Key Points

When translating words using Olin, one must be mindful of the following:

• Despite what most people are led to believe, the true English alphabet consists of the LOWERCASE letters. The uppercase letters are SPECIAL PURPOSE letters used to begin sentences and proper names. The uppercase letters are ORNAMENTAL. While the uppercase letters have a story to tell of their own, it is the lowercase letters that represent the true, working alphabet.
• The letters (the lowercase letters, that is) of the alphabet generally consist of of a few basic ideographs, such as the circle (o) and the line (l) and combinations or ligatures there of. At times, such as in the case of the v in valley, letters can also serve as pictographs of the object being named. One must therefore consider that any letter within a given word can either represent one of its own basic meanings, the meanings of its ideographic subcomponents, or serve as a pictograph.
• A "Conservation of Letters" principle appears to have been followed by those who coined words. Multiple meanings are often expressed by a single occurrence of a letter. For example, a single r can decipher as "liquid movement", a single l can decipher as "flat surface", a single i can decipher as "light within" and a single a can decipher as "in front and below". In the decipherments provided in this website, a back-slash is used to indicate more than one meaning may be possible; in such cases, one or more of the provided meanings may be correct.
• Translation of words is a 2-step process involving decipherment and interpretation. Decipherment entails converting symbols or symbol sequences into word sequences. Interpretation entails converting word sequences into intended meanings. Errors can occur at either step.
• Words can generally be deciphered and interpreted in a variety of ways that result in radically different translations and interpretations. Not all such translations were necessarily intended. In most cases, only one translation was ever intended. However, while most words only have one true translation, there do appear to be a few cases where multiple, distinct meanings were intended.
• The correct decipherment and interpretation of a word usually requires that one first know the generally accepted definition for the word. Trying to infer the intended meaning of a word from its apparent context can easily lead to gross errors. This, in fact, appears to have been a common problem in ancient times when people came across text written in very old documents or inscriptions and then tried to interpret the meaning of the unfamiliar words using their knowledge of Olin but without knowledge of the generally accepted definition of the words they were interpreting.
• To arrive at the correct translation, in addition to knowing the meaning of the word, one generally should study the traditional etymology, synonyms, antonyms and other related words. Foreign words, even those that do not appear to be related, are also often related conceptually and therefore can often help shed light on the correct translation. Note, however, that the generally accepted etymology may be misleading; so caution should be observed when relying heavily upon it, particularly when the etymology strays from the word's definition.
• In English words, meaning is often conveyed in both spelling and pronunciation. Differences between the spelling and pronunciation appear to have often been intentional and were used to convey additional information often essential to deriving the correct decipherment/interpretation of a word. For example, the word night is pronounced nite, which can be deciphered as "darkness that out of". The silent gh ("great change heat") in this case provides additional information about what a night represents (i.e., nights are not only dark, they are cold).
• Repetition of letters and letter sequences often indicates the plural or adds emphasis (e.g., "very.", "many."). While single letter replications are fairly common, multi-letter replications should also be expected, although they are rather rare in English.
• Letter pairs at times assume special meanings. Letter pairings are occasionally reversed but typically appear in a prescribed order. For example, the ar combination typically refers to modes of travel, as seen in cart, marching, and far. However, the word travel reflects the ar pair reversed. It is not clear at this time whether such reversals are significant or simply are a matter of convenience.
• Common themes occur and recur. Such common themes include but are not limited to sky phenomena, childbirth, war, and agriculture. Awareness of such themes, however, can also lead to misinterpretations.
• Meaningless vowels (particularly e and i) sometimes needed to be inserted within long strings of consonants simply to make a word pronounceable.
• Some corruption, although far less common than assumed in traditional etymologies, has, in some cases, crept into the spoken and written language over time due to the fact that some sounds sound a lot like others. Some of the more common substitutions include but are not limited to:

v for b, f and w

p for f and b

t for d and vice versa

t for ch and th

j for ch and g and vice versa

s for sh

• It appears that most phonetic/orthographic evolution was not purely accidental or driven by euphony. In many cases, sound changes appear to have simply accompanied subtle changes in the meaning of the word being conveyed as it migrated from one region or population center to another. In such cases, similar words present Olin translations that yield the same result, effectively describing the same thing despite the spelling and pronunciation differences.
• Some corruption of spellings has occurred due to the misguided desire to make spellings match the way words sound. For example, many of the reforms promulgated by Noah Webster can be seen to diminish the intelligibility of the Olin translation.
• Many types of linguistic morphology occurred, which included back formation and clipping. This can make the Olin translations for words formed in that way especially difficult to interpret. One possible example of such backformation appears to be the word boat.
• The Olin language theory is a NEW theory that is still in its infancy. New ideas and understandings are developing daily. What is presented on this website does not nor is expected to represent the final word on the subject. The proposed translations and meanings provided herein have not been universally accepted or tested. The translations and meanings represent merely best efforts given the state of understanding at the time they were developed and are expected to evolve over time. Because of the vast amount of information that is impacted by each new development, maintenance of the website also has simply not been able to keep up with the rapid pace of developments.

Common Letter Combinations

Over time, certain letter combinations took on special meanings. These meanings arose from the meanings of the individual letters. Listed below are a few of the special pairs I have been able to identify so far. This list should not be viewed as being exhaustive of such combinations. One should also keep in mind that every occurrence of these letter combinations does not necessarily translate as described below.

