of solely the primary three to 6 letters of the Greek alphabet, and these might have had a magical or ritual significance.[1] A intentionally incomplete abecedarium discovered at Hymettos in Attica might have been a votive offering.[2]
Latin alphabet[edit]
Close to the start of the Christian period, the Latin alphabet had already undergone its principal modifications, and had turn out to be a particular system. The Greek alphabet was rising nearer to the Latin alphabet. In the direction of the eighth century of Rome, the letters assumed their creative varieties and misplaced their older, narrower ones. The three letters added by Emperor Claudius have by no means been present in use in Christian inscriptions. The letters fell into disuse after Claudius’s demise. The alphabet used for monumental inscriptions was very completely different from the cursive. The uncial, occurring very not often on sculptured monuments, and reserved for writing, didn’t seem till the 4th century. The vast majority of objects bearing the abecedaria should not of Christian origin, excluding two vases discovered at Carthage. These objects included tablets utilized by stone-cutters’ apprentices whereas studying their commerce. Stones have additionally been discovered within the catacombs, bearing the symbols A, B, C, and so forth. These are organized, generally, in combos which have puzzled students. One such stone, discovered within the cemetery of St. Alexander, within the By way of Nomentana, is inscribed as follows:
AXBVCTESDR . . . . . .BCCEECHI EQGPH. . . .M MNOPQ RSTVXYZ
This may be in contrast with a denarius of L. Cassius Caecinianus, which has the next inscription:
AX, BV, CT, DS, ER, FQ, GP, HO, IN, LM
Jerome defined this similarity. Kids had been made to be taught the alphabet in pairs of letters, becoming a member of the primary letter of the alphabet with the final letter (AX), the second letter with the second to final (BV), and so forth. A stone discovered at Rome in 1877, and courting from the sixth or seventh century, appears to have been utilized in a school, as a mannequin for studying the alphabet, and factors to the continuance of previous strategies of educating.
Ecclesiastical use[edit]
An Abecedary, a full alphabet carved in stone or written in ebook kind, was traditionally present in churches, monasteries and different ecclesiastical buildings. Abecedaries are typically thought of to be medieval educating aids, notably for the illiterate. The alphabet might have been thought to own supernatural powers alongside the traces of the runic alphabet. Every letter would have had a symbolic that means to the religious.
An instance, the primary seven letters or so of which had been present in 1967, is from the lengthy demolished Church of St Mary of the Gray Friars in Dumfries, Scotland. On this case the letters are inscribed within the Lombardic script of the 1260s and the entire construction would most likely have stood close to the excessive altar[citation needed].
One of many oldest examples is now in use as a headstone in Kilmalkedar, close to Dingle, Eire. It has the looks of a standing stone and is called the Alphabet stone, displaying because it does an alphabet courting from early Christian occasions.[3]
Abecedarian psalms and hymns exist, these are compositions like Psalm 119 in Hebrew, and the Akathist hymn in Greek, wherein distinct stanzas or verses start with successive letters of the alphabet.[4]
The New England Primer, a schoolbook first printed in Seventeenth-century Boston, contains an abecedary of rhyming couplets in iambic dimeter, starting with:
- In Adam’s fall,
- We sinned all.
- Thy life to fix,
- This E-book attend.
- The Cat doth play,
- And after slay.
See additionally[edit]
References[edit]
This text incorporates textual content from a publication now within the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). “Abecedaria“. Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Firm.