The Letter a

The letter a generally decodes as "below", "in front of", "before", or "first". However, the letter a originally probably meant "ancestor" and later took on the additional meanings of "first", "before" and "below" because ancestors lived before those who are living and are buried below the ground. The "first" meaning also explains why the letter a has consistently appeared as the first letter in most alphabets.

As for the "in front of" meaning, it likely arose because, when walking as a group, those who leave or arrive first walk in front of those who arrive later. Note that, in English, when we say "he came before the king", we are saying that the person came in front of the king; thus, amazingly, the Olin meanings of the letter a have actually been preserved within the very phrases that we use to express the same concepts that the letter represents.

The letter a is formed as a ligature of either oi or ei (hence the reason why ei in eight is pronounced as a long-a). Consequently, at times, the letter a can be decoded as "above within" or, far less commonly, "after within". At other times, it can be decoded as "out of within".

In many cases, the letter a (particularly when it is associated with the long a sound) refers to "division", a break/discontinuity within a pattern, or "separation". The "separation" meaning may have arisen because of the ei ligature. Another possibility is that it arose from the original meaning of the letter a: "ancestor".

Finally, the letter a can be seen as a modified letter u. While the letter u can be seen to symbolize an open grave, the letter a can be seen to symbolize one that has been closed. Here again, the ancestor meaning of the letter a and the parent meaning of the letter u come together to reinforce both meanings. For more on the relationship between a and u, see the description provided in this section for the letter u.

The Letter b

The letter b means "round object" or "round surface", "opening" and, at times, "child" or "offspring". The child meaning likely derived because of the shape of a pregnant woman, which, interestingly, is echoed in the shape of the uppercase letter B. The "opening" meaning may have derived because openings tend to be round-like.

Graphically, the letter b can be seen as a ligature of lo and to decipher accordingly (e.g., as "surface above"). The letter b can also possibly be seen to symbolize fruit (the round portion) hanging from a stem (the vertical line) or, as previously suggested, the belly of a pregnant woman. It is also possible that theletter b is part of a 3-letter series (p, b and d) that effectively represent the plant life cycle.

The letter b, along with the letter p, appears to correspond ideographically with the sound it represents. The sound of the letter b is produced with the lips initially closed (represented by the l), after which they are opened (represented by the o).

The letter b is commonly believed to derive from the Semitic letter bet. The Semitic letter has great religious significance as it is the first letter of the Hebrew Torah. Hebrew scholars have noted that the rest of the Torah appears to emanate from the three-sided bet character and, therefore, symbolizes the idea that the Torah is "the word of God", an emanation from God much like the entire universe. The opening meaning for the letter b is consistent with that idea.

The meaning of bet is generally understood to mean house. It should be noted, however, that while both words, bet and house, can represent the physical structure in which people live, they also can refer to a family or other, close, social unit. So when someone says that "he came from the house of David", they are indicating that the person is a descendant of David, not that he actually lives in the same structure that David lived in or owned. This distinction is important because, while most people might assume that the use of the word house to mean family arose out of its meaning in relation to the physical structure, the reverse appears to be the case (this is evidenced by the Olin translation for the English and Hebrew words and by the shape of the English letter, which will be made clear elsewhere in this project). Thus, the Hebrew and English letters also refer to offspring. This additional meaning of the letter b amazingly connects back to both the ancestor meaning of the letter a, the location of the letter in the alphabet (following the letter a) and to the letter b's prime location in the Torah, where it symbolizes the "offspring" or emanation of God.

Finally, in many English words, the letter b refers to coins. This is interesting in that coins are typically "round objects" that have stampings on the "surface above". Thus the use of b to represent coins appears to be doubly justified.

The Letter c

The letter c is in many cases equivalent to the letter k and, in such cases, can be translated as "change". However, the sound represented by the letter c can change, depending on the word, sounding either like a k or an s. Consequently, at times, the letter c can decode as the letter s, as ks or as sk.

The meaning of "change" depends upon what is changing. "Change", in relation to living things (referred to as "heat"), usually means "death". In relationship to liquids, which by their nature move or flow, "change" generally means "containment".

In a number of words (e.g., circle, concentric, enclosure) the letter c can also be seen to mean "circle" or "circular movement". Note that the letter k can also be translated as "surface movement".

