alphabets

"The only letter that had refrained from urging its claims was the modest Alef, and God rewarded it later for its humility by giving it the first place in the Decalogue."

"And when he desired to create the world, all the letters came in turn and each said to the Holy One, blessed be He: Lord of the Universe, may it be Your will that the world be created through me. ... When aleph saw that the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to create the world through bet, she stood to one side and was silent, until the Holy One, blessed be He, called her and said to her: aleph, why are you silent; why do you not speak as your companions? Aleph answered and said before Him: Lord of the Universe, My companions amount to much, but I am of little value. The Holy One, blessed be He, said to her: No wonder that you are the first and the sovereign, since I am One and you are one. Since you have been humble, I will glorify you by making you a thousand (elef)."

"Some claim to find a satisfactory explanation of the origin of this letter in that it represents an ox-yoke, or the head of an Ox, the horns forming the top part of the letter. This is highly significant, for the letter when pronounced as Aleph and spelt in full h, means an Ox or Bull, an admirable symbol to denote the generative power of Nature."

"For reasons that remain obscure, in the case of the Palestinian Jews of Fustat, or Old Cairo—who worshipped in what would eventually become known as the Ben Ezra synagogue—the tradition of geniza was, it seems, extended to include the preservation of anything written in Hebrew letters, not only religious documents, and not just in the Hebrew language. Perhaps, as one scholar has proposed, "the very employment of the Hebrew script ... sanctified written material.""

"One way or another, the alphabet created a possibility that never existed before, namely of a society of mass, even universal, literacy. With only twenty-two symbols, it could be taught, in a relatively short time, to everyone. We see evidence of this at many places in Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah says "All your children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of your children" (Isaiah 54:13), implying universal education."

"Aleph and Tav being the first and the last letters of the alphabet, the expression "from Aleph to Tav" signifies "from beginning to end". Hence, "the observers of the Law from Aleph to Tav" are those that keep the Law in its entirety."

"By my life, this is my lady’s hand: these be her very C’s, her U’s, and her T’s, and thus makes she her great P’s."

"A scholarship liked myself who is not a Sinologist and yet ventures the proposition that Chinese languages should be rewritten in the Greek alphabet (or "Romanized", to use the current term) is treading on uncharted territory (for him) and does so at his peril."

"The chief cause which made the fusion of the different elements of society so imperfect was the extreme difficulty which our ancestors found in passing from place to place. Of all inventions, the alphabet and the printing press alone excepted, those inventions which abridge distance have done most for the civilisation of our species. Every improvement of the mean of locomotions benefits mankind mortally AND intellectually as well as materially, and not only facilitated the interchange of the various productions of mature and artist, but rends to removed nationals and provincial antipathies, and to bind together all the branches of the human family."

"In the placed I go there are things that I see That I never could spell if I stopped with the Z. I'm telling you this 'cause you're one of my friends. My alphabet starts where your alphabet ends!"

"Thou whoreson zed! thou unnecessary letter!"

"Ἐγὼ τὸ Ἄλφα καὶ τὸ Ὦ, ὁ πρῶτος καὶ ὁ ἔσχατος, ἡ ἀρχὴ καὶ τὸ τέλος."

"Han'gul is perhaps the most scientific system of writing in general use in any country."

"國之語音，異乎中國，與文字不相流通，故愚民，有所欲言，而終不得伸其情者多矣。予爲此憫然，新制二十八字，欲使人人易習便於日用耳"

"Whether or not it is ultimately the best of all conceivable scripts for Korean, Hangeul must be unquestionably ranked as one of the greatest intellectual achievements of humankind."