The Letter a

The letter a can be seen to represent, for the most part, two distinct letters. The first letter is effectively an oi ligature while the second letter is effectively an ei ligature.

The oi Ligature

The letter a is usually drawn as an o with a short stem (an i without the dot above it, since the dot is unnecessary) attached. Symbolically, the o represents a terminus (as explained in the section related to the letter o) and the short stem (as explained in the section related to the the letter i) represents a line segment. Thus the letter a, as usually drawn, symbolizes the starting point of a line, with the line representing the rest of the alphabet. It is for this reason that the letter a means "first", "before" and "in front of". Note that in English, when we say "he came before the king", we are effectively saying that he came "in front of" the king. And because the letter a means "first", it is also the first letter in the alphabet.

Because it means "first", the letter a is effectively the antonym of the letter o, which means "last". And since the letter o can also mean "above", the letter a can mean "below".

The ei Ligature

As stated above, the letter a can also be seen as a ligature of ei. The e that forms the ligature, however, is actually more akin to the Greek letter called theta (which looks like a circle with a horizontal line through it) or the Phoenician letter called heth¹ (which looks rather like an EI ligature) in that it symbolizes division and, particularly when decomposed into its constituent letters, "separation". When it means "separation", the letter a is often pronounced like the Arabic character ha (the Arabic equivalent to Phoenician heth), with a long-a sound. This is the reason why words like eight² are also pronounced with the long-a sound, because the letters ei in such words are effectively a decompsition of an a.

The e means "out of". As with the oi ligature, the i represents a line segment. While the oi ligature can be seen to indicate that the letter a represents the beginning of a line segment (representing the alphabet), the ei ligature effectively communicates the idea that the rest of the alphabet emanates from that point forward. Thus the ei ligature emphasizes the dynamic, ray-like aspect of the letter a. As an oi ligature, the letter a represents a circular wave that has formed around a specific point within a pool of water³, represented by the line segment, which is effectively the same as the letter i, which means "within". Such waves, however, are not static. They emanate or separate outward.

There is also another letter that shares the same "separation" meaning with a: the letter y. Note that the letter y, when followed by either an s or d, is usually converted into ie. Why ie (which translates as "within out of") and ei (which translates as "out of within") both appear to be used to represent the same idea rather than opposite ideas is unclear. It may be that these letters developed in different regions and were perhaps only later brought together as the alphabets and languages of two different cultures merged.

The ci Ligature

In addition to the oi ligature and the ei ligature, the letter a also be seen to represent a ci ligature. The ci ligature translates as "change within", and it can be understood to be part of a three letter sequence consisting of all three ligatures that the letter a can be seen to represent. While it is clear that the ei ligature represents the end of the sequence, it is not entirely clear whether ci or oi was intended to be the first of the sequence. A best guess would be that ci was supposed to be the first as it symbolized the cutting (the defining act) of a line segment from out of a continuous line, represented by the letter l. Symbolically the ci ligature can be understood to represent the creation of the alphabet out of the infinity of possible symbols and/or one's life out of from within eternity.⁴

The u Connection

It also appears that the letter a is connected by meaning as well to the letter u. The letter a can be seen at times to represent "ancestors" while the letter u frequently means either "parent" or "grave". One can easily see the letter u as graphically symbolizing in such cases an uncovered grave while the letter a symbolizes a grave that has been filled. Note that ancestors came before those who are living and are burried below the ground. The uppercase letter A in fact appears to be a pictograph of a pyramid or kurgan burial with an inner chamber, and an oi ligature can be translated as "above within", a potential reference to such a chamber, while the meaning "separation" also appears to relate to the horizontal line that divides the uppercase letter A⁵. See the letter u section for additional information regarding this relationship.

The Letter b

Graphically, the letter b can be seen either as a ligature of lo or as a ligature of an l and a reversed c. Consequently the letter b can be seen to decipher accordingly, either as "surface above" or "opening" (where the o symbolizes a hole in the surface). The letter b can also be translated as "round object" or "round surface" or "round surface above" and at times "child".

The "child" meaning likely derived because of the shape of a pregnant woman's abdomen or torso¹, which interestingly is also echoed in the shape of the uppercase letter B. Note also that an lc ligature can be translated as "surface change". which would appear to relate to pregnancies. Furthermore, the initial l can also be seen to symbolize the eternity that precedes the birth event, while the o can be seen to represent the completion of the event that marks the beginning of a new life.

Accoustically, the letter b is similar to two other letters, the letter p and the letter v. 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). And while the letters b and v are not iconographically equivalent, the letter b, such as in the word bridge, can take on the additional meaning "movement surface above" because of the accoustical similarity between the letters.

The letter b is commonly believed to have derived from the Semitic letter bet. The Semitic letter is also seen as having enormous 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, they believe that the placement of bet at the begining of the Tora symbolizes the fact that the Torah is "the word of God", an emanation from God much like the entire universe. The opening and offspring meanings for the letter b appear to be consistent with that idea.

Within the alphabet, the letter b follows the letter a. Note that the letter a can at times mean "ancestor", "before" and "separation out of" while the letter b can represent "offspring". Thus the position of the letter b relative to a (forgive the pun) does not appear arbitrary.

Finally, in many English words, the letter b refers specifically to coins. This appears to be because coins are "round objects" that have stampings on the "surface above".

The Letter c

Graphically, the letter c is an o that has had a section removed or "cut" from it. The letter c in many cases translates simply as "change".

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.

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".