Graphically, the letter c is an o that has had a section removed or "cut" from it. The letter can be seen to symbolize the arch formed by the motion of the Sun (the source of much change), across the sky; note that the letter c is also often used to represent the sound of the letter s, which itself represents the Sun and the sea (which the Sun was understood to set and rise from). The fact that the arch is rotated appears to underscore the idea of transformation or change. The letter can also be seen as part of a three letter sequence or cycle: u, c and n.

The sound of the letters c and g are related to gargling. The letter c represents a soft gargling sound while the letter g represents a hard, gargling sound. This may also explain why the sounds and letters are often associated with the containment of liquids.

The Letter d

In English words, the letter d commonly translates as "soil" or occassionally "material". It eventually also came to mean "ground", "land" and "homeland". But the letter d most likely originally meant "body" and continues to translate as "body" in many words. Note that bodies of living things decay to become soil, which apparently was an idea that was not lost on our ancestors.

The letter d is generally believed to have evolved from the Phoenician letter called daleth or dalet. While in Hebrew the name of the letter is understood to mean "door", the name and shape of the Phoenician letter (which looks like a backwards, angular Roman D) suggests that the Phoenician meaning was actually much closer to the English meaning "body". Specifically, the word daleth, for example, can be seen to translate in Olin as "body in front, surface out of that heat", and the shape of the letter appears to be a depiction of the abdomen of a pregnant woman or a woman's breast rather than a door.

But that does not necessarily mean that the "door" meaning ascribed to the letter in Semitic languages such as Hebrew was necessarily wrong or unrelated to the Phoenician/English interpretation. In fact, it is very clear that all of the meanings were very closely related and that the meanings did not arise independently of each other. This is because the English lowercase letter d is the mirror image of the lowercase letter b, which means "opening" or, more precisely, as explained in the section covering that letter, "surface opening". Consequently, for the same reason that the letter b means "surface opening", the letter d (a concatenation of a ol, where the o is a pictograph of a hole) can be seen to translate as "opening surface" or, what we refer to as, a door.

But there is more to this overlap in meanings. In very ancient times, doorways were not necessarily covered with wooden doors; doorways may have been covered with animal skins. And while the word daleth can be seen to refer to the female breast or a pregnant woman's abdomen, it can also be seen to translate as either "opening, surface in front, surface out of that heat" or "body in front, surface out of that heat", where "surface out of that heat" refers to animal skins. So, consequently, daleth eventually came to mean "doorway covering" or "door". And the "body" meaning may have then either derived from the "door covering"/"animal skin" meaning or vice versa.

Note that the Greek name for the letter, delta, in Olin can be seen to translate as "body out of surface that in front", which can be seen to refer to both the abdomen of a pregnant woman as well as to animal skins. The shape of the uppercase Greek delta, much like the Greek letter lambda, however, looks more like a mountain than a pregnant woman's belly. One reason may be because the word delta can also be translated in Olin as "ground out of surface that below" (where "ground out of" refers to mountains) and because the Aegean is one of the most volcanically active areas in the world. However, it is even more likely that delta translates as "land out of surface that below" and that the shape of the letter is that of the Nile river delta. (Other fascinating connections between lambda and delta also can be seen from their Olin translations).

As stated previously, in English, the meaning of the letter d is usually "body" or "ground". There are extremely few instances when the letter d can be seen to translate as "door"; but there are cases. One example of this is in the case of the word address. In Olin, the word address translates as "in front of doors, movement out of many (ex)changes". Throughout history, signs have been hung in front of doors to signify the location of a particular type of business. Such signs, then, are used to identify the address or location of the barber, the baker, the shoemaker, etc.

Graphically, the letter d , being a reversal of the letter b, can be seen to symbolize death and decay. The letter d can also be seen as a ligature of the letter a and the letter l, which can be seen to translate as "below surface" or "in front surface". And the letter d can even be seen to be part of a 3-letter series (p, b and d) that effectively represent the plant cycle (i.e., the stalk of a plant, seed hanging from a tree, a seed lying on the ground).

Another interesting possibility is that the letter d, at times, was seen to symbolize a foot, where the oval constitutes the actual foot while the "stalk" of the letter represents a leg. This may in fact be the case in words like puddle, where the two d's could reasonably symbolize feet. If so, the letter a (translating as "below") then could also have been derived from the lower portion of the letter d.

