Page 26 - The Jewish Voice - February '24

Page 26, The Jewish Voice

arts & entertainment

Book Review decided to turn first to the chapters about the initials of my
own name, NAS – my middle name is Allen. I suspect you
Letter Perfect: The Marvelous may want to do the same with your name.
History of Our Alphabet from A to Z I found the histories so intriguing that I continued until
I finished the entire book in one more week of sittings. I
By Nils A. Shapiro pointed out to my wife, Linda, to her delight, that her initial
As one whose entire “L” has traditionally been considered the most soothing and
personal and business life relaxing of all the characters in the alphabet. I read to her “The evolution of the ox. (1) Letter aleph, the ‘ox,’ as it
has been intimately involved the explanatory text, which included the following phrase: appears in one of the Wadi el-Hol inscriptions from about
with the written word – from “The L’s calming effect is heard in ‘lull,’ ‘lullaby,’ ‘lollipop,’ 1800 B.C … Unlikely as it seems, this pictorial image was the
a love of reading that began in ‘lotus land’ and ‘la-la land.’” earliest form of our letter A. Today the horns of the ox remain
early childhood to my career Perhaps I can best illustrate the depth and diversity of with us, unnoticed, in the upright legs of our A. (2) Aleph’s
as a magazine publisher and knowledge you will derive from this book by sharing several shape looks simpler in another early Semitic inscription,
book and newspaper editor, examples from Sacks’s research excerpted here. (Some of the carved at Serabit el-Khadem in Sinai, perhaps around 1750
as well as the more than text, including entire paragraphs, have been deleted for lack B.C. (3) Two horns are still evident in the Phoenician aleph
200 book reviews to date – of space and have been replaced by three dots.) of 1000 B.C., but the letter is by now an abstract form, to be
I cannot recall a title ever “One-quarter of Earth’s population, 1.4 billion people, written in three quick strokes of an ink brush on papyrus or
attracting my attention more than the subject of this month’s use nonalphabetic writing. Basically, this means China, a stylus on ceramic. (4) By the 800s B.C., Phoenician aleph
column when I came across it in a local bookstore. including Taiwan, and Japan. The Japanese system comes has a new look, rather more like an ox’s head, to be written in
And what a fortuitous discovery it was! from an adaptation of the Chinese that dates back to perhaps two strokes. (Can you guess where the shape would
What surprises me is that this book, now in paperback, was the 600s A.D. … In Chinese script, go next?)”
originally published, each symbol denotes a whole word As serious and complex as this subject is, what makes
unknown to me, as long of the Mandarin Chinese language. Letter Perfect a true joy to read is author David Sacks’s
ago as 2003 – the work We call such symbols ‘logograms’ consistently light and approachable writing style, as is
of author David Sacks, (from two Greek roots meaning evident in his introductory page to the chapter about the letter
an expert in written ‘word letter’) … It does not operate “V,” which features a photograph of Winston Churchill in a
language who studied by conveying sound; it conveys the familiar pose and the following text:
Greek and Latin at idea behind the word. … Example: “History’s famous V. British Prime Minister Winston
Swarthmore College See the Chinese symbol for the word “Middle” in the Churchill gives the ‘V for Victory’ hand sign to a London
and Oxford University, logogram above. crowd in June 1943, during World War II. Conceived by
and who is the author “An alphabet enjoys one huge advantage over any other Churchill in summer 1941 to help boost British morale
of an earlier book, writing system: It needs fewer symbols. No other system after Britain’s darkest war year, the V sign proved hugely
Encyclopedia of the can get away with so few. This makes an alphabet easier popular in armies and homelands of the Commonwealth and,
Ancient Greek World. to learn. Students need memorize only two dozen or so eventually, the United States, a symbol of defiance against
On publication letters to begin building toward literacy … Compare our Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. Churchill had initiated
it was received with 26 letters to the Chinese system, which involves at least the sign as a knuckles-outward gesture but had reversed it
international acclaim. 2,000 symbols for educated daily reading and writing, out to thumb-outward after learning that the other one already
The New York Times of an inventory of about 60,000 symbols overall.” had the vulgar meaning of ‘Up yours.’ Without a doubt, that
reviewer wrote, “As Here is an example of how the letters of today’s alphabet continued nuance helped the V sign’s popularity.”
fun to read as it is enlightening … Sacks’s obsession is have taken their shapes. The following, from the chapter My review can be summed up in a single letter: A+.
contagious, and I can imagine few readers whose lives about the letter A, is the caption that appears in the book
would not be enriched by what he calls his ‘voyage of below the diagram on this page marked “Diagram A.”
discovery.’”
I agree with that reviewer’s enthusiastic comment, but
in all fairness to the readers of my column must add a note
of caution to my description of this book’s content and
purpose.
To begin with, I can promise that every one of the 367
pages of this book will offer a bounty of fascinating facts
you had not previously known. (That doesn’t include the
reference section – bibliography, index and list of more
than 100 helpful illustrations, photographs and charts that
accompany the text.)
The author begins with a preface and opening chapter,
“Little Letters, Big Idea,” which together total 51 pages
that introduce the concept and beginnings of a written
alphabet in Egypt in 2000 B.C., then trace it throughout
many evolutions to the Modern Roman alphabet of 1840
we basically use today.
The one caution I referred to above is that this evolution,
because of its complex nature, is treated in a rather scholarly
way that requires your fullest attention – perhaps requiring
you to sometimes go back over the same text more than once
in order to absorb so much information. Indeed, throughout
this book you will be presented with at least 100 times as
much knowledge as you can remember after one reading.
If it is possible to have too much knowledge placed before
you all at once, at least you will have it to turn to later for
reference from time to time. Provided this subject is of
interest to you, it will be well worth it.
Along the way you will learn the very interesting
reasons why the five vowels – a, e, i, o, u – were added
to the original characters to make up the 26 in our present
alphabet, as well as what most of us have long forgotten
about the “consonants” and “sibilants” we may or may not
have learned in elementary school grammar classes. ~ Bathing, Dressing, Personal Care ~ Fall Risk Prevention
At that point David Sacks begins his extraordinarily ~ Medication Reminders, Doctor Visits ~ Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Care
informative history of the 26 letters of our alphabet, each ~ Shopping, Errands, Companionship ~ Transition Home from Hospital or Rehab
in its own chapter. You can jump to any place in the book;
there is no need to read them in sequence. For example, I ~ Meal Preparation, Light Housekeeping ~ Hourly to 24-Hour Care
~ Pet Friendly ~ Rigorous Background Checks

Respectful of Jewish Traditions.

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