The meaning of "change" depends upon what is changing. "Change", in relation to living things (represented by the letter h and referred to as "heat"), usually means "death". In relationship to liquids, which by their nature move or flow, "change" generally means "containment". Note that the meaning "containment" is amplified by the fact that encircling something, which is also represented by the letter c, results in containment.

While changes can be positive, changes, such as those already mentioned, tend to be negative. For this reason, "change" often means "crime".

The letter c can be seen to be part of a three letter sequence or cycle consisting u, c and n. Note that the letter u translates as "origin" or "original", the letter c translates as "change" or "transition", and the letter n translates as "opposite" or "related". Thus the letter sequence ucn represents sequences (particularly in relation to cyclical changes) generally.

Finally the sound of the letters c and g both appear to be 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.

Additional Remarks

The c represents "containment". The Phoenician letter called khatu, which the Latin letter k is believed to derive from, was said to mean "fence".

The Letter d

The letter d is essentially a ligature of al. The al ligature, in fact, appears to possibly explain the Semitic name for the letter, dalet or daleth.

As a ligature of al, the letter d translates as "below surface" or "front surface". In many words, "below surface" is a reference to the ground. As for "front surface". it often refers to the hand or to a surface that is written on. The letter d also appears to refer to objects, bodies or discrete entities (things that lie above or below a surface).

In Hebrew and other Semitic languages, the name of the letter means "door". That meaning rarely is reflected in English words. One interesting case of where it does appear to mean "door" or "doorway" is in the word address, which appears to describe the use of signs to distinguish different places of business (note that the words business and address both end in ess). The meaning "door" or "doorway" appears possibly to have derived from either the al ligature or from the less common ol ligature, where the o represents a pictograph of an opening within the surface.

As the letter b symbolizes birth and the beginning of life, the letter d , seen as a ligature of ol and the opposite of the letter b, can be seen to represent death, where the event is followed by eternity. Here the ideas of "doorway" and "below surface" appear to also have relevance.

The Letter e

The letter e translates as "out of". As noted in relation to the letter a, a circle with a line through it symbolizes division. The letter e is, in fact, such a circle with a line through it. However, there is one significant difference. In the letter e, as in the letter c (which means "change"), a section of the circle is removed. The exclusion of that section is important, as it graphically represents the concept that the letter represents: a separation change from within.

The expression "out of" is rather interesting in that it has a number of meanings beyond its use as an antonym of "into". For example, one can say something like "I am out of gas" to indicate the absence of something. One can also say something like "it is made out of clay" to indicate what something is composed of. Another meaning of the phrase "out of" relates to cause and effect, as in "out of anger, the child broke the toy". Interestingly, all of these meanings associated with the phrase "out of" are also reflected by the letter e.

Occassionally the letter e acts as a pictograph of an eye This can be seen clearly (forgive the pun) in words such as eye, peek, seek, peer, sneer and see. In fact, the word eye can be understood to be a pictograph of the face, where the letter y constitutes a vu ligature representing the nose and mouth between the two eyes.

Note also that the letter e can also be understood to be the antonym of the letter i, which means "within". While the letter i can mean eye (which is pronounced as i), the letter i can be seen to be a pictograph of a ray of light emanating from a light source. Thus it makes perfect sense that the letter e would represent the recipient of that light ray, the eye.

The Letter f

The letter f can be seen to be a ligature consisting of an abnormally large r (an "unusual", extended movement) and a rotated line segment (a surface transformation) that intersects the r (indicating that the two irregularities are interrelated). Not surprisingly, the letter f, seen as an rl ligature, can be translated as "water surface" or "surface movement". For this reason, the letter f is often also drawn as an extended s with a horizontal line segment through it (i.e., as f); the extended letter s represents the alternating changes extending over the surface undergoing transformation. And, like the letter t, the point where the line segment intersects the s or r (represented by the letter u) is important as it represents the point of origin of the alternating surface changes.

When a stone is cast into an undisturbed pool of water, the waves it produces, at first, expand outward in a predictable, systematic way. However, after the circular waves hit the edges of the pool, they return back as echoes of the original wave. Over time, as the waves continue to reverberate over the surface of the pool, the pool begins to be covered by waves moving in many different directions. The pool of water therefore serves as an excellent, if not perfect, analogy for the world we live in¹, which began in a state of near perfection but degraded over time into what now appears to be a state of chaos and confusion. It is for this reason that the letter f also refers to surface irregularity and to uncertainty, particularly in relation to the future, such as reflected in the words fate and future.

While the letter l represents an even surface, the letter f represents an uneven surface, such as the surface of a field. This relationship between the letter f and fields is made evident by the substitute of ph, which translates as "stalk surface related", for f.

Additional Remarks

The Greek alphabet once included a letter F called digamma. The name digamma means "double gammas", where the Greek letter gamma is Γ. The letter supposedly sounded like a w. Eventually, the letter was dropped from the Greek alphabet but continued to be used to represent the number 6. Note that the Latin letter F is the sixth letter in the alphabet and that its position in the alphabet apppears to be related to its numeric value.

The Letter g

The uppercase letter G is a ligature of c, u and a rotated (i.e., transformed) i. It represents the external change (c) that is the origin (u) of change within a pool of water (i). While the the letter u represents the location ofthe initial effect of the change, the letter G represent the cause or source of the change. This is reflected in the single-story lowercase g, which can also be seen as a cui ligature. If one accepts also that the line segment representing a pool of water also represents one's life, then the single-story lowercase g can be understood to represent a life transforming event, such as birth, death or a profound, religious experience.