Accoustically, the letter d is very similar at times to the letter t. Interestingly, both letters can be seen to relate to body parts.

The Letter e

The letter e means “out of ”. As we have seen for the letter a, all meanings of the phrase “out of” are represented by the letter e. Thus the letter e, in addition to serving as the antonym of "into", also encompasses concepts such as “caused by”, “composed of” and “without” (as in “I’m out of gas”). The letter e also can translate as “oppose”, “opposite” and simply “of” to indicate possession.

The letter e (originally є) is a ligature of two letters. In one case, it can be understood to be a ligature of the letter c and a rotated letter i, where the rotated i symbolically constitutes the opposite of i ("within") and the entire combination takes on the meaning “change out of”. It can also be understood to be a ligature of the letter c and a rotated l (“transformed surface”), which may be areference to the effect of the heat and light of the Sun on the surface of the ground.

Graphically, the line emanating from within the c and passing out of the opening can be seen to symbolize the movement of something out from within something else. In fact, the line emanating from the middle of the c may potentially symbolize either the light of the Sun or even a meteor that comes out of the sky and crashes into the surface of the Earth, causing significant change.

Interestingly, the general shape of the letter eventually evolved from the original є into e, taking on the appearance of an eye with an eyelid half closed over it. This may be because we "get light out of" our eyes. Note that the English word "eye", while pronounced as "i" ("light/within") appears as a pictogram of the eyes and the nose.

The Letter f

The letter f is acoustically very similar to the letter v and, at times, was possibly substituted for v and vice versa. Its first meaning appears possibly to have been "water surface". Eventually the letter f came to refer to either irregular movements or irregular surfaces and took on closely related meanings such as "uneven" (e.g., the uneven ground surface resulting from the growth of crops). The letter f also took on additional meanings related to irregularity, such as "uncertain", "unpredictable" "unusual", and "unique". Finally, the letter f can at times be seen to mean "dividing action" or "transformation", which possibly reflected the process of creating furrows in the land for planting crops.

The letter f can be seen to be a ligature consisting of an abnormally large r ("irregular movement") and a shortened, rotated l ("transformed, irregular surface") that intersects the r (suggesting perhaps that the two irregularities are interrelated). Not surprisingly, the rl ligature can also be translated as "water surface" or "surface movement".

The meaning of the letter f is made clear by the use of ph as a substitute for f. The ph letter combination appears to actually be a pln letter combination that translates as "stalk surface related".

The Letter h

The earliest meaning of the letter h was "breath" (see the meaning of the word breath in section 2). Note that the sound one makes when pronouncing the letter h is, effectively, a breath.

The letter h eventually took on the meaning "heat", where the word heat came to be a synonym for "man" and other living things (as the word "heat" is used throughout this website). Note that breath is warm and that breathing is clear evidence that a person is alive. Note also that most animals that are alive also produce body heat.

Graphically, the letter h can be seen as a ligature of l n, which translates as "surface related". That meaning seems clearly connected to the idea of "heat"; heat tends to rise off of surfaces, such as the sand on a beach or the surface of a stove. Hands can also be a source of heat.

Finally, the letter h can be seen to translate as "surface related heat". That meaning appears to refer to the fact that the letter h can be seen as a pictograph of a chair or (in the case of the uppercase letter H) a bench. It is possible therefore that the letter n may have derived from the letter h, rather than the other way around as one might conclude from the ligature.

The Letter i

The letter i typically decodes as "within". The letter i also can translate as "light" and "eye". Light emanates from within things, such as the Sun and the stars. Note also that eyes are round objects (not unlike the Sun or Moon) located within the head that move and that receive light; and even the pronunciation of the word eye suggests the letter that represents the object.

Graphically, the letter i appears possibly to symbolize a ray of light emanating from the Sun, a star or the Moon down to the ground. The addition of the dot above the lowercase i, however, appears likely to have a function comparable to the dot used in Hebrew and Arabic text (i.e., the niqqud and harakat) to denote vowel sounds (note that i is a vowel); specifically, it appears to serve to distinguish the letter i from its longer sibbling, the letter l. Such differentiation using a dot above the letter also appears likely to be the case for the letter j (which could otherwise be mistaken for a letter u when hand-written).

