SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 369 



If the various alphabets of the world are examined it is seen that the same mouth 

 symbolism does run through nearly all. Thus, the symbols for M are almost invariably 

 those of a closed mouth or of two closed lips. Similarly, those for P and B, U and 

 W, represent two lips or a closed mouth opening ; symbols for L show an elevated 

 tongue, etc. 



In the English alphabet (essentially the same as the Latin) nearly all the letters 

 have a close relation to the form of mouth which produces the sound for which the 

 letter stands. Thus : 



A (earlier < ) represents an open mouth. 



B represents two lips in profile, facing right. 



C (from <) is a mouth closed at the back as for sounding K or G. 



D (from A ) is an elevated tongue (as also in T and N). 



E is a mouth facing right, with a tongue at mid-height. 



F is the underlip incurved beneath the upper, or two lips projecting. 



I is an elevated tongue not touching the palate. (Hence the (modern) dot over i.) 



L is the same, but actually touching the palate. 



M two lipa pointing up. 



N (from IV) tongue touching palate as in A. 



O front view of rounded mouth. 



P (from r, n) possibly represents two lips closed. 



R (from P or R) a tongue bent back at the tip. 



S (from ^) tongue reaching forward and upward. 



T compare I, plus contact with palate. 



U, V, two lips pointing up. 



W, VV, two lips, pointing down, compare M. 



Z, compare ^■ 



The mouth gesture theory of alphabets as not new. Thus, it was put forward in 

 1667 — with respect to the Hebrew alphabet — by F. M. von Helmont. (Reprinted 

 1916 by Prof. W. Vietor, Marburg.) 



In ' How the Alphabet was Made ' (Just So Stories, 1902), Mr. Rudyard Kipling 

 has suggested similar origins for the letters A, O, U, M, G and K. 



Madame Cantova, a school teacher of Aigle, Switzerland, has also noted that our 

 written language is a representation of articulation (UEducateur, Lausanne 27 April 

 1929, pp. 147-8). She infers that good articulation promotes good handwriting. 



The gesture principle (if valid) may be useful in suggesting phonetic values for 

 symbols in unknown scripts. 



Afternoon. 



Mr. E. EsTYN Evans. — An Industry of the Late Bronze Age in Western 

 Europe. 



An investigation of the metal types found in some late Bronze Age hoards of 

 Brittany, Normandy and Picardy showed that they were identical with certain charac- 

 teristic bronzes known in S.E. Britain and generally considered to be intrusive there. 

 In particular, a variety of flange-hilted sword (with carpus tongue point), hitherto 

 little noticed, marks off this industry very sharply. Its distribution is equally dis- 

 tinctive. The sword is common in the Iberian Peninsula, where, as farther north, it 

 is definitely exotic. It does not occur in Italy or Central Europe, but is found in the 

 Jura and Switzerland, and was evolved in the pile dwellings, from an Hungarian pro- 

 totype, during the period of agricultural and industrial prosperity coinciding with 

 optimum climatic conditions north of the Alps (1200-900 B.C.). That this superior 

 weapon, of specialized pattern and known origin, should invariably be associated, in 

 Western Europe, with other bronzes of fixed forms and similar origins, argues for a 

 movement of peoples rather than for casual commercial contacts ; and it is contended 

 that the ground fabric of the late Bronze Age cultures of Western Europe was laid 

 by a scattering of peoples from the west Alpine province shortly before 1000 B.C. 

 This movement, the first of a long series reaching Britain in the last millennium B.C., 

 was distinct from those of the early Iron Age. In accordance with the views of Kraft 

 and Bosch-Gimpera, the first Celtic tongue probably, reached these Islands at this 

 time. 



1930 B B 