When a pool of water is transformed, it undergoes a great change. For this reason, the letter g means "great change".

The lowercase letter g can also potentially be seen at times as a ligature consisting of a combination of any of the following letters: a, e, i, o, u, j, l and c. Of particular note is the fact that the single-story lowercase g can be seen specifically as a ligature of cj, where g represents God and cj represents "Christ Jesus".

Additional Remarks

The Olin meaning for the letter g appears to be quite appropriate when one considers the history and evolution of the letter.

The letter g was supposedly first used by a freedman named Spurius Carvilius Ruga sometime around 230 BC. Here one should recognize that the English word spurious means "false" or "errant", that the name Carvilius appears possibly to be associated with carving, and that the last name, Ruga, can be seen to mean "first to write the letter G". Thus the name Spurius Carvilius Ruga appears possibly to indicate that the letter G was the result of a mistake that was perhaps made while carving the letter C.

The gh combination eventually replaced the Middle English letter known as yogh which sounded essentially like a y in words like night and light and looked something like the number 3. The yogh letter is said to have derived from the Old English Uncial script g, which represented the original Roman g sound.

The Germanic rune equivalent of the letter g was known as gyfu. Gyfu was shaped as a Latin letter x, and it has been suggested that it originated from Latin x, as it represented the same ks sound. Note that letter x and y are differentiated by the abbreviation of the first stroke and that the letters can, if written poorly (such as when carved in hard materials like wood and stone), easily become confused.

Finally, the letters x, y, g, j and i clearly have similar shape as do C, Q and G. All of these letters can also be seen to be connected to each other by the sounds they represent. Clearly these letters evolved in relation to each other. The lack of standardized spellings for words also contributed to the confusion surrounding these letters. While spellings may have been somewhat standardized within a region, local spelling preferences resulted in the use of different letters in different locales to represent the same sounds. Eventually this led as well to confusion about how to pronounce unfamiliar words when the words were spelled according to a foreign spelling preference.

The Letter h

The sound represented by the letter h is the sound of exhaling. The letter h in fact refers specifically to breath. Breath and the letter h are associated with living things. Breath, which comes from within living things, is warm. Consequently, the letter h refers to warmth or heat.

Note that one touches the surface of another in order to see if they are alive; if they are alive, they are warm. For that reason, the h sound is represented by ln, which translate as "surface related". Throughout this website, whenever you see the word heat, you should understand it usually refers to people or other living things unless it refers specifically to heat.

The Letter i

The letter i, as made perhaps more evident by the uppercase letter I, represents a line segment. The dot above the lowercase i is placed there in order to distinguish the letter i, when written by hand, from the lowercase letter l. Note that the difference between the lowercase letter l and the letter i is that the letter l represents a continuous line or surface while the letter i represents merely a line segment that exists within the line. It is for this reason that the letter i usually translates as "within".

The line segment, as described in relation to the letter t, symbolizes a life. It also represents the surface of a pool. As described for the letter f, when the surface of a pool is acted upon, it undergoes transformation. However, when it is left alone and is not disturbed, the surface of a pool is calm. This is why one uses the pronoun I in reference to oneself. When one acts (i.e., when the pronoun I is the subject of a sentence), one should act out of complete calmness (rather than out of rashness). However, when one is being acted upon (i.e., when the pronoun me is the object of the sentence), the pronoun I becomes the pronoun me . That grammatical transformation reflects the effect that others can have on the individual's state of mind.

Capped by the dot, the lowercase i can be seen to symbolize a ray of light emanating from an astronomical object, such as a star or planet. Light originates from within such objects, so this is likely why the letter i took on the additional meaning "light".

A ray of light, however, ultimately has two endpoints. One of the endpoints is the source of the light. The other endpoint, specifically the one that is of interest to us, is the eye. Note that light not only emanates from within the source, it is ultimately received within the eye. It is likely for this reason that the letter i also frequently means "eye". It also explains why the word eye is pronounced as a long-i sound rather than according to how the word is spelled.¹

The Letter j

In English, the letter j is pronounced as tch, which can be seen to mean "T-change surface related". As evident within both the uppercase J and the lowercase j, the letter j is quite literally an extension of the letter i (I). While the letter i represents a line segment with fixed end points (indicated by the horizontal line segments on top of the uppercase I), the letter j represents a ray that has a definite starting point but no clear ending.

Those who have studied Latin also know that the letter j was originally written as an i. And interestingly, the letter j can in fact be seen as a ligature of ui, which translates as "origin i" or "originally i". The letter j is also often pronounced, in many Latin languages, as a y or ie, which can be seen to translate as "i out of".

What is clear about the letter j is that, like the letter c, it reflects significant change. The change, however, is not a normal change. It is, in fact, a change (c) related to the letters u and i. That makes the letter j very similar to the letter g, which can be seen as a cj ligature or as a cui ligature. The key difference between the letter g and the letter j is that the change represented by the letter g is explicit while the change represented by the letter j is (much the way the word is pronounced) effectively implicit. Thus the letter j can be seen to translate like the letter g as "great change" or translate simply "great".

Noting once again that, in English, the letter j is pronounced as tch, where tch can be seen to translate as "that change surface related", and noting again that the letter j can mean "great change" and that the j is written as a movement extending below the normal text line, the letter j can also be seen mean "steep" and to mean "great fall".