If the letter i is in fact merely a shorter l, then the letter i potentially represents a section of or segment within the longer l. That interpretation would in fact be consistent with the symbology related to the letter p, where the reversed c above the letter p indicates the upper portion of the letter l.

The Letter j

Those who have studied Latin know that the letter j was originally written as an i. If one looks closely at the the letter j, one should hopefully recognize that the letter j is in fact a ligature of ui, which translates as "origin i" or "originally i".

In most words, the letter j appears to decode as "great change" (which is also true of the letter g, which is often pronounced as a j). In some cases, however, the letter j appears to decode as "steep" or simply "great".

One should note that the letter j is pronounced much like ch, tch or dch. This is rather curious because, unlike the cw ligature that evolved into qu (and shares the same pronunciation), none of those letters are actually incorporated in the ligature that forms the letter j (which is, in fact, a ligature of ui as noted above).

An explanation for this curious state of affairs may lie in the Olin meanings of these various letter combinations. The ch combination, for example, can be translated as "change heat" or "change breath", and either of those translations can be seen as referring to death. Similarly, the letters ui also can be seen to translate as "grave within", which also appears to be another unmistakable reference to death. And clearly death is a "great change". So the person who first coined the letter j may have intended to underscore the concept of "great change" through references to death and through the incongruity between the ligature and the pronunciation.

That, however, brings to light another possible hypothesis: that the letter j is intimately connected with the name Jesus. Jesus was, after all, the origin of great changes, and death itself was a focal point of the New Testament.

Finally, ch can be decoded as cln, translating as "change surface related", which may account for the "steep" meaning.

The Letter k

The most basic meaning of the letter k, represented also by the letter c and in some cases the letter g, is “change”. The meaning of change, however, can vary depending upon the object that is undergoing change. In relation to living things, change can mean “killed” or “injured” while in relation to settlements, change often means “destroyed” or “attacked”.

Graphically, the letter k appear to be a ligature of lc, meaning "surface change" or an l combined with a rotated v, translating as "surface movement change". In some rare cases, the letter k can also be seen to represent a ligature of the letters h and c, decoding as “heat change”.

The Letter l

The letter l, as one might guess, can simply mean "line" but more often decodes as "surface". Additional meanings for the letter that derived from the "surface" meaning include "flat", "level", "smooth " and "even".

One example of where the letter l means "line" can be seen in the word replace, which translates as "movement out of line behind, line in front change out of" (which appears to refer to ancient military formations, such as the phalanx, and the idea that soldiers in the back rows would move forward to fill the places of those in the front rows who have fallen). In contrast, there are countless instances where the letter l means "surface", largely because there are countless surfaces that have significance to us: the ground, the sky, the skin, cloth, the surface (palm) of the hand, the surface of water, the beam of a scale, walls, the tongue, etc.

Accoustically, the sound represented by the letter l is made using the tongue. So the "surface" meaning of the letter appears to match the sound represented by the letter and vice versa.

The Letter m

The letter m generally decodes as "produced". In relation to human settlements, produced can be interpreted as "built". In relation to living things, produced can be interpreted as "born".

Graphically, the letter m is formed as a ligature of two n's, which decodes as "many related" (clearly, production involves the creation of many related things). The letter can also be seen as a ligature of rn, translating as "liquid related" or "movement related".

The Letter n

The letter n generally decodes as “related”. In some cases, as a prefix, n appears to have also taken on the meaning “not”. Note that opposites and complements ("this and not this") are conceptually related to each other. Note also that the word related, in English, in addition to meaning "associated", can also means "communicated", as in "he related the story to us".

Graphically, the letter n can be seen to be part of a 3-letter series (u, c and n) that appears to describe cycles in general.

The Letter o

The letter o is effectively the antonym of the letter a. The letter o means "above", "after", "last", and less commonly "behind' and "descendent". Here again, the "descendent" meaning possibly preceded the other meanings, and the additional meanings developed because descendents are above the ground and represent the last born. The letter o can also be decoded as the verb "block" (i.e., "obstruct"); this may be because, during solar eclipses, the moon blocks the Sun.

Graphically, the letter o can be seen to symbolize the Sun, the moon and/or stars above. The "above" meaning therefore clearly is associated with the image; however, I have found no instances where the letter o actually translates as "Sun"; therefore, it would appear that the image was selected to convey the "above' meaning, not the other way around. The shape of the letter o also appears to represent the shape of the mouth when making the long o sound.

Note that the English letter o is generally believed to have derived from the Greek letter omega, O, which, not by coincidence, also happens to be the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

The Letter p

The letter p means extension . The lowercase letter can be seen to be a pictograph of a plant stalk rising above the surface of the ground. The reversed c can be seen as a pictograph of fingers of the right hand indicating the portion that is the extension.

Consequently, the letter p also refers to the stalks (stem, branch, trunk, etc) of a plant. Stalks of plants were quite useful to our ancestors; they transformed them into poles for use in construction and into spears for use in fishing and as weapons, and they made rope from strands pulled from the stalks. Plant stalks were also the source of grains and fruit from which bread, beer and wine was produced.

At times, the letter p can also be seen as a ligature of a subscript l and an o (translating as "surface above"). As in the case of the letter b, the lo ligature appears to correspond ideographically with the sound the letter represents.

In a few words (e.g., inscribe and inscription), the letter p appears to have been substituted for the letter b. Note that the sound of both letters is very similar and both letters can be seen to translate as "surface above". Consequently, it is not yet clear whether the choice between using a b or p in a word was merely euphonic or whether the particular letter selected was chosen in order to convey some subtle, yet to be identified, distinction in meaning.

Finally, the letter p can possibly be seen to be part of a 3-letter series (p, b and d) that effectively represent the plant cycle.

The Letter q

In most English words, the letter q is followed by the letter u; this is because the letter combination qu is actually a transform of a ligature of the letter c and a subscript w; which corresponds with how the letter combination qu is pronounced and which translate as "change movements". The letter combination qu can also be seen to represent cu, which decodes as "change origin". When it is not paired with a u, the letter q is pronounced as a k and translates as "change" or "transformation".

The Letter r

The letter r originally represented flowing water or liquid. Consequently, the letter r took on the meanings "liquid", "movement" (the meaning Plato associated with the word in his dialogue Cratylus), and "action" ("effect"). The letter r can also refer specifically to water and to rivers. Note that the letter r does not appear in words representing bodies of water that are not flowing (e.g., lake, ocean, sea, pond, puddle and lagoon) but does appear in the names for moving liquids (river, stream, spray, pour, trickle, drain, drip, etc.).

Graphically, the letter r can be seen as a special case of the letter v. The curved right arm suggests that the movement represented by the letter is curvilinear or nonlinear; and an examination of words where the letter r is used to represent movement supports that idea. It is also possible that the curving right arm of the letter r represented a cresting wave.

The Letter s

The letter s has a large number of closely related meanings. Which meaning came first is unclear, but my guess would be that one of the earliest meanings was "crystal grain". The reason I believe this is primarily due to the letter's sound: the sound of the letter s is much like the sound of sand spilling onto the surface of the ground.

The letter s can also easily be seen to be a pictograph of a snake. And the sound the letter represents is also much like that of a snake. Yet, curiously, the letter does not appear to actually mean "snake" in any English words. A subtle clue to why this is may lie in the word insect. The word is attributed to Pliny the Elder and can be seen to mean and/or derive from "in sections". And the insect that appears to be a rather good candidate for having inspired the letter s and the word insect is the segmented worm. Unfortunately, a segmented worm doesn't make very much noise. But it's larger "cousin", the snake, does.

There appears, however, to be lot more to the story of the letter s.

Graphically, the letter s can be seen as a ligature of cc, and, as such, it can be understood to translate as "changes" or, more specifically "changes related to". Other common meanings associated with the letter s include "one" and "sea". Occasionally, the letter s can also be seen to decode as "the Sun" and "alone ". The "sea" meaning appears to tie back to the "crystal grain" meaning, while the "one" and "alone" meaning appear to tie back to the "Sun" meaning. As for the "Sun" meaning, it appears to tie back to the letter's "Greek" origin.