Anyone paying close attention to these meanings should also realize that these meanings all appear to relate specifically to Jesus, whose name begins with the letter J. This connection is strengthened even further by the fact that j can also be seen as a ligature of vi, translating as "movement within".

The Letter k

The letter k is a ligature of an l, representing the edge or border of a pool of water and a c, representing a wave that is impinging upon that border. The k is written more like a ligature of l and a rotated v because it is far easier to draw or carve a v-shape in relation to a line than a c-shape. The letter v is not entirely irrelevant, however, as the circular wave represented by the c is in fact in motion (which is the meaning of the letter v). For this reason, the letter k means "surface related change", "surface related movement", "surface contact" or, like the letter c which often reflects (forgive the pun) the same sound as k, "change".

Heat is something that one senses largely through touch. One touches their fingertip, a surface, against another surface to tell if it is hot or cold. The temperature difference between one's fingertip and the surface one touches determines whether or not it feels hot or cold. Thus the letter k, "surface related change" meaning, also can be seen as referring to "heat change".

The Letter l

The letter l represents a line and therefore can translate as "line". More commonly, as reflected in the shape of the uppercase letter L, the letter l represents a 2-dimensional surface. Additional meanings for the letter l that derived from the surface meaning include "flat", "level", "smooth " and "even".

There are countless surfaces that have significance to us: the ground, the sky, the skin, cloth, the surface (palm) of the hand (usually represented by al or d), the surface of water, the beam of a scale or balance, walls, etc. The sound represented by the letter l, as seen in the words linguistics and lick, corresponds with one of those surfaces: the tongue.

The Letter m

The letter m is a ligature of rn, which usually translates as "movement related" (although it is also possible to translate m as "water related" or "water movement related").

The letter m can also be seen as a ligature of nn, which can be seen to translate as "many related". Note that mm can be translated as "movement related many related", which can be seen to refer to production. Thus, in a few words, the letter m takes on the additional meaning "produced" or "production".

The Letter n

The letter n is an upside down u. While the letter u represents an origin and an original state, the letter n represents the opposite, related state. Note that the letters u, c and n together symbolize a process of moving from an original condition or state (u), through a transitional state (c), to a new, related or opposite state (n).

The word related has more than one meaning. In addition to meaning "associated", the word related can also mean "communicated", as in "he related the story to us". For this reason, the letter n can also mean "communicated".

When used as a prefix, the letter n can also taken on the meaning "not".

Additional Remarks

Note that, in mathematics, the symbol for the intersection (i.e., those members that are "related" to each other by virtue of being members within multiple sets) of two sets is ∩. Similarly, in symbolic logic conjunction ("and") is represented by Λ.

Scholars have long suggested that the capital Latin N was derived from the Phoenician letter called nun. Both letters in fact appear to have been ligatures of VΛ (V + Greek lamda) or vice versa. In Olin, the VΛ (or ΛV) ligature literally means "movement within surface". The Aramaic word nun in fact is understood to mean "snake", and the Phoenician nun letter is generally believed to have been based on an Egyptian hieroglyph of a snake or eel.

The VΛ ligature was also related to the Greek letter M known as san. The Greek letter san appears to have been formed as an lVΛ ligature which was also how the Phoenician tsade or tzade letter also appears to have been formed. Both appear to be a pictograph combining a snake with a surface. Note that the English word snake consists of an s and an n, and that ake can be seen as having essentially the same meaning as the VΛ ligature.

It is unclear why the sound values for the various letters might have changed.

The Letter o

The letter o symbolizes the completion of a cycle. As such, it is related to the letters u, c, and n, which all relate to various stages of a cycle. Because it represents the completion of a cycle, the letter o takes on the meaning "end" as well as various meanings related to "end", such as "last", "after", and "later". Its meaning "last" is also the reason why the letter o was the last letter of the Greek alphabet.

When a written expression is said to be "complete", indicating that all the necessary revisions have been made to it, the expression is said to have been "perfected". Thus the letter o, specifically because it was the last letter of the Greek alphabet, also can be seen to symbolize such perfection.

A circle, such as the letter o, represents movement related to the point that lies at its center. Thus the letter o symbolically also represents a reference to a specific point, such as a starting point or an ending point.¹ This is important with respect to the letters a, b and d, as the circle in each of those letters represents a specific point.

The letter o can also be seen to represent the Sun and the Moon. The Sun and the Moon are astonomical bodies that appear in the sky above us. It is for this reason that the letter o also has the meaning "above".

The letter o, being the last letter of the Greek alphabet, represents the opposite or antonym of the letter a, which was the first letter of the Greek alphabet as well as being the first letter of the English alphabet. Thus, in addition to meaning "above" (antonym of "below") and "last" (antonym of "first"), the letter o also means "behind" (antonym of "in front of") and "beyond".

The shape of the letter o also corresponds with the shape of the mouth when making the sound represented by the letter o.

Finally, it is worth noting that the letter a, as discussed in the section describing the letter a, can be seen as an oi ligature translating as "above light". The "above light" meaning appears to relate to the Sun and to the day or daylight that accompanies it. Similarly, the letter o can be seen to translate as "o above after", which can be seen as a reference to the moon.

The Letter p

The letter p means extension . The lowercase letter p is formed as a ligature of a subscript I and a reversed c. While the letter c can be seen to mean "cut" and represent removal, the reversed c can be seen to represent the opposite, which is addition.

The "stalk" of 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 represents the actual extension.

Consequently, the letter p can be seen to refer 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.