The letter s appears to have derived originally from the final form of the lowercase Greek letter ? (sigma). As noted before, the letter s can be seen as a ligature of cc, or, more specifically, one c above another reversed c. As such, the letter s can be seen to represent a change above (after) followed by another reversing change below (before). This effectively describes the cyclical movements of the Sun, where the Sun crosses the sky during the day after which it returns back to its original location at night. It also can be seen to describe the movement of the locations where the Sun rises and sets over the course of a year. The fact that it was the final form of the Greek letter and that the bottom c was actually placed below the text line (which could be seen as referring to the ground surface) also appear to support the ideas related to "sunrise" or "sunset" and the latitude at which they occur. And the Olin translations for the names of both the Greek letter (sigma, which can be translated as "changes light/within, great change movement related below") and the Semitic letter (shin, which can be translated as "changes heat light/within related") corresponding to the letter s also appear to support that idea.

As we learn more about the letter s, the clues to the letter's origin begin to accumulate. Astronomy, biology, crystals, sea, snakes, sand, the Sun ...for me, the place that comes to mind is not in Greece; rather, it lies on the shores of the Mediterranean in the land of Egypt: the city of Alexandria, where once stood the Great Library of ancient fame.

And perhaps there, in the land of Egypt, originates another possible source of inspiration behind both the letter s and the letter c : the Nile river. Apart from the delta, the Nile in fact has two other very distinct features. One of these features is the c-shaped cataract that separates (i.e., "cuts") upper Egypt from lower Egypt. The other important feature is the large S-shaped bends in the river within the land called the Sudan (which, in Olin, translates as "S-origin land below related". Other Greek letters, most notably the uppercase A (alpha) and uppercase D (delta; in its original Greek form only), also point to a possible origin in or meaning related to Egypt.

Finally, one should note that, following the Olin doubling rule, ss can mean "more than one" (from the "one" meaning) and "many changes" (from the "changes" meaning). These meanings appeared to have influenced English grammer. For example, the letter s is added to nouns to indicated "more than one". The letter s is also added to verbs (which represent action or "change") depending on whether or not the subject of the sentence is singular or plural. The alternating way in which the s is added to either the subject or verb also appears to reflect the alternating form of the letter itself. Other grammatical changes, such as the conversion of y to ie when s is added to a word also appear to support the idea that the grammer rules related to s were influenced if not inspired by the letter itself.

The Letter t

In most cases, the letter t means "that" or, particularly when repeated as tt, "those". At times, the letter t can also be seen as refering to "them" or people.

It has also been suggested by David Edgan, on his website www.alphabetco.com, that the letter t originally symbolized the mouth and throat. That idea, in fact, appears to be reflected in numerous English words such as mouth and throat.

Some scholars have suggested a connection between the letter t and the cross of Jesus. That idea is supported by numerous words specifically related to the Christian faith where the letter t appears to serve as a pictograph of the cross. The idea is also supported by the fact that the word that serves to direct ones attention, and the cross of Jesus has, similarly, through the ages, served as a focal point of the Christian faith. Note that the Olin meaning of the word that is in fact "that heat in front of that", which appears to be a circular definition related to Jesus on the cross.

One early meaning of the letter t is "branch" or "branching". That meaning is evident in words such as temple and tree.

In several words, the letter t refers to the thumb. In fact, the letter t represents a "rough" pictograph of a thumb sticking out at a right angle from the hand. The reason that the crossbar of the t extends to the other side possibly was because it was difficult to draw a horizontal bar that terminated on the vertical. Another possibility is that a left-side only t was merged with an r, indicating that the thumb moved.

Accoustically, the letter t and the letter d can be fairly similar. While I am not sure what the sound these letters represent (possibly clapping hands), both letters can clearly be seen to relate to the human body. For example, the letter d can be seen to mean "body" and serve as a pictograph of feet. The letter t, on the other hand (forgive the pun), can be seen to be a pictograph of a person with outstretched arms and can be translated as either "mouth" and "thumb".

The Letter u

The letter u commonly decodes as "origin". It also can decode as "location", "destination", and "resting place". Far less frequently, it can be seen to decode as "come together", "result", "cavity" and "original". Note that parents are the origin of their children, so the letter u, as a result of its origin meaning, can also mean "parent" or "womb". And because cavtities in teeth, gemstones and surfaces are defects, the letter u also can translates as "imperfection", as in the case of the word true (which translates as "that movement imperfection out of").

Graphically, the letter u represents a hole dug in the ground, either to bury someone (i.e., a grave), to plant a seed, or to dig up metals and gemstones. The letter u may also be seen to be formed either as a ligature of a rounded v ("movement transformation") and i ("into") or as a ligature of a rotated c ("change transformation") and an i ("into"). Finally, the letter u can be seen to be part of a 3-letter series (u, c and n) that appears to describe cycles in general. Note also that the letter o symbolizes perfection while the letter u symbolizes imperfection.

Note that the letter u in many words is actually a letter v meaning "movement". This can be seen in words such as applause and gun.

It is also interesting to note that the idea of "original sin" appears to derive from and/or be reflected in this letter's various meanings: original, imperfection, parent and grave.

As indicated in the discussion regarding the letter a, the connection between the letter u and the letter a cannot go ignored. That connection is reflected in the word "origin", which is perhaps the most important meaning of the letter u. In Olin, the word "origin" can be translated as "after/o movement i/within great change/above/a/separation surface movement within related", which can be seen to accurately describe the creation of the letter a as a ligature of oi, followed by the formation of the letter u from the letter a by removing the top of the a. And the word grave ("great change movement a/above within, surface movement out of" also appears to do the same. Note also that the meanings associated with the two letters also appear closely related, as the letter a can mean "first" and "separation/below" while the letter u can mean "origin" and "grave".

Finally, the word "origin" also can be seen to translate as "after movement within, great change, within related", which may be understood to refer to a grave.

The Letter v

The letter v, like the letter r, means "movement". The primary difference between the letter v and the letter r appears to be that the letter v is not commonly used to refer to liquid or liquid-related movement.

Graphically, in words like valley and ravine, the letter v can be easily seen to be a pictogram of the gap between two steep mountains.

The letter v can also be seen as a variant of the letter u; in fact, the Romans routinely used v instead of u. As a substitute for u, the letter v effectively decodes as "location transformation". Note that movement is, in fact, location transformation.

While the letter v may have gotten its shape because valleys represented passages that allowed for movement, there is another possible explanation for the shape. During the winter and spring months, one often sees geese flying in a v formation. Birds seen flying in the sky were also considered by the Romans to represent omens (where omen translates as "above/later movement related out of related") from the gods.

Finally, the letter v can also be seen to symbolize the movement of the Sun during solstices. Solstices effectively define the seasons and the year. Consequently, the movements of the Sun were related to the migration of geese and other birds. Note that, here too, the fact that the letter u, whiich can mean "resting place", and the letter v were seen as being related, also appears to connect the letter v to the solstices, where the Sun (which translates as either "changes related to origin related" or "changes related to movement related", depending on whether the u is treated as a u or v) effectively comes to a stop or rest before changing directions.

The Letter w

The letter w is a concatenation of two letters; however, which two letters are concatenated is what determines the meaning. From an examination of words incorporating the letter, it would appear that the letter w actually can represent any of at least four different concatenations: vv (“movements”), rr (“water”) and, far less commonly, uu (“locations”) or rv ("water movement").

The Letter x

The sound of the letter x is the same as the letter combination ks, which translates simply as "changes" or, more precisely, as "surface movement related to changes". Note that, when writing, we commonly "cross out" (i.e., "draw an x through") what we want to change.

The letter x is formed by two opposite, intersecting, diagonal strokes. Consequently, the letter x can be seen to translate as "related surface movements", which substantially matches the meaning associated with the letter's sound as described above.

The letter x is believed to derive from the Greek letter ? (chi). The letter, as reflected by its original Greek form (?) is actually formed as a ligature consisting of an elongated, reversed s ("Sun/sea transformation") intersecting (i.e., "impacting") with a diagonal l ("surface transformation"), where the surface being transformed is either the ground or the sky. As such, it may be seen to symbolize either a sunrise, a sunset and/or the movement of the Sun across the sky. Such interpretation appears to be supported by an Olin translation of the name for the Greek letter: chi, which can be seen as "change heat/surface related light/within".

The word "cross", however, also has significant religious meaning to Christians, and that meaning can clearly be seen to be associated with the letter x, which is in the shape of St Andrew's cross. The potential religious significance of the letter is further underscored by the fact that the letters ks can be interpreted as "kills one" as well as by another Olin translation of the Greek name for the letter: "change heat within", which appears to relate specifically to death in relation to a crucifixion.