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.

In the English alphabet, the letter p follows the letter o. The letter o was the last letter of the Greek alphabet. The "extension" meaning of the letter p thus appears also to reflect the position of the letter in the English alphabet, where the letter p represents an extension of the original Greek alphabet.

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 ciw or cw; which corresponds with how the letter combination qu is pronounced and which translates as "change within movements"¹ or "change original movement". The letter combination qu can also be seen to represent cu, which decodes as "change origin". When it is not paired with a u, as in most Arabic words, the letter q is pronounced as a k and translates as "change" or "transformation".

The lowercase letter q can also be seen to be a ligature of c and a subscript I, and therefore it can be seen to be the reverse (i.e., "change in movements") of the lowercase letter p (either with or without a v or u shape modification to the bottom tip of the q's stem). While the reversed c of the letter p represents an extension of an existing line segment (represented by the subscript I; and hence the letter p translates as "extension"), the initial c of the letter q can be seen to refer to an excerpt from an existing surface. This meaning can be seen clearly, for example, in the word quote. Note that an i (translating as "within") is potentially implied whenever there is a ligature.

A change in movement can be understood to be a disruption of the original movement. This meaning is conveyed by the uppercase Q. The uppercase letter is formed as a circle (O) that is intersected by a diagonal movement. The circle represents a wave that is emanating outward from its origin; as such, it represents the original movement and perfection. The diagonal line, which passes through the lower right of the circle, represents a later movement that is interacting with, and therefore changing, the original movement.

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 represents a cresting wave.

The sound represented by the letter r is related to running or gurgling water, as evident in the trilled r sound that is common in many Latin languages. Note that the trilled r sound has been historically associated with a snarling dog, but that appears likely to be a later association.

The Letter s

The letter s is formed as a c above a reversed c . As the letter c symbolizes change, the letter s, seen as meaning "change after related change", symbolizes alternating changes and reversals. Such alternating changes can be seen to relate specifically to wave movements that are observed on large bodies of water, which we refer to as seas, as well as to movements of the Sun. For these reasons, the letter s has the meanings "change related to change", "Sun"¹ and "sea".

The letter s, when pronounced, sounds like sand flowing or spilling on the surface of the ground. The word sea can also be seen to translate as "s out of below". These facts appear to explain or suggest why the letter s also took on the meaning "crystal" or "crystal grain", as seen in words such as sand, sugar and salt.

A possibly better explanation, however, for why the letter s translates as "crystal grain" derives from its relationship with the letter c. The letter c can be seen to mean "containment", particularly with respect to water. Ice was understood to "contain water", so small pieces of ice, or "ice crystals", would have been viewed as "change related containment", which would then reasonably be represented by the letter s.

The phrase "change related to change" also can be seen to refer to an internal change related to an external change, which describes sensation in response to a stimulus. For this reason, the letter s means "sensation", as seen in words such as see, smell and taste.

The letter c has two special meanings that relate to the letter s: "containment" and "crime", and one of the most common forms of punishment for criminals is confinement within a jail cell. Thus the letter s, as "c related c", can be seen to refer to confinement related to a crime. That association, the isolation one feels when sailing on the open sea, and the fact that the Sun is often the only astronomical object visible in the sky during the day may explain why the letter s can also mean "alone" or "one".

The letter s has some interesting behaviors in English grammar that are directly related to the "change related change" idea. For example, an s is added to either the subject or verb of a sentence depending on whether or not the subject is plural. For plural subjects, we add s to the noun; for singular subjects, we add s to the verb. For example, one can say, "all ships rise when the tide rises". This use of the letter s in such cases represents alternating changes, which is exactly what the letter s symbolizes. Other grammatical changes related to s, such as when s is added to a word ending in y, also appear to relate to the "change related change" meaning of s.

Note that the letter s also looks much like a snake, and the sound associated with the letter also sounds very much like the sound made by rattlesnakes. Just as the letter c can be seen to refer to crimes, the letter s can represent multiple crimes, the alteration of accounts, and intentional manipulation. Furthermore, the letter s can be seen to symbolize the wave effect (representing subsequent consequences) that results from an original act, as symbolized by the letter u (see the sections describing the letters u and f for additional information related to this relationship). It is for this reason that the letter s appears in words commonly associated with evil, such as sin, snake and Satan .

The Letter t

The letter t represents an intersection of two related lines, where one line is rotated (transformed) with respect to the other. When two lines intersect, they intersect at a point that becomes a focal point. For this reason, the letter t has the meaning "that". Note that the word "that" represents a verbal pointer. It is used to isolate the one from the many.

For reasons that should be obvious, the letter t also refers to branches. This is evident from the word tree and from the word thumb.

The letter t also has specific meanings in relation to Jesus and his crucifixion. The vertical line represents infinity while the rotated line segment represents a life that has undergone transformation. The crossing point, the center of the crucifix, is a focal point and represents a point of transformation, the point where that which came before is separated from that which comes after. The intersecting lines however represent more than merely a transition point in the life of an individual (represented by the horizontal line segment) after that individual comes in contact with the infinite (represented by the vertical line); the intersecting lines also represent a transition point in our measurement of time (the vertical line) as well as an important crossroad in human history (the horizontal line). All of these ideas are symbolized by the letter t.

The letter t also represents the mouth¹. As babies we watch our parents' mouths and learn to pay attention to what they say. The point where a child can both speak and understand what they are being told represents a significant transition point in their cognitive development. It is at that critical juncture that the child can finally communicate (i.e., interact) with others and to, not only benefit from the wisdom that has been accumulated over the years, represented by the line segment, but be able to see the connection between that wisdom and the world around them, represented by the vertical line.

Accoustically, the normal sound of the letter t is akin to tapping. The sound of the letter t changes, however, when it is followed by the letter h. The th in fact is made by placing the tongue between the teeth, which is in fact described by the meaning of the letters th.

Additional Remarks

The Syriac letter dolath (daleth) is comparable to Old English đ (the eth character, which is a dt ligature), which is pronounced as either th or d. In Syriac, the letter is used as a relative pronoun (meaning that or who, as in "the one that…" or "the person who…"). In Aramaic, the letter can mean "that", "which", “from" or "of".

The Greek equivalent of Semitic daleth is theta, Θ. The uppercase letter can be seen as a pictograph of a tongue protruding from the mouth.

A strong connection also appears to exist between the prayer shawl (a cloth surface) known as a tallit and the dalet character. Note that the Hebrew version of dalet, ד, looks much like the Latin T. This connection may even extend to English towel and Dutch dwaal.

The Letter u

The letter u is formed by a rotated c that is terminated by a line segment (an i without the dot, which is not required). The rotated c represents a change within the surface of a pool of water, represented by the attached line segment. If one casts a stone in a pool of water, it will result in a c-shape depression. The c-shape depression is quickly followed by waves that radiate outward. The letter u represents therefore the specific location where those subsequent waves first originated. For this reason, the letter u commonly decodes as "origin" or "original", and "location ".

The letter u can also be seen to represent changes to surfaces other than water, such as a hole dug in the ground in order to bury someone (i.e., a grave), to plant a seed, or to dig up metals and gemstones. Such changes do not have to be man made or limited to a horizontal surface. For example, the letter u also can be seen to represent cavities or caves in the face of cliffs. Consequently, the letter u can also be translated as "cavity".

While the letter c can repesent positive changes, the letter c often represents unintended or undesired changes (consequences). A change to a surface that is not desired would be regarded as an imperfection. Thus the letter u also can be translated as "imperfection" or "defect". This can be seen in the word true.

The meanings "location", "origin", and "cavity" ultimately lead to two other meanings for the letter u: "womb" and "parent". The womb is a cavity within the human body that is the location where a child originates.

Scholars say that the letter u was originally represented in Latin by the letter v. The reason for this is because carving a u-shape into wood or stone is vastly more difficult than carving a v-shape¹, and a lot of Latin came to us through carvings on stone surfaces, since paper, particularly poor quality paper, disintigrates very quickly. Apart from that which was carved in stone, most of what we retain of Latin comes from documents that were intentionally copied onto vellum in order to preserve them. (Unfortunately, doing so also led to many imperfections.)

Many English words, such as gun and applause reflect similar replacements of v for u . At times, such as in the word gun, the intent appears to have been specifically to convey the meaning of both letters. The meaning of the two letters are in fact related. As explained above, the letter u represents a change in the surface of water, which is represented by the letter r, which is a transformation of the letter v. The letter u can also be seen as a similar transformation. However, while the letter r continues to represent movement, the letter u refers to location. The letter v symbolizes movement between locations.

Movement therefore is related to locations--two locations to be precise: a starting point and an ending point. The starting point is the origin or beginning. The ending point is the destination or "final resting place". The letter u, like the letter v, relates to both locations. The difference is that the letter u relates to the location while the letter v refers to the movement between the two locations. It is from the "final resting place" and shape that the letter u takes on another meaning: "grave".

What becomes apparent (forgive the pun) from all of this is another very strong connection between the letter u, which appears toward the end of the alphabet, and the letter a. The letter a can refer to ancestors and can mean "below". The letter u can mean "parent" and "final resting place" or "grave". Graphically, the letter a appears as a u with a cover. Thus the letter a takes on the appearance of a closed grave. One can also see the letter a as being formed by combining the letter u, meaning "grave", with the letter n², meaning "related".

One must also recognize that the idea of "original sin" or "origin of sin" is embodied within the letter u. The idea of "origin of sin" connects therefore also with both the letter a, through its graphical connection with the letter u, and with the letter s, which symbolizes the waves that spread out from the origin (the u).³

The Letter v

While horizontal and vertical lines represent stasis, diagonal lines represent movement. For this reason, 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, most likely because of the difficulty of carving curved lines in wood and stone, routinely substituted v for 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 from the gods.

The letter v can also be seen to symbolize the movement of the Sun (or perhaps svn) during solstices. Solstices effectively define the seasons and the year. The movements of the Sun are also directly related therefore to the migration of geese and other birds.

Finally, it is worth noting that arrow heads are essentially upside down v's. Arrow heads indicate the direction of movement, and thus that use of the v-shape may have inspired the leter v or vice versa.

The Letter w

The letter w is a concatenation of two letters; however, which two letters are concatenated is what determines the meaning. While the letter w is written as a concatenation of vv and referred to as "double u", the letter w can actually represent any combination of v, r or u.

The Letter x

The letter x symbolizes "surface movements related to changes". The name of the letter, pronounced as eks, can be seen to translate as "out of ks", where the letter k (as a ligature of an l and a rotated/transformed v) represents surface movements and the letter s represents related changes and reversals. Note that we frequently draw an x through (i.e., "cross out") words and images that we want to delete. An x is also said to mark the location where stolen treasures are buried. And the shape of the crucifix used by the Romans to restrain criminals (i.e., a surface-related movement change related to a crime) more commonly took the form of an x rather than the more familiar t-shape.

The letter x is believed to derive from the Greek letter c called chi. The name chi translates as "change heat within" (an apparent reference to a crucifix) or "change surface related within". While c is most comparable to Latin x, it can also be viewed as a transformation of Latin f (or, perhaps more accurately, vice versa). Note that, as described in relation to the letter f, the letter f does in fact symbolize a transformation of the surface of a pool of water.

The Letter y

The lowercase y is a ligature of v and /. The / symbolizes an original movement while the v represents either a divergent movement away from the original movement or a combining or converging movement. These same meaning are conveyed by the uppercase Y and by the fact that the letter y is replaced by the letters ie, which translate as "within out of", when a word ending in y is followed by s or d.¹ For these reasons, the letter y can be translated as either ie, as vl or as "separation" or "division".

In some cases, the letter y can translate as a vj ligature, meaning "great change movement" or as a ul ligature, meaning "surface location".

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. The letter y can also be seen as the shape of Jesus on the cross.

The Letter z: The Conclusion of the Alphabet

The alphabet is an historical artifact much like the Bible. And just as a book has both a beginning and an ending, so too does the alphabet. And hidden within those boundaries, as we have seen, one can discover many intriguing stories and insights.

The alphabet was constructed, not arbitrarily, but with clear purpose and intent. Its reason for being was to communicate and be used for communication. So the messages that the alphabet itself conveys, if such messages exist, should not be casually ignored by those who study the alphabet. And perhaps nowhere is that more true than when one contemplates the alphabet's ending.

The letter z is the last letter of the alphabet. The letter z symbolizes "movement above related that below" or "movement before related that movement after ". In its most basic meaning, the letter z can be understood to suggest that what will be written later will be the result of the alphabet that precedes it. Historically, however, the letter z, as in the name Zeus, referred to movements in the heavens above (specifically, the retrograde movements of the planet Jupiter that are reflected in the shape of the letter z) that were seen as being omens. The letter z, much like the letter s, can also be understood to refer to cause and effect relationships, of one change that leads to another change or to a transition from one state or level to another related state or level.

As the last letter in the alphabet, the letter z represents conclusion, a transition related to completeness. However, unlike the letter o that ended the Greek alphabet, the letter z represents a connection between the infinite past and the infinite future that is demarked by a significant shift or setback (symbolized by the / ). Note that the shift represents a realignment of what follows in relation to what came before. As the letter z is drawn, the shift ultimately results not in a higher state, as one might expect or hope for, but rather in a lower, inferior state--such as a reduction from one to zero.

Compared to the conclusion of the Greek alphabet, which ends in the letter o symbolizing harmonious restoration, the ending of the Latin alphabet is rather despairing. One must wonder how it is possible that an alphabet so heavily inspired by the Christian faith could possibly end with such a bleak message. Could that really be the message that was intended by those who crafted the alphabet? Should not the message instead be one of final salvation and hope, of being raised to a higher level? The answer to that question may be found by looking at the letters that precede the letter z.

The letter z is preceded by the letter y, which symbolizes movements that represent division and separation. If we look further back within the alphabet, which itself represents human history, we see that the division or separation movement, represented by the letter y, was preceded by efforts to eliminate, undo or correct something, symbolized by the letter x. These corrective actions were preceded by a series of related, potentially conflicting movements (w) that were produced in relation to an earlier movement (v) that originated (u) in relation to the cross (t). Thus taken as a whole, the letters from t to z appear to communicate a message (remember that the letter t, in addition to symbolizing the cross also symbolizes the mouth and communication) that suggests that the world we live in has been brought low as a direct result of divisions stemming from efforts to correct what was seen as diverging movements that followed the movement that originated with the cross.

This historical interpretation can be taken even further. What happened on the cross (t) was itself the direct result of efforts (by Jesus and those who opposed him) to put an end to what they both regarded as sinning (s). These sins were seen as being the result of communications (r) or teachings that represented reinterpretations (q) and extensions (p) that were deemed to be imperfect (no).

So what exactly was it that was deemed to be imperfect? That is explained by the letters lm, which translates as "surface movement related". In other words, it appears to relate to writings that were judged to be imperfect.

Now let us read further back into the alphabet. The sequence efghijk translates as "out of surface movement great change; surface related within great change surface movement". This is preceded by the letters abcd, which can be translated as: "in front surface after, change prior surface".

In the Christian and Muslim faiths, there is perhaps no greater sin than the sin of revising that which is regarded as sacred (i.e., perfected expression).¹ If sacred texts have in fact been revised, questions arise as to when and who edited the original, and, if the original has been lost, can it be recovered or restored?

The ending of the alphabet would appear to suggest a permanent loss of some kind. However, the letter z may simply reflect the current state of Mankind, which represents the absence of the Messiah, who is expected to return and retore Man to his state before his fall. Thus the ending of the alphabet may simply be marking the beginning of a period of waiting.

Clearly, Mankind has not yet been restored to its former state, but it is certainly expected that, when the Messiah returns, he will restore that which has been lost and, in so doing, recover Mankind from its present, fallen state. And that transformation too is symbolized by the letter z, which is not merely a reversal of the letter s (which can be seen to symbolize crimes or sins), but also represents an elimination of the imperfections (represented by the curves) contained within it (i.e., a complete transformation).