And as any school child can tell you, pirates mark the spot where they bury their treasure with an x. Why the obvious mark of x and not a t for "treasure", a circle or some other symbol or object (such as a skull)? The answer may be because the letter x can either be seen to be a ligature of un, where the letter u serves as a pictograph of a hole in the ground, or as a ligature of c and a reversed c, where cc ("changes related") can be seen to refer to crimes and the proceeds of crimes. The combined meaning "origin related changes related" can also be seen to connect to the more standard meaning associated with x, "surface movements related to changes", which can be seen to suggest digging. While the idea that x can serve as a ligature of un may sound somewhat like a flight of fantasy (perhaps involving pirates and burried treasure), consider the fact that the un- prefix in words like undo, unhand and unhitch appears to take on the meaning of x: "surface movement related changes". (Note also that the word bury can be seen to translate as "round object origin movement within out of" also appears to relate to the idea of coins hidden below ground).

The Letter y

Graphically, the letter y can be seen to symbolize yarn that is being wound or unraveled or a plant that branches out above the surface of the ground as it grows. As such, the letter y is equivalent to the letters ie, meaning "within out of ", "divided out of", or "separation". Less commonly, the letter y can be seen as a ligature of either vj , meaning "great movement", or v and a subscript l, where the combination translates as "movement above surface".

Note that, when an s is appended to English words ending in y, the letter y is replaced with ie. This transformation is rather interesting in that division is the process of making two or more from one, which seems appropriately symbolized by the single y (which means "division") being replaced by two letters, ie, having essentially the same meaning.

Finally, as in the case of the x, the letter y potentially has enormous religious significance to Christians as it can be seen as the shape of Jesus on the cross.

The Letter z

The letter z appears to be a special case of the letter s. In most cases, the letter z appears to refer to "the Sun", "the sea", "the sky" "the one" or possibly even to "heavenly movements" within the sky or of the Sun.

Graphically the letter z can be seen as a ligature of vv. Symbolically, it can be seen to represent the retrograde movements observed in the superior planets (Jupiter, Saturn and Mars), planets with orbits that lie outside the Earth's orbit as well as to the movement of the location where the Sun rises between solstices (which can be seen to reflect a z-type movement). Note that in Ancient Greece, the planet Jupiter was known as Zeus, and the word zevs (substituting v for u ), in Olin, translates as "z out of movement one" or as "z out of movement Sun".

Like the letter x and the letter y, the letter z has great significance in relation to Christianity, even though most Christians are unaware of its significance. That significance, will be revealed later in this website.

Chapter 1: The 50 Drachma Course

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

- William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

In his dialog Cratylus, Plato speculated on the origin of words. Through the characters of Socrates, Cratylus and Hermogenes, Plato postulated that the sounds of the letters within a word convey a sense of the thing they are used to name. But while he suggested that the letter r appeared to convey "motion" (which was correct) and that the letter l appeared to convey "soft" (which was close but not exactly correct); Plato clearly could not fully expound on the meanings that he suspected were being conveyed by each of the letters within the Greek words he studied. As he admitted in the beginning of the dialogue, the best his character Socrates could offer was a one drachma course on the origin of words, not the fifty drachma course that would have been given by Plato's contemporary, the sophist and teacher Prodicus¹.

Amazingly, much of what Plato hypothesized about Ancient Greek over 2300 years ago applies to English today. In English, the words we speak consist of combinations of sounds that, when written, are represented by a combination of letters. For most of us, the specific sounds and letters that make up a word like bridge appear to be completely arbitrary, having no meaning of their own. But, in fact, as Plato suspected about the words in his own language, each of the sounds within each English word, and the letters that represent those sounds, at one time long ago, had a specific meaning. And it is in the discovery of these long lost meanings that we, in fact, discover the language I refer to as Olin.

In this section, we shall take a look at the letters of the English alphabet and their Olin translations. We shall also learn some of the meanings that were eventually associated with several special letter combinations and various other aspects of Olin. In short, you shall receive the 50 drachma course that Plato spoke of but could not afford himself.

Clicking on the buttons to the above right will reveal the meaning of each letter. After you have learned the meaning of each letter, read the page on letter combinations and the other information section. Be a good student, for the reward will be great. Be a bad student and I may have to come at you with a